Weekend with Al :- 18 & 19 May 2012

Had an early start and got to Inglewood around 11.  Got some supplies from the IGA and from Diane's fruit shop, and did a bit of weeding in the front waiting for Alison

It wasn't going to be a "working" weekend so got changed back out of my overalls when she arrived around 12.30

Showed her and her well behaved dog Wally around the house and garden

The charming Wally

Was pleased to see that the spinach is still going well

looks smaller than it is

Then some lunch, a bottle of white, and the newspapers - out under the portico in the sun.

Went for a wander around the town and bumped into Jamie Nevins - who gave me a letter from a NSW farmer  who had visited the house.  He was a descendant of Samuel Tivey and offered us further information if we'd like some.  We'll certainly take him up on that

Letter from John Witt

Thought we'd go and visit some wineries - either in Bridgewater or Kingower.  Checked out the brochures, and thought we'd try a few in "Bridigie" - as Jamie had recommended Pondalowie wines and according to the brochure it was on the main street, next to the post office.

Well, we tried Jill first with Old Loddon, - but it looked closed, so we tried Pondalowie.  And that was long gone -as the new Bridgwater Bakery is there now.

Bridegwater Bakery - photo from the internet

Well, at least Water Wheel was open, and we had a nice chat with Rosemary and Peter. - not to mention a few tastings

Water Wheel Winery - photo from the internet 

 I started telling Peter that we were going to go into (limited) competition with him - and asked how many vines we'd need in order to produce a dozen bottles of wine.  I don't think he was worried.  He did however know that I was on the market....and told me to come back in September when they would be pulling up the cuttings.  Small town hey!

Al bought a shiraz, and I bought a quaffing white dozen of Sauvigon Blanc- couldn't go past the bargain basement price

Back at home with my dozen whites

Went for walk along the Loddon river bank afterwards...

Stock photo of Loddon River bank from the internet

...and the now defunct Inglewood lookout past the Botanical Gardens.  It's defunct because there used to be a sign and a structure there - but both are now gone. I'm still amazed at how little of Inglewood that you see - just the town hall top (even less than in the below photo)

view from the lookout - once again photo from the internet

By this stage it would have been after 5.30 pm and the sky was starting to colour, lovely red and yellows.  Al took some photos

Back to the house, and I prepared the fire in the dining room, and also turned the solar lights on upstairs  in the bathroom, and in Alison's room

Given that this was an eating and drinking weekend - we had some nibbles (dip, pate, olives etc) and a red that Alison had brought up before dinner

pre dinner nibbles

Off to the Empire for dinner around 7.30 - with Alison's half drunk bottle of red.  I figured I'd ask Enzo if we could drink it there.  If yes - great, if not well too bad, we'd take it back home again and just have a glass of something else there

As it was - Ros said it was fine - so we had the customary parmas (which came very quickly - I think it's probably better to go later and get served more quickly) and the rest of the bottle.  I must say, it was lovely and warm in there, as we had to get rugged up to walk there from home.  Obviously had to rug up again on leaving and yes it was cold - another clear starry night

Lit the fire in the dining room and bunkered down in there - very pleasant.  I did notice some dark sticky stuff on the side of the hearth under the chimney - had soot on it, but I wondered if it was honey... as there were also dribbles of it on the vertical wall of the chimney.

dark stuff in left corner - honey?

Now obviously I wasn't going to taste it, because for one,  it had soot on it, and for two - if it was honey it would probably be poisoned from the exterminator all those months ago.

I checked it out more closely the next morning  - and yes I do reckon it's honey. 




scraped chimney honey

 As to how it got there is more mysterious - yes the bees were in the wall behind the chimney - but did they also set up in the chimney?  if so surely there would be lots of dead bees in the fireplace? there were none?  I guess Justin can investigate when he comes up next time.


Well, I have already said that it was cold, that was confimed on Sunday morning when I went out to buy the paper

frost on my car roof

and frost on my wind shield

The dining room looked quite nice with soft morning light coming through

As per my normal routine, I started up the wood fire stove in the kitchen in the morning - to make it a little warmer in there.  However it was smoking a bit, so had to open the back door to let the smoke out - pretty much neutralised warming up the kitchen - although if you sat in front of the stove with the little door open - you could warm up....


Alison didn't feel like a big bacon and egg breakfast, so we had toast, juice and coffee.  Al is a most sophisticated guest and brought her own travel coffee maker - just perfect for 2  people (good thing Justin wasn't there)

After breakfast and the paper, I watered the garden a bit - wanted to make sure that my new plants survive

And then some sightseeing, and yes more wineries. 

Went to Melvilles Caves and had a wander around - as usual the views were lovely.  I commented that it was good that we'd seen the Inglewood lookout 1st, as it would have been a comparative letdown otherwise



granite outcrop - Melvilles caves (photo from the internet)



lookout at Melvilles caves (photo from the internet)

Then onto the Kingwoer wineries, first, Kangderaar Vineyard where we admired a lovely autumnal bush.  We were told that it was a smoke bush - which was coincidental because I'd heard this bush discussed on the radio on the way up yesterday - and how lovely it is during all seasons.

smoke bush

Kangderaar vintner (photo from the internet)

The couple  was very friendly, we liked the wine, so I bought a bottle of sparkling and a bottle of port

Next stop was the Blanch Barkly winery. 



I realise now that our neighbour Barclay was named after this Barkly - as the winery was named after the nugget that was found there - and so was my neighbour (not sure of the spelling of her name though)

They built this stone building in the 1980's?

As we walked up to the building, they told us that they had just finished bottling , and were cleaning out the huge vat (for want of a more technical name)

David & wine vat #1





David and wine vat #2



door for old Kingower jail - very heavy!

amusing poster on the wall at Blanch Barkly

Went in and had a nice chat with David, while of course sampling some of his wines.  He apparently knew who I was also - as he said that he had been going to come and drop off a bottle of wine to us - as a welcome to the neighborhood.  And to my surprise said that we had the Tivey House.  He also asked how the garden was going - and  that he had seen me out the front weeding etc

He also told us how he plans to open up a small eating area - would be great - as the set up is lovely with the stone buildings

Had a wander around - they've got lots of fruit and nut trees there also, and they use the pressings as mulch

wheel barrow full of pressings

 I bought a couple of bottles here too, the Hut label and the vintage label - both reds. 

Then back home for lunch, and rekindled the kitchen fire which just had a few live embers.  Warmed up the pizza which she'd brought yesterday from home.  Worked reasonably well except we burnt the bottom - should have kept a closer watch on it.

So, once again a successful  weekend, had a lovely time with Alison, she enoyed it, and we'll do it again