Dragged the kids up here for 4 days over the school holidays - they weren't that keen to come, but once up here they had a lovely time.
Arrived in the afternoon - and got stuck into the garden as usual. The almond that I had transplanted still hasn't sprouted leaves/flowers - so I'm a little concerned. But at least there is still green wood - so I gave it a good water. The cherry tree on the other hand is full of flowers - cherries this year? And the pears and figs are in leaf.
My irises that I transplanted out the front are looking magnificent, some in flower, some in swelling bud. I'm really pleased with them
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| one of the irises - still can't do proper close ups with my mobile camera |
Gordon came and visited, told me that he'd got onto Shareena and advised her that there may be scaffolding for her wedding - he said she was going to drop by some time over the next few days. He had also dropped off the wood for the vegie patch - so hopefully that will be done by the next time we're there - so that I can plant the seeds that Kate had given me
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| vegie patch wood ( and refilled holes where we had dug up the fruit trees) |
So, while I pottered the kids played around - kicking a footy in the garden and on the road, whacking hockey balls around etc (using the old hockey sticks of course)
They also discovered a small kitten - which followed them back to our place. Fraser was keen to give it some milk, so did so, and they played with it with some rope also. They christened it Monty, - so Monty it was. Barb from up the road walked across and told me that it belonged to a family 2 doors down, and that they were on holidays, but that someone came and fed it every day. The kids tried taking it back home, but Monty preferred our company and so stayed
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Fraser making friends with Monty - and background of
unweeded flowerbed - which I subsequently weeded |
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| gottcha! |
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| Monty and hippy vest |
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| relaxed |
Had sausages (from the butcher) and mash for dinner cooked by me by lantern light on the bbq - with of course a glass of wine in hand - very civilised, and the sausages only got a tiny bit burnt.
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| Mad's gloved hand in foreground - don't know why |
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| bbq by lamplight |
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| Fraser mashing |
Tucked in at the kitchen table, Monty had discovered our back door, and the window sill, and plaintively meowed and politely tapped the window - obviously wanting to be let in. I didn't really want him inside while we were eating so we ignored him. Kids enjoyed the dinner, and we had an icecream each for dessert.
Then to the front bedroom where I had set up a fire, and we watched Fracture - and of course I fell asleep....- my excuse is that it's such a comfortable bed...Monty must have realised that we had left the kitchen, because some time later, he started meowing outside the bedroom window, and jumped up onto the wide window sill also and started tapping again. Still didn't let him in, and he was still there in the morning...
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| chilling - pre movie |
Woke up early and went for a walk - was "warm" enough just to venture out in a t-shirt and track pants - given that I was walking briskly. Went down one of the bush tracks and then just kept taking the track to the right when I hit intersections. Was lovely and sunny, blue skies, very peaceful. Also came across a little creek with diggings - you never know..... And whenever I'm digging in the garden and come across a piece of quartz, I always have a good look at it just in case - no luck so far, but I'm hoping, just for a teeny tiny piece of gold. It would be such fun to find some - particularly in the back yard...
Anyway walked for about an hour (didn't get lost), came back and bought the paper, and also said hello to Jamie Nevin at his office. Re-extended our open invitation to come over for a drink.
Home for breakfast, and woke the kids up, actually Mad stayed in bed till 10.30 or so - what a teenager!
Moved the table around in the dining room - J had not been happy with the way I had set it up last time - going across the width of the room. Now set it up more as a square, and it looks a lot better - and still have the arm chairs placed in front of the fireplace.
More gardening and more people walking by. Diane from the IGA walked by with her dog, and we had a chat, and then a group of people stopped to chat about the house and the "orchard", one of the guys told me that green almonds are delicious to eat, salted with drinks. I told him I'd enjoy them up on the verandah with a gin and tonic - which he agreed was a very good idea.
Shareena also dropped by, I was right, her mobile phone was still out of action, so she hadn't received any of my messages. She was fine with the possibility of scaffolding and said that the photographer could "work with it".
Bruce - the new tenant from the Royal Hotel also dropped by to introduce himself - he has renamed the Royal :- The Vine and has set it up to cater for homeless/divorced etc men. He said that they could do odd jobs ie prop up the fence, gardening etc. I told him that all of our money will be going on the roof for the immediate future - he said that they could do it for nothing, or at least for materials only - as they just needed to be kept busy. We'll certainly think about it. He returned a little later with an old photo montage of
Inglewood that he let us borrow for a while.
