Garden Surveyors August 2012

Well, unfortunately there has been no definitive answer to my "what is it" question re the wood stove wall panel and the mysterious plates that can be removed

Gordon had dropped by and he didn't know, and we also saw Don who didn't know either.  However Don came back and advised that he thought that wood stove wasn't original, and that the back panelling and therefore those plates would have been for the previous stove.  He thought it might have been something to do with the drafting /heating etc - and recommended that we go to a wood stove shop in Castlemaine - as they are the experts and may know.

And speaking of the stove, Justin also re-instated the flue opener/closer for want of its proper name, as this had fallen out some time ago.

Justin lifting up the flue chimney to slide/shove the handle thing back in

It made a diference also - as I cooked up bacon and eggs on the stove on Sunday morning - and shut the flue - and all of the escaping smoke stopped immediately.  Given my lack of flue experience  - I'll just have to experiment with it..... I had read something on the internet - closed flue and the heat stays more in the stove etc... I'll have to check.

Anyway, that said the aim of this weekend (or at least my aim) was to survey the garden so that we could provide the plan to Kevin the garden designer - and he could come up with a proper designed garden for us - incorporating as much of my wish list as possible ie rose gardem succulent garden,  olive walk etc etc.

The kids and Justin were in charge of this - as I still had a large bucket of jonquils and some addtional roses to re-plant

Fraser in the backgrond under the shrubbery, Justin in charge

Mad  making sure that the measuring tape was taut

Fraser at the other end of the measuring tape

Of course I did some more gardening also - transplanting some calendulas to the front  - as they  are crowding out the front garden.  Gave them a good soaking, so hopefully they'll survive.  If not I've got 100s - so can move some more. 

droopy calendulas

The artichoke continues to thrive....and I also planted some leetuce and dwarf pea seedlings



the thistle takes over

 And I harvested yet another large bag of mushrooms (they must love the horse manure!)

lots of fresh mushrooms

I'm a bit concerned about the lemon trees though - as the leaves are looking a bit leathery and dried up.  I'm sure there's been enough rain, and they were certainly looking healthy over Summer.  Have they had too much water?  I'll  have to investigate this also - as they form part of my citrus garden/orangerie (with grapefruit, lime, blood orange and cuquat!)

Justin also had to bail out the cellar a bit more, the kids were firmly ensconced on their laptops (no photo this time), and Basil basked in the sun and ran alll around the house.  How exciting for him!

Basil, enjoying the sun

Luckily? he hasn't presented us with any mice.  I'm assuming we still have some - but haven't seen any evidence in quite a while.  Basil was however fascinated by the chirping birds outside.  I spied him prowling around the front door, trying to stick his paw underneath as he clearly heard the birds and must be hard wired to know they are good to chase...

Justin and I also went up to the Blanche Barkly winery for some more of their fabulous clean skins.  No one was there when we arrived, and there was some money on the counter - from another customer we assumed who had purchased a single bottle and honestly left their payment

Anyway, after 5 or 10 minutes David showed  up, it was his daughter's engagment party and they were all over at the stone house across from the winery - having a good old time. So lucikly we were able to get our wine, and David returned to the party.  He also told us how they have a monthly film night at the Kinggower Village Green - and invited us to come at some stage.  I'd very much like to - when it gets warmer I think

James the butcher had also told us that there was going to be a feature on Inglewood/the Loddon (not quite sure how extensive an area they were including) in the Saturday Age on 1st September - the "10 reasons to visit" part of the Lifestyle  section.  His butcher shop,winerys, & Melville's Caves etc will feature.  I'm very plased about it, and look forward to reading it

Cast iron stove mystery July 28 & 29 2012

Came up by myself again this weekend - as the kids had sport and other plans and J was busy with work

Now, rather than first describe what I did - I have a question

What is this??

It might be a bit hard to make out - but the above photo is a close up of the backboard of the wood fired stove in the kitchen.  And what I want to know is - what is the purpose of  the handle and plate like piece of metal that can be drawn out of the back cast iron wall??

Above are 2 x photos of the plate taken out of the back wall

There appear to be 2 of these - one either side of the range

What's behind this cast iron wall?  Does it connect to the chimney?  Is it something to do with the flue?  If anyone knows please advise - as it is a complete mystery to me

Justin's Architecture Professor uncle had said that he thought that the stove was probably not the original one for there - and that perhaps it had heated water before hand - as there appear to be panels in the cast iron range.  But I couldn't get anything else to move.
 ~ ~ ~ ~
Anyway, I drove there in Mum's car - as mine had unfortunately been side-swiped by a semi trailer on the Monash a few days prior.

Given that it's Winter I wanted to prune the large rose in the "south lawn".   I also had to rid of it that dratted bridal creeper weed

Job done!

Job #2 was to empty out the cellar - as quite a bit more water had seeped back in ( from a couple of weeks ago when the hot water service burst - and we lost 10s of 1000s of litres of water)

not quite covering my boots

It took quite a few trips up and down the stairs - 2 full buckets at a time to empty it out

At least it didn't smell!


After all this, I didn't feel like going out tonight - and Grant was always raving about James' steaks - so I decided to buy myself a steak for dinner.  A t-bone was recommended.  I also picked some spinach and mushrooms from the garden - and cooked them all up on the wood fired stove (with jacket potatoes in the ashes).

I must say that it took quite a while  - but it was worth it

Also made a nice fire in my room - on the new grate - which worked a treat

I had also brought up another grate, some fire irons and fire dogs for the dining room

A hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs on Sunday meant that I didn't need much lunch - and prepared me for a day of digging up 100s of jonquil bulbs, and then re-planting them else where

Took ages - but I had learned my lesson - and was wearing gardening gloves - after the huge blister I got on my palm last year when I lifted and replanted the iris bulbs

I also had to empty out the cellar a little more -as more had seeped in over night.  It really is sodden outside , Gordon had said that we'd got 60 or 70 points of rain during the week. It certainly made it easier to dig up the bulbs though

Anyway, despite the cold weather - Spring is on the way. A few almond trees were in bloom

Some jonquils were also flowering

And I found some snow drops

Lastly, I went and had a coffee at Bubbletoes and had a good chat with Kerry & Tanya  - who told me that there were plans to possibly have a jazz, wine and cheese festival weekend at Inglewood to draw in the tourists.  I'd be in on that!