Different? Yes.

Challenging ... sometimes.

And am I happy? Yes. Yes Yes.

For nearly 40 years, I have run Willow Vale Mill in Laggan in the Southern Tablelands of NSW.

It has been a guest house, a function centre and on Saturday night has hosted locals and others for a four-course feast.

Like Don Quixote, many have seen me as tilting as windmills.

When I bought the place, it was little more than a pile of stones on bare hills in a small village, miles from anywhere.

"What the hell are you doing?" friends asked.

"You must be mad."

To the first question, even now I am not really sure.

To second, quite possibly, yes.

Twice I have virtually rebuilt the place, the first after a fire and the second after a mini-tornado ripped the roof off.

I continue to work on the garden after nearly four decades of toil. It will be great when it's finished.

I have planted thousands of trees and installed nearly a hundred garden beds.

Work continues on stone walls and landscaping.

It has been a life-long affair - and it continues.

And in the meantime, I bought my house in Italy.

Friends who have come to stay here say it's the Mill transplanted.

They say I am starting again.

They could be right.

I look across the Italian fields from my kitchen window and I think about planting potatoes.

I wonder what new varieties I can strike.

Is there method in my madness?

There's only one way to find out.

Come and stay with me in Italy.

Let me introduce you to this part of the world and decide for yourself.