Dropped in on Becky to pick up Elise for a play - but she'd gone to her Dad's for a few days which was disappointing. Brian was there looking after Becky, and doing some general maintenance and odd jobs ie making a chicken coop etc. Actually when Fraser and I went to the Royal Melbourne show a few days later - we saw some mighty fine chicken coops there, with fancy egg trays, food and water dispensers etc. And the girl said that they don't have to be fed/watered every day - as the dispensers will eke it accordingly - so maybe one day - our own chooks at Nimmitabel?
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| chicken coop with food dispensers and egg tray |
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| even fancier - fox proof chicken coop |
Justin was home by the time I got back and said that local reporter had dropped by - he'd wanted to do a story on us and the house - what we planned to do with it etc. Pity I missed him.
Was getting a bit rainy at this stage (after such a fine morning) - I persuaded J to don a rain coat and come out for a walk with me - to see the Victorian mirror in the craft shop and to book for lunch in the pub tomorrow. He wasn't a great fan of the mirror - so we'll leave it at that, and we were told that we didn't need to book for lunch - as most people would be having their own Grand Final BBQs,
Back to the house, and J set up a fire in the dining room. Alex arrived a little later, and I started making some fresh pasta - fettucine with my pasta maker from Camberwell Market, and free range eggs from David's next door. Had to approximate the flour weight - but it worked out well. Both Mad and Fraser helped - holding the dough when it came out of the maker. However we let it stick together a bit when it came out of the machine - so it wasn't as separate as it should have been. Will know better next time I made up a puttenesca type sauce tomato, salami, anchovy, garlic, onion etc.
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| starting off |
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| mother and son |
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| having fun |
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| bit stuck together - but good yellow colour from the free range eggs |
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| serving up |
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| with sauce |
And of course Monty was still hanging around - F persuaded J to go and buy him some cat food. Monty wolfed it down
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| a kiss for the chef |
We ate in the dining room - very pleasant. The kids retired to watch a Poirot dvd in their room, and J, A and I stayed in the dining room, enjoying the fire. J played the guitar for a little while,
and I looked at the gardening books from Susan - trying to get some design ideas. I would like an "olive grove/walk/arbour " as I'd bought 12 x small olive trees, I'd also like a semi formal rose garden with a bench, arches etc, a succulent garden and an "orangerie" - or more a selection of citrus trees as I've already bought 3 x lemons, and Cheryl has promised me her orange and lemon trees which they are going to pull out, as they're not doing well in their Glen Iris garden.
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| happy thinking about my new garden |
Kevin from Bay Building Services came by at 8 on Saturday morning - to discuss the fence and laundry. Said that they will replace the whole section of fence on the north side - as they couldn't just replace the fallen down bit as the remaining rails and posts weren't much good. We queried if this was ok, as we had been prepared to pay for that bit, but they said that AAMI had accepted it, so it would have been churlish of us not to. They will also rebuild the laundry, complete with the chimney. J said that the contract to do all of this was worth $30k!! Unbelievable!
Sat back down for a coffee after Kevin left and saw David from next door walking towards the kitchen. Asked if I wanted some goat and sheep manure for the garden - of course I did so he brought me 2 x sacks.
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| manure sacks |
Had a bit of a chat and somehow got to talking about cheese and goat milk etc etc - 10 minutes later he brought me a container of fresh goats milk - I was thrilled. Had a little glass, tasted a bit nutty, and then had some with my coffee also.
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| luminous goat milk |
After this J, A and I went into Bridgewater as we'd been told that there was a a local market on today. Bought a few plants - a couple of lilies, a white edged geranium, and a couple of other things that I don't know the names of . Came back and planted them.
Off to the pub for a late lunch. J and the kids had gone earlier, A and I stayed behind to finish off our work - he painting, me in the garden. Saw Del on the way and he told us how someone had been doing a meticulous renovation sanding off all the old paint - and had gone a bit mad - because it was lead paint. We won't sand...we'll just paint over...
Got to the pub about 1.45 - J was getting a bit anxious as the kitchen closes at 2pm. We were surprised that there were only another 2 x tables in there - thought there would be more people than that. So - the grand final began - and Geelong scored a very quick goal. I had told F that we had omens for either side winning - ie our persistent cat Monty, and various triumphant magpies up the top of our big tree. As it was Geelong romped it in, J and the kids stayed to watch. A and I went back home, A had had enough of painting, and so started chopping wood with the axe into good fireplace sized pieces.- he cleverly used one of the large stumps in the back garden to split the logs on.
