Pumpkins and Curios Labour Day Weekend March 2012

Haven't been to Inglewood for about 6 weeks (since Australia Day). 

I drove up by myself  - and Justin drove up with Fraser in the ute - had to pick up a couple of Ebay bargains an 8 foot ladder - so that Justin can finally reach the ceilings to patch up and then paint, and a rather nice wing chair - which was a darkened on the arm rests - sweat stains??  Didn't see that on the ebay photos.  Eagle eye Justin did though - hopefully we can clean it up.  However for the interim, we've placed the matching cushion covers over the arms - and that looks ok

New ebay chair



And we have seen some changes....

Firstly, my precious vegetable patch has actually become productive thanks to Gordon's watering.

I not only have a single large beetroot, but vigorous tomatoes,  rampant pumpkins, various happy  herbs, and some accidentally pulled out baby potatoes (some other ones are still in the ground)

flourishing beetroot



staked and tied tomatoes



accidentally pulled up potatoes





lemon grass & oregano





last but not least pumpkin



The pumpkins out the front (ex Halloween) have also gone mad - and I actually have  4 large pumpkins.  Unfortunately the largest and most orange one has squeezed through the front fence - and is visible from the footpath.  One of the neighbours walked past and said she was keeping an eye on it for me.  Becky's advice was to turn them on their sides so that water wouldn't gather (as that could make them rot) We're supposed to pick them at the 1st frost - which may not be that long - as it's certainly getting cooler although it was still lovely and warm during the days.

peeking throught the fence

quite a good size with a 10c piece for scale

Pumpkins gone mad out the front

Pumpkins gone mad out the front #2



pumpkins aerial view from the veranda - over the olive tree - which by
the way does not have many olives at all this year.  Was full of olives last year 



Anyway, enough of my showing off of my green thumb... We had visitors again this weekend - Andrew, Cheryl & Sebe.  They arrived Saturday afternoon, and we had our customary drinks and nibbles on the veranda, and the pub for dinner - very nice.  The boys made a chocolate killing at the claw, and some smaller kids went on straight after them  - and slunk back to their chairs empty handed.  We urged our boys to give them a chocolate each to lessen the pain.  They did so - and the kids' parents were grateful.

Walking back from the pub, there was quite a smell of smoke in the air, and the sunset sky had a red tinge -controlled burns - we didn't know - but it seemed to dissipate.   Afterwards sat on the veranda by candellight.  J took out his telescope, and we spied Mars which was looking quite red, and perhaps Jupiter.  J also pointed out what we assumed was a satellite - as it certainly wasn't a plane - ie no flashing lights.  The moon looked particularly large and yellow close to the horizon, and we easily saw the craters with the telescope - quite impressive.  Although the night sky isn't as brilliant here as in Clunes - where incidentally Mad still is.

Early night as we were all pretty tired

I thought I'd make us all a fried up breakfast, and for something different did it on the wood fired stove - which although took a bit longer was much appreciated.  Cheated with the hash browns in the George Foreman though.

Sunday breakfast #1

Sunday breakfast #2 - Fraser making a silly face





yes I know, broken yolks... - still tasted good though

After breakfast the boys mucked around digging holes in the garden looking for gold - I'm assuming that they were unsuccessful, although they did find an old Morris Minor hub cap, and various other bits of metal.  Unfortunately despite being asked to fill in the divets, these remained open - luckily no one has tripped over....

what have they found?

not much....

We also went for a drive up to Melville's caves and had a look around.  Coincidentally, we went the same weekend a year ago with Alex, Prue & April - maybe we should make it an annual Labour Day pilgrimage

nice view

pensive by the tree

Whilst at the caves, the boys had been carrying around a bag of chips, which I had been certain would have been gobbled down by the time we left there.  Well, no, they weren't gobbled down, rather they were pulverised, and the boys opened the packet when we got home, poured the chip crumbs into a bowl, and ate them up like cereal - looked ridiculous!

silly boys

Justin had remained at home to do a bit of work, and Gordon had dropped in with some home made chutney - how lovely!! Didn't waste it on the chip crumbs though

Gordon's chutney 

Lunch was out in the garden - an antipasto affair

I didn't realise I had such bad hat hair!

bad hat hair #2 (should have left the hat on - but we were in the shade

Our friends left late Sunday afternoon, and Fraser caught up on some sleep following their departure

exhausted!

Thought we'd have a simple pasta dinner -but I needed some music to cook by.  Got my trusty helper to hook up the kitchen  hi fi!

no he doesn't have a electrical certificate

All set up 

Despite my almost purist old fashioned breakfast cooked on the wood stove this morning - went for fast and efficient tonight - christened the electric hotplates that Mum had given me.  Worked a treat.

stove top christening

Used produce from the garden in the sauce ie beetroot tops, parsley and oregano

Nimmitabel produce

a blurry cook at work - maybe the photographer had been drinking?

