This Saturday the 1st of May will see another record number of sport enthusiasts, getting geared up for the annual Busselton Half Ironman event.

The race will feature a 1.9km swim in the crystal Geographe Bay waters, a staggering 90.1km bike course along our fast and flat roads and if that's not enough the competitors will have a 21.1km run along the beautiful Busselton waterfront to finish their day!

For those wanting to volunteer and help out with this fantastic event or for anyone left wanting to know more about the race....be sure to visit the official Busselton Half Ironman website: http://www.busseltonhalf.com/index.html

Wildwood Valley would like to wish all the competitors the best of luck on Saturday!

If you love our country and want to share your stories, then why not be a part of the new Tourism Australia campaign...'There's nothing like Australia!'.

Between now and the 12th of May, anyone and everyone can visit the official website www.nothinglikeaustralia.com and upload a photo, along with your very own story (in 25 words or less) and tell the world why there's nothing like Australia!

Your story might say...."There's nothing like visiting Yallingup, where I can sit on the deck at Wildwood Valley and watch the sunset over Smiths Beach, while sipping wine".

Tourism Australia will then select a range of stories and place them on an interactive map for the world to see! Even better...there are daily prizes where you can win digital cameras, as well as one of eight $5,000 aussie holidays or the major prize which is a $25,000 Australian holiday of your choice!

So spread the word, because there's nothing like Australia! Click here to read more...

We are often asked to support and sponsor a variety of events - but how does one make the decision of who to donate too?

As parents of two gorgeous children, Giacamo and Shanna, Carlo and I decided to focus our generosity towards charities and events based around children. Just last week we provided a great prize to HeartKids Geographe for their annual Heartkids Ball, held at Bunker Bay Resort. This fantastic charity started as a voluntary group of parents and has now grown into a professional structure that has a presence all throughout the country, offering support to families of children with heart disease, be it congenital (born with) or acquired. To read more about HeartKids, visit www.heartkidswa.org.au.

Wildwood Valley will once again be supporting the Rocky Bay 'Diamonds and Pearls Ball', which is being held on Saturday the 29th of May at the Astral Ballroom at Burswood Resort complex. Rocky Bay is another amazing organisation that provides care and support for children with disabilities, particularly those with neuromuscular and other neurological disorders. If you would like to find out more about Rocky Bay and the Diamonds and Pearls Event, click here for more information.

Wildwood Valley are so proud to be giving back to the community and supporting groups that work tirelessly for the greater good of our children...we encourage everyone to try and do the same where you can...as every little bit helps!

Ciao
Sioban Baldini

Will Cravings Magazine become 'The Best Food Magazine in the World'....we will have to wait until May to find out!

Wildwood Valley are extremely pleased to share the great news that Cravings Magazine has been nominated as a finalist in the 2010 Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards, for "the best food magazine in the world" category.
Having worked with Cravings Magazine over the last few years, I'm so proud of both Alison and Michael as they have been fantastic advocates for us 'foodies' in the industry. Their magazine has been recognised and listed in the top 3 food magazines in Australia and in the top 7 from around the world - what an achievement!

The other nominees for the 2010 Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards - Best Food Magazine are:

• Australian Gourmet Traveller, Australia
• Jamie Magazine, UK
• Waitrose Food Illustrated, UK
• Edible Toronto, Canada
• Delicious, Australia
• Spain Gourmetour, Spain
• Food and Drink, USA
• Cuisine Magazine, New Zealand
• Cravings Magazine, Australia

On behalf of the team at Wildwood Valley we wish Alison and Michael Clarke, all the very best for their nomination and look forward to hearing the results of the awards in May, which are being held as part of Tasting Australia Gala Dinner in Adelaide.

Congratulations!

The World's Largest International Art Event "Cow Parade" is in Town!

Have you ever picked up a hitch hiking cow? Or spotted a bright blue cow sitting on a park bench, or perhaps one with a surfboard under its arm checking out the surf? No? Well you can now!

