Nimmitabel: A Work in Progress: 5 Red Ferraris Oct 27 & 28 2012

This time it was just Justin and myself for a lovely child free weekend, no hassles, no whingeing, and no arguing - bliss! And when we left Melbourne it was cold and drizzly, but by the time we crossed the Great Dividing Range it had fined up into a lovely warm day (remained cold and miserable in Melbourne though)

Soon after we arrived a veterans bike ride was setting up outside, and planning non riding up to Rheola, Dunolly etc - 55 km or so

I actually just found out that it was the :-

Inglewood IGA Blue Eucy Classic October 27th

Veterans bike race #1

Veteran's bike race #2

Went and said hello to Denise and Steve - who gave me the novel inspired by our house to read.

The author's note at the back reads:-

"driving through central Victoria, we stopped in Inglewood to stretch our legs. I wandered off and came across an old house that captured my imagination. I found myself weaving a story around it. Later, when I saw a photo of the house I realised I had transformed it from an old Victorian mansion into an Italianate villa.... "

So that is obviously our house, they probably would have stopped at the Town Hall and used the toilets etc. She also wrote about cast iron fence and gate, and a huge monkey puzzle tree, which may have been inspired by the bunya bunya, which I initially thought was a monkey puzzle.

Anyway, I'm more than 1/2 way through the book (I think it's junior fiction, as the protagonist is Year 8 girl), but I'm quite enjoying it, and wondering about the mystery.

They (Steve and Denise) also gave some some lemons - which I made into another batch of lemon marmalade and cordial.

After lunch, J's self appointed tasks were to paint the ceiling and window frame in the red room

getting ready

yes they're high ceilings

working well

the master at work

I pottered around a bit - had to dust/wash down the window frame before J painted it, and this then led me to washing the window - wet newspapers are incredibly effective. Which then led me to washing the windows in the top big room - as there were lots of streaks left over from the bees (which incidentally are back)

see those streaks - and the butcher shop on the corner

Whilst looking out the window I noticed a new red Porsche drive by, and then another, and another. At this stage I alerted Justin who corrected me - as they were actually Ferraris. (red sports cars all look alike to me!)

In the end there were 5 of them - out for a country jaunt....

Those 5 cars might be worth more than our house?

But enough about cars. I also had to see to the vegie beds, as the weeds were starting to get a grip on the gravel. I had already sprayed them once, but there were now a lot more. So despite my reservation it was out with the Round up again....(but just on the gravel)

My vegie patch is still thriving, and the artichoke is looking great. I better start looking at some recipes for these artichokes, as I'm doing all of this writing about them, and want to enjoy them once I finally eat them

2 x large globes in this photo

I've also got some raspberries forming - and hopefully I'll get to eat them too, not the birds

Happy Raspberries

I mentioned in the last post that the irises out the front were all in bloom, however I had forgotten to take a photo of them. Well I did this weekend, however 2 weeks later, and they were quite faded

to the left

to the right

The poppies are looking good though

beautiful poppy

And I also found some pretty new white flowers (bulbs) which I had obviously planted there ( as most of the plants there are recycled from other parts of the garden, with the exception of lavender from home, and some succulents from Denise & Enzo). I tried researching them on the internet afterwards, and think that they might be some type of Allium or onion flower

My somewhat blurry photo

stock shot from the internet

And of course, once the work was all done, drinks on the veranda given that it was warm sunny day. Steve and Denise dropped by with some nibbles and 2 large bags of flour which David had ground from his own wheat. I plan to make up a lemon cake using Inglewood wheat, Inglewood eggs and Inglewood lemons - but make it in Glen Iris.

Given our extensive nibbles, we didn't feel like much dinner, so J and I shared a parma meal at the pub.

Breakfast was fresh bread baked by me with my lemon marmalade - how domestic!

Also picked up a brochure about the upcoming Inglewood Alive fair - set for 1st December. This will be a Town Garage sale, but also have food and wine tasting classic cars etc.