A very enjoyable read mostly because of:A Beautiful description of the Australian bush"For a moment we waited, spellbound in the brilliant sunshine; then the dogs running down to the water's edge, the gallahs and cockatoos rose with gorgeous sunrise effect: a floating gray-and-pink cloud, backed by sunlit flashing white. Direct to the forest trees they floated and, settling there in their myriads, as by a miracle the gaunt, gnarled old giants of the bush all over blossomed with garlands of grey, and pink, and white, and gold.""The Reach always slept; for nearly twelve miles it lay, a swaying garland of heliotrope and purple waterlilies, gleaming through a graceful fringe of palms and rushes and scented shrubs, touched here and there with shafts of sunlight, and murmuring and rustling with an attendant host of gorgeous butterflies and flitting bird and insects." And... Very Quaint and /or Rustic feel of life"There's one fairly steady, good-sized table at least it doesn't fall over, unless some one leans on it; then there's a bed with a wire mattress, but nothing else on it; and there's a chair or two up to your weight (the boss'll either have to stand up or lie down), and I don't know that there's much else exceptiong plenty of cups and plates - they're enamel, fortunately, so you won't have much trouble with the servant breaking things...""...walls sprouted with corner shelves and brackets - three wooden kerosene cases became a handy series of pigeonholes for magazines and papers..."The book was very entertaining despite the feel that nothing ever happened, to my city-chic's mind anyway;""Whatever do you do with your time?" ask the townsfolk, sure that life out-bush is stagnation, but forgetting that life is life wherever it may be lived."Life out-bush was hard and what was very very obvious from this book was that humour was their mainstay. Life, then, definitely do not sound 'down' at all.I couldn't help myself that I kept picturing scenes of 'Australia' (movie) whilst reading this book. However, I do realise that bushmen were most probably not as hot as Hugh Jackman, LOL.
