Across the Road, A Thousand Small Moments.

We’ve loved looking out across Wirreanda Park through the windows of To Hold & To Have for more than twelve years now.

I took this photo recently at the close of the day — that beautiful winter light spilling through the trees and filling both the park and our store with gold.

Over the years we’ve watched so much life unfold beneath these magnificent old trees.

• teddy bear picnics

• geocaching adventures

• dusk proposal picnics styled with fairy lights, wool blankets and chef-served dinners

• graduation photographs, dinners and dances

• children’s birthday parties from fairy gardens to football themes

• trainee land surveyors with their theodolites learn to measure the angles of the park every few months.

• countless family portraits and commercial photo shoots

• afternoon weddings and elopements

• an international opera film clip shot over several late nights

• dads kicking soccer balls with their children

• dogs endlessly playing fetch

• people quietly reading books beneath the canopy for hours

• yoga and Tai Chi classes making us all feel mildly guilty while we worked inside

• plein air artists arriving with easels, paint boxes and folding chairs

• and on several occasions, Scottish bagpipers filling the air with that unmistakable rich, haunting sound.

One moment especially stayed with me.

Years ago, after designing an engagement ring together in store, a lovely client smiled and said to his girlfriend:

“Now you may have to wait awhile… I’ll choose the right time and a beautiful location.”

….we watched him walk her hand-in-hand straight across the road, into the centre of the park, where he dropped to one knee beneath these very trees and asked her to marry him.

With a history dating back to 1903 as the tree-lined driveway to the Lindsay family homestead, Wirreanda Park has quietly witnessed generations of community life.

…for over a decade now, we’ve had the privilege of witnessing it too — from the windows of To Hold & To Have, and we are very grateful. Thank you. Here’s to another twelve years (at least). Jo x