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| go for it Alex |
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| very sharp axe! |
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| Alex had stacked the wood he'd split - here by the back door |
I continued weeding/tidying up etc
Our dejected Pies fan came home with the other J &M. - he was a bit disappointed, but had Monty for consolation.
Given that we'd had a largish lunch, we had antipasto, dips, salami, cheese etc for dinner - once again in the dining room by candlenight. And we relented and let Monty stay inside for the night - he'd been cuddling up to the kids all day, so we got a card board box and filled it with torn newspaper strips in an approximation of kitty litter, and then another with a towel to sleep in. As it was we assume he actually slept on the chair - but there was no mess the next morning - and when I got up to buy the newspaper (and more catfood), he followed me out, and almost followed me to the IGA
Sunday morning -and I wanted to do a few more things....On Thursday I'd bought some stove cement - to fix up our wood burning stove - "glue" the broken bit back on and fill in a hole. However it was a bit cool, and I'd started the fire to warm up the kitchen. So we'll have to leave that for next time - Justin will fix it as he's neater than I am. Made the kitchen nice and warm, and still with just one match. Had cereal for breakfast with the goat milk - not bad, and a cup of coffee. J got up next and we read the paper together, and Alex went for a run. The kids slept in as usual - its very quiet here.
J watched the Insiders on his laptop - using that "tv thingy usb stick " that I gave him for Christmas
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| multitasking - solitaire and Insiders |
Now, as I'd said I wanted to do a couple of things today - had already scratched the fixing of the stove off the list, but still wanted to move the sofa couch from the dining room upstairs, Myrtle's couch from the kid's room into the dining room, move the peach and other fruit tree to the "orchard" to make way for the vegie garden, and plant the 3 x lemons which unfortunately weren't looking that good - as they had fallen over since the last time I was there, and so hadn't got any water.
Job #1 was the couch. J and A took it upstairs - and it was quite heavy and cumbersome (but not as bad as when we took our sofa bed couch up into the loft and had to balance it precariously on the banister - while trying to edge it into the doorway..) Getting Myrtle's couch into the dining room was a piece of cake by comparison.
During this time Fraser got up and decided that he wanted some breakfast - so made himself an egg in the basket on the wood stove.
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| Junior Master Chef |
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| yum |
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| quite the sophisticate |
Job #2 was to move the 2 x fruit trees - J made very quick work of the first one, and we moved it to the orchard. I did the 2nd one but seemed to take a lot longer. Alex came and helped also - and actually got it out of the ground.
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original spot for the peach tree - under the mulberry,
and in the way of the new vegie garden |
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| new spot for peach tree - in the "orchard" |
Job #3 was putting the lemon trees in - and then lots of watering - as we want to make sure that they all survive, and also re-planting the 100s of jonquils that I had dug up from the grass
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| 3 x little lemon trees and lot and lots of transplanted jonquils |
Wraps for lunch - and Mad made an unusual looking one
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| hmm |
Kids helped (somewhat grudgingly) picking up the piles of weeds that I had generated. They complained it was too much - I said it was much easier to chuck it in a wheel barrow and then into Gordon's trailer than actually pulling them out of the ground
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| children of the corn? |
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| more of a smile once the trailer was full, and the work had finished |
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| jump for joy! |
J wanted to do some work after lunch up on the verandah, however more bees were swarming around - and so he didn't think it was that prudent. They appeared to go in the same crevice as last time - I wonder if that poison lasts - or if we'll have to get more?
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| look closely at dark spots on the upper wall at left of house |
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look closely at dark spots on the upper wall at left of house,
and you can see a swarm near the verandah |
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more of a close up and lots of bees
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More pottering around weeding, watering etc after this - and then a general tidy up inside before we left. Went to wash the few dishes and was non-plussed when no water came out of the kitchen tap. Was disbelieving at first, tuned it off and then on again - but still no water. Tried the bathroom, and water came out of one of the taps ....but Alex tried the hot water tap in the bathroom - and that didn't work either. Given all of the rain that we've had we figured that the tanks must be pretty full, so it must be blocked somehow. Had to use bath water to wash the dishes in - what a bloody nuisance. Luckily I'm saving up for some plumbing (toilet/ working hot water system) - only need about another $1000 - so the sooner that's all done the better....
