PortraitMy Blog

Countryphile. 1. A person who loves or has a strong affinity with modern country life + style.

Hello there. I am a bespoke wordsmith, storyteller, photographer and blogger – basically I like to string words together, discover and share stories and illustrate them with photos.

I started The Countryphiles blog after I returned to live in my hometown Kyneton in country Victoria {I had lived and worked in the city for 15 years} only to find myself surrounded by a whole bunch of creative and inspiring folks each in search of the kind of soul food that can only be found in the country.

The Countryphiles is a curated journal that chronicles the ups and downs of modern country life + style and celebrates all the fab folks and special spaces I stumble upon in out o’ town places; from inspiring artists and artisans, to producers and provedores, from sustainable homes and kitchen gardens to lost trades, cooks and car clubs, from farm-gate foraging to cafe culture, from long-time locals to tree-changers, from young folks to old.

The Countryphiles gives you a fresh ‘fix’ of country life no matter where you are; whether you hope to move to the country ‘one day’, know you will only ever love it from afar or you’re already here!

Oh, and if you happen to travel up the highway {up my way} check out FOREST^BOUND a guide to all the bestest places to eat, sleep, shop + explore.

It’s lovely to meet you.

Enjoy!

x Danielle

Young DotMy Story

I was born into a sixth-generation farming family that first settled in the pastoral lands surrounding foodie town Kyneton in the 1800s. My 5 brothers and I had a wonderful country childhood on our family’s 3000-acre beef + wool farm set in the granite hills of Sidonia. We spent our days ‘helping’ our parents with all the farm chores; collecting chook eggs, harvesting from Mum’s veg garden and milking the house cow.

Years later, after 15 years spent living in Carlton where I studied + worked at The University of Melbourne, I longed to return to life in the country.

So, I bought a little cottage back in my hometown Kyneton. A few years later, I met my husband and fellow Countryphile ‘AJW Esq.’  We promptly got married and bought ‘Crofters Fold’ – a small holding where we now live happily alongside 12 black-faced Suffolk sheep, 4 highland cows, chooks and our blonde Kelpie ‘Magoo’.

My husband grows all our farmhouse veg as well as his hand-sown, hand-weeded + hand-harvested Crofters Fold Garlic, which he sells on line. I also co-manage Sidonia Hills Natural Beef my family’s paddock-to-plate, beyond-organic, regenerative, chemical-free beef business.

Nowadays, living on a {little} farm of our own means life has turned full circle and I’m back where my soul has been waiting for me all along – in the country.