If you haven't "herd", the internationally acclaimed Cow Parade, the most successful public art event in the world is currently in our region!

Cow Parade organisers, the Augusta Margaret River Tourism Association (AMRTA), are excited to have secured the rights to host the event. "Over 500 cities worldwide have applied for the rights to the event but only 50 cities had been successful in their application in nearly a decade of the event's history" AMRTA CEO said.

Margaret River joins host cities that include prestigious places like Chicago, New York, London, Tokyo, Prague and Paris in the showcase of Cow Parade.

So what is all the fuss about? Simply, the cow is a universally beloved animal. The cow represents different things to different people around the world - she's sacred, she's historical, she connects us to our past, but the common feeling is one of affection. There is something magical about the cow that transcends throughout the world. She simply makes everyone smile!

But what is Cow Parade? Well a whole bunch of life sized fibre glass cows hauled in and left in the hands of talented local artists.

Cow Parade is in full swing and the cows are now sculpted, painted and are placed at various locations around the region, including wineries, beaches, local businesses, iconic attractions and town centres.

Within just a 10 minute drive of Wildwood Valley there are 10 cow's on display already.

The culmination of the four month event is a gala auction of the cows, where the proceeds will go to selected charities and regional projects.

Cow Parade is on show now until the 27th of June. To find out more, click here.

The annual Margaret River Wine Region Festival is back from the 8th - 12th of April 2010.

Visitors to Margaret River will enjoy four days of delicious local produce, signature dishes prepared by leading chefs and be able to indulge themselves in over 200 samples of award winning wines at the Vintage Festival.

Our stunning region will also showcase a range of fantastic art and music experiences, some of which include:

• Friday 9th April - Cabernet Cabaret & Wine Auction, Xanadu Wines, 7.30pm to Midnight
• Saturday 10th April - Vintage Festival, Leeuwin Estate Amphitheatre, 11am to 6pm
• Sunday 11th April - Vintage Concert, featuring Daryl Braithwaite & Jon Stevens, Leeuwin Estate Amphitheatre, 11am to 6pm

So, why not book the weekend and enjoy the 'Sounds of Silence' at Wildwood Valley and immerse yourself in one of Australia's favourite wine regions.

Gather your friends and be part of the action at the 2010 Margaret River Wine Region Festival in Western Australia.

For general enquires phone 1300 765 518 or more information can be found at www.margaretriverfestival.com and for tickets, visit www.ticketmaster.com.au.

Whilst recently back in Italy, Carlo and I enjoyed one of the best meals of our lives!!

By chance, one day when we were having lunch in Cortona, where we met the owners/chef of another restaurant called Osteria il Granaio.  They invited us to come and have a meal at their restaurant.  For our last meal out in Italy, we decided to drive the 60 km to Rapalano Terme and have lunch at their restaurant.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were pleasantly surprised how they recognised and greeted us with such a warm welcome.  The chef immediately went back to the to the kitchen only to return with the largest plate of white truffles I have ever seen.  I was scared to imagine what the cost of them would be!

Once we were seated the chef returned to ask us if we were happy to let him choose our menu for the day.  I was delighted with this idea and proceeded to enjoy the most wonderful meal based around white truffles.  We started simply with hand sliced prosciutto and beautiful pecorino cheese.

The following course was two fried eggs served in a generous pool of olive oil, topped with lavish shavings of fresh white truffle.  The chef was quick to arrive and tell us that we must wait until the eggs had cooled before devouring them as this would allow the truffle to infuse.  The dish was so simple but sublime.

The next course was the signature one for me;  home-made tagliatelle sauteed in extra virgin olive oil, topped with a generous amount of white truffle.  It may not sound amazing, but it was the best pasta dish I have ever eaten!!

