Author Annabelle Hickson going nuts for a quiet farm life in the Dumaresq Valley

Author and accidental florist Annabelle Hickson finds her calling in the bush.

Annabelle Hickson and family on the land. Picture: The Real Deal Photography

You couldn’t get much more of a contrast than Sydney’s north shore and a remote pecan farm, 80 kilometres west of Tenterfield in the Dumaresq Valley in northern NSW.

But Annabelle Hickson, an author, photographer, podcaster and publisher of the new rural-inspired subscription journal, Galah, adores her life in the country with husband, Ed and three children, Daisy, 11, Tom, 9, and Harriet, 7.

She describes their home as a modest white weatherboard Australian farmhouse but it’s what she has done with it that’s so enchanting.

“There’s been no architect, our 1930s house just grew and is a bit of a patchwork,” she says.

“We added a kitchen and converted an old shed into a bedroom and added lovely old windows from a demolished house in Bellevue Hill.”

The cosy kitchen, complete with a timber table that often groans with 12 crowded around it, is her domain. A bonus is catching glimpses of some of the 280ha of pecan trees from the windows.

Annabelle Hickson’s kitchen can be a busy place. Picture: The Real Deal Photography

“I love making sponge cakes with the children, with lots of cream and berries. They get so excited, every time and so do I,” she says.

“I don’t know why I thought sponges were tricky to make. They’re really not, but because of their reputation, every attempt feels like a small victory.”

She also loves using herbs with fennel her favourite these days. “Fennel gratin, raw fennel salad, pecans roasted with fennel seeds, chilli, a bit of honey and sea salt that’s what I love at the moment,” she says.

The four-bedroom house is often filled with friends plus two dogs, a Newfoundland called Pommes Frites and Bob, a jack russell — they sneak in when Ed’s not looking.

Hickson, who wrote A Tree in the House, is an accidental florist, who has inspired many globally to create floral installations using branches draped across ceilings and bedheads and bouquets from what’s growing wild.

‘The garden is my haven,’ says Annabelle Hickson. Picture: The Real Deal Photography

“The garden is my haven and it has great soil.

“But it has undergone a complete change from the roses and English box hedge I first planted — it is now all about perennials that do well in the harsh environment.”

The children’s bedrooms are at one end of the house while the master bedroom is at the other and features a painting by Moree artist Nick Osmond and a beautiful patchwork quilt from Inheritance Patchwork at Birre­gurra, which had to have red in it.

Her favourite possessions include 83 framed plant specimens gathered by her mother who did a horticultural TAFE course, plus a collection of Constance Spry vases.

She believes rural Australia is undergoing a type of renaissance with many joining a country exodus where you find flourishing cultural scenes and opportunities.

Cooling off in the river. Picture: The Real Deal Photography

“We are not all hillbillies with missing teeth,” says Hickson, who is convinced the time is right for her niche journal set to launch on December 1.

“I am tired of passwords and things that beep and noise. Instead I am yearning for beautiful things to read that I can rest my coffee cup or hold in the bath without fear of electrocution, that I can dip in and out of when I am sitting on my sofa with the sun on my back, that I can gift to friends. I crave gentle things that inspire me to think, notice and wonder. In my mind, print is still the best way to tell stories,” she says.

Her idea of a heavenly day is a wine shared with Ed in the courtyard while watching the children on the trampoline or a riverside sausage-and-salad lunch.

“Perfection,” she says.