Voila  - nicely chopped herbs - via a Camberwell market special  Add caption

J also thought he'd entertain me while I was cooking - had revisited his youth - with some yo yo tricks.  The kids had won the yo yo from the claw in the pub last night

getting ready for something really good

fixing the yo yo

 rocking the baby?  

And despite all of these distractions - here was dinner.  To buck with tradition we decided not to actually cook the sauce - as it was tinned tomatoes, the beetroot leaves, herbs, tuna, and olives etc.  We didn't have any onions or garlic.  Worked out quite well

And my electrician/entertainer washed the dishes also

cleaning up

After dinner we watched a dvd that we thought we might all enjoy - "Limitless" with Bradley Cooper - not sure if it was the right message for a impressionable 12 yo boy - yes take an unknown potentially dangerous drug - and see how smart it makes you.  Slightly moralistic, but he did win in the end


The next morning Justin and I journeyed to Dunolly to see the son in law of the previous owner as he had some pieces from the house that he said he could sell back to us.  Firstly he showed us the missing roof finial - which Gordon the roofer had searched for in vain.  I must admit I was a little miffed that he offered us the chance to purchase it, if it were me, I would have just given it to the new house owners... Anyway it's not me.  So then he instructed us to follow him to Maryborough - where we stopped outside a run down looking church.  Out came the keys and then a  crow bar to jemmy open the reluctant swollen door.  Well, shiver me timbers (don't know why I'm using the pirate vernacular) - but it was a treasure trove inside.... Not just a few pieces from Nimmitabel, but 1000's of pieces from all over the world and 100s if not 1000s of years old (bones, fossils etc).  Below are just a few photos that I took - after asking for permission to do so first...

general view #1 

Persian armour 14 century?

Primitive cannon?

kangaroo skeletons 

fabulous old gramophone - with macrame like antenna

Servant bell board from Nimmitabel 

General view #2

General view #3

Moulty stuffed bird and snake

very dusty gramophone trumpet

wall of old bottles 

wall of old clocks

wall of old clocks

Anyway, amongst all of this he showed us 4 pieces from Nimmitabel that we were interested in :- the roof finial, the servant bell board (took a photo of that one), a fancy short curtain rod with porcelain flower ends, and a lovely art nouveau type light fitting from the downstairs front room (similar to the dining room fitting).  He had also shown us a rather substantial safe, a worn carpeted rocking chair,  a wooden hall seat, and a mantle over mirror - but we weren't really interested in those.

Anyway, we came prepared - had driven the ute there in order to cart off substantial re-purchased haul.  We had also come with cash - as money speaks and we thought some hundreds of dollars would certainly do the trick.  However, we had effective laryngitis.....Ian considered the 4 pieces we were interested in, presumably did some calculations in his head - and told us $4,000 - we didn't quite splutter, but were certainly taken aback.  Justin - ever the diplomat said that we would have to consider it. I was more characteristically blunt - saying that we couldn't afford it, - as we had more pressing things to spend our money on ie proper electricity, new bathroom, new kitchen etc etc.  And I also thought them dreadfully overpriced - $1000 each!  I didn't say this though.  He then gave us a special today only price of $3,000 and he would throw in the hall chair also - but we weren't trying to play a game - we - or rather I didn't want to pay that sort of money. So it looks like Ebay, auction houses etc etc - or we just do without.  Anyway, a bit disappointing, but as Justin said he is a collector, and knows how much things are "worth" - and at our initial reaction he offered to show us the book - I'm assuming some sort of price book for antique items like the Red book for cars? So we left empty handed apart from my photos, and a very interesting experience

Got back and found Fraser mucking around in the tree house, did a bit of weeding ( vegie patch), had some lunch and waited for Bruce to come over at 2pm.  The back veranda still hasn't been fixed, and is now becoming a bit dangerous as a bit of tin had fallen off as well as some guttering.  It's been months and months - so we wanted to know what was happening.  And by the way - the laundry isn't finished either - the roof is now on - but still waiting on the chimney and the floor.  The brickie had told Justin he would do it last weekend - but that obviously didn't happen - and no one had told us.  Note, I subsequently spoke to Darren the project manager - said I was getting a bit cross at the lack of progress, and the lack of communication.  He said he'd just come back from holidays, and that they couldn't source the bricks.  He then called me the next day saying he had sourced some - so hooray - hopefully that will be finished soon now

Anyway - back to Bruce - he told us that he's in the process of moving out and that maybe we should get someone else to complete the job.  We agreed that was probably a good idea.  He then surprised us by saying that he would refund the money we had already paid him - minus what he had spent on  materials.  We thought that was pretty good of him- as I guess we had written it off already.  He also still has one of our wooden venetian blinds that he was going to see if he could have fixed.  He'll bring that back and get back his Inglewood photo that we currently have on our kitchen mantle - do a swapsy!.

And lastly - Fraser found a blue tongue in the garden - a quick pack up, and home to Melbourne - but I'll be back the next weekend (no sport) Mum & I will go - J and F will stay at home in Melbourne.  I want to get some things done - see some progress at least in my own internal list

good camouflage 

more of a close up