The main meal was Carlo's favourite,  Tuscan tagliata;  T-bone steak cooked blue, (which is the only way they eat meat in Tuscany!) sliced and served on a bed of rocket with crispy fried potatoes with rosemary and fresh green peppercorns.

Lunch was enjoyed with great Tuscan red wine and finished with ricotta crostata for dessert.

This dining experience only reinforced my love of Italian food;  simply use the best ingredients, cook it perfectly and don't overcomplicate it!!

I highly recommend for anyone to eat at this restaurant 'Osteria il Graneaio'.  For those of you that would like to have a go with truffles, then to be sure to: 

click here to download a copy of my Pappardelle with Funghi and Olio di Tartufo.

Anne, Sioban's Mum has reared a number of kangaroos and many of you would have met the most recent one, Tixi.

Tixi has lived in the bush for over a year, living the life of a typical teenager, coming and going as she pleases, maybe blessing us with her presence once every two weeks.

Last September there were signs of Tixi being pregnant and by November there was clear evidence that she had in fact given birth to a beautiful baby kangaroo.


Until a month ago Tixi and her baby were only to be seen from a distance, but as the green feed diminished, Tixi decided it was time to return home to greener pastures.

These photos were taken on our front lawn at home and even though Tixi was quite comfortable being hand fed bread, the baby had stage fright and would not show us its gorgeous little face.


On another visit we were spoilt by seeing the little bub out of the pouch and when ever it felt insecure it simply stuck its head in the pouch, but with its feet firmly on the ground.

Experience the best Geographe Bay has to offer with this 6 day getaway for four people, valued at over $4,000!!

Geographe Bay Tourism Association, in conjunction with a number of local tourism operators, including us here at Wildwood Valley Villa & Cottages are pleased to support the 2010 Visitor Guide Competition.

The lucky winner, along with 3 friends, will get the chance to experience the best of Geographe Bay over a fabulous 6 day adventure. The prize includes accommodation (2 nights in our gorgeous Ladybird Apartment), winery lunches, cellar door tour, a dolphin & seal tour, caving, tour of the Underwater Observatory at the Busselton Jetty, a voucher to spend at one of our local surf shops Hillzeez and some delicious Margaret River wine from Willespie Wines (just to name a few!).

Entries for the Ultimate Geographe Bay Getaway are open now, so if you would like to be the lucky winner then be sure to throw your hat in the ring!

Click here to enter.....

We were lucky to have some quality time to enjoy living in our gorgeous new home in Tuscany. One of the highlights of the trip was forming great friendships with our neighbours.

Tina and Leonaldo who have a house 2 doors up, asked us to come in their beautifully renovated rustic house. Carlo was mesmorized by the massive wood fired oven and when he found out it was built in 1841 said "I would love to cook pizza in this!!". The next evening that is exactly what happened, Carlo cooked us awesome pizza while all I could think about was how many meals had been cooked in this oven during its life time!! In kitchens you talk about pans being well seasoned, but undoubtly this would be the most seasoned oven I have ever cooked in and it still worked a treat!

We sat in front of the open fire place after dinner and indulged on roasted chestnuts, cooked over the hot flames. Leonaldo told us the history of Cantalena, our village, where he was born and lived until 5 when his family had to move to the city to make ends meet. The whole village was abandoned in the 1050's and left to deteriorate over the years. Leonaldo who now lives in Florence, always felt a close connection to Cantalena and started doing renovations to rebuild his run down home in 1996. During the evening he told us about his grand parents and parents lives. They had to walk to Cortona in those years to purchase the few essentials required for living that they could not produce themselves, such as candles, salt and sugar.

He then produced the log books of his ancestors dating back to 1811. Over the years there were records of their life possessions which equated to 3 cows 2 pigs and 8 sheep. Written in calligraphy, I was amazed at how beautiful the writing was.

Carlo and I are still talking about the wonderful evening that we enjoyed with our new friends, a night full of genuine hospitality, history and great food and wine of course!!