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| Going for a drive |
Anyway, Penny my step mother in law had given me bags of limes (some thought they were lemons given the yellow skin and flesh) - so we thought we would make up some marmalade in the bread maker.
First we (or rather Mum) finely sliced 500g of fruit, and then had to soak it in water for 3 hours
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| Mum concentrating cutting up the limes/lemon (with some finished marmalade in front) |
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| the kids are interested in the process |
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| chopped, soaking lemon/limes |
Then into the bread machine pan with 500g of sugar and some "jam setta". Not so sure if we needed the jam setta, as I'm assuming that there is enough pectin in the citrus. However, we followed the recipe. Helen did want me to double the quantity, as more could have easily fit in, but I was hesitant, didn't think it would necessarily work. Told her that she could double the quantity in her own bread maker..... she hasn't as yet.
Had to sterilise the jars
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| sterilising those jars |
And here I am ladling the hot jam into the sterilised jars.
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| ladle queen! |
Because it was so easy, compared to cooking in a pot, we made quite a few batches over the 6 days. The quantities were also quite small, ie one batch made 2 jars. Luckily the Op Shop had lots of jars, and Val even came around and dropped off some more small jars as you can see in the above photo, as these were handy for gifts. At last count, I had given away 4 jars (Mum, Helen, Jill, Barb) in Inglewood, and another 2 in Melbourne.(Frank & Penny, Val & George)
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| Will we enter it in the Royal Melbourne Show next year? |
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| Marvellous! |
Quite a tasty by-product of soaking the lemon/limes was the left over lemon/lime water which we added sugar to, and therefore had a nice cordial. Rather nice with soda water
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| Cordial & story time |
And of course we also made bread. Helen had seen that the IGA sold various types of Laucke bread mix, and so we made up some Gluten Free bread for Helen which she thought was pretty good, and also the below Sourdough etc
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| Sour dough Rye mixture |
It was marvellous to be able to eat some freshly baked bread with home made marmalade for breakfast
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| Ta - da! |
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| Michaela enjoying fresh bread and marmalade |
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| Xavier following a standing ovation for breakfast |
Another food first were duck eggs. Diane was selling both these and turkey eggs. I bought 1/2 a dozen duck eggs and had planned to buy some turkey eggs later - but never got around to it. We had the duck eggs hard boiled - with some of my fresh bread. The yolks were brilliant yellow/orange and larger than chicken egg yolks. Delicious!
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| duck eggs |
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| see how big these duck eggs are |
While in Inglewood this time, the Op Shop, was a very popular destination for Michaela. She loved walking up there and having a fossick around. Her first visit was very successful, as Mum bought her a baby doll which she loved carrying around and playing with.
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| Michaela and talking dolly |
She was in the kitchen with me, and had leant on the doll, when it spoke "Tickle me Mommy, he he he" It gave us quite a surprise, and we tried to make her talk again, but to no avail. It was very strange. I eventually worked it out - that you had to squeeze it's left foot - and then it would talk. Unfortunately we must have done this too often, it stopped working by the end of our stay. Flat batteries?
The kids also loved looking at, and feeding David's chickens on the main street. One day I had gathered up a lot of snails (by product of weeding) and we took them to the chickens - only to be told by David that chickens won't eat snails. Oh well. They did love eating weeds, and we had plenty of them!
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| feeding the chooks |
So yes, of course I did more weeding. This time in the front - as the calendulas were taking over, and my poor roses, and some other plants in that front bed, were being smothered
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| before shot - Calendulas |
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| after shot - clear! |
I was also rather pleased with the vegetable patch, as everything was looking good - and I even spied an artichoke heart when I separated some of the leaves
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| how exciting - my 1st artichoke heart |
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| good looking vegie patch - with Justin's straight bricks |
However, my pumpkins in the cellar were not so pictureseque. Remember, the cellar flooded with hot water in mid July - so we almost had pumpkin soup and hot toddy wine. I thought the pumpkins on the higher shelves were ok, but had to throw away a couple of rotten ones which had been water effected
Anyway, I had a peek in the cellar, and there were another 4 rather sad looking collapsed pumpkins. Actually they looked rather revolting. I had to scoop them up into old ice cream containers - as they would have oozed through my fingers. I chucked them in one corner of the back garden - so maybe we'll get another crop of pumpkins there
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| sad, collapsed, revolting pumpkins |
Gordon also came and mowed the grass ( it was getting a bit long after the rain)
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| Gordon on his ride on mower |
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| Like mother like son |
And,as you can see in the background, we have some new chairs which Justin scored on ebay. Mum and I brought them up in the ute, after Justin had lashed them down very carefully
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| 1920's chairs #1? |
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| 1920's chairs #2? |
On the Friday, I also drove into Bridgewater and bought some more mulch - they shovelled it into the back of the Ute with a digger - took no time at all. It obviously took longer for me to manually shovel it out in the back garden. Unfortunately in the rain - as I didn't want the ute to potentially get bogged in the garden. Got a bit wet and cold, but came back and warmed up in front of the fire
Also drove up to Kingower with Hellie to buy another couple of cases of their excellent cleanskin shiraz (one for us and one for Mark & Karen)
Had a key cutting saga at the IGA. Mum and Helen have keys to the front door so that they can come up by themselves if they'd like to. Anyway, Helen's worked sometimes, and Mum's didn't work at all. So we went back to the IGA as they had originally been cut there, and to see if they could be "tweaked". After 4 visits, and numerous alternative shaped keys cut - there was still no success - so we decided to leave it until next time. Quite frustrating for all involved. Apparently those coloured aluminium keys play up sometimes, and they didn't have the regular shaped key, hence all the problems ie some of the new keys fit in the lock, but didn't turn, other new keys didn't fit in the lock at all - ie were too thick etc. They all had to be thrown away.
And, there was also time to relax, a few picnics in our Winter house. Many games of scrabble with Mum, a visit to Melvilles Caves, dinner at the Pub etc.
Mum had also spied a notice at the IGA about scrabble and card games at the Bridgewater Memorial Hall on the last Friday of the month at 7.30pm - and yes, she wanted to go. So, being a good dutiful daughter off we went. Well, we went, but nobody else did...The hall was in darkness, and all locked up,we stayed for a while in case they were running late, and I also ducked into the pub to see if anyone there knew anything. Nothing. Mum took down the contact phone number the next day, but we never got around to ringing them up to find out what happened. We assumed that it must have been an old notice - and that no one had come to take it down. At least we only had to drive 7km...
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| Winter house picnic |
And speaking of the pub, we went there quite a few times. For morning coffees a few times, for dinner once, and also to watch tv a couple of times. Yes, Mum wanted to see the finale of the Farmer wants a wife, so I asked Enzo if he'd mind if we came and watched the tv there at 8.30, buying some drinks of course. His first reaction was to offer me a tv - once again how generous! But I declined, much to my kid's chagrin when I told them about this later. So Mum and I came and watched FWAW on the Wednesday night (actually I read the paper and looked up occasionally), and then Helen and I returned on Thursday night to watch Rake. Both times, the dining room was pretty much empty, so it was quite private for us although there were still a few people in the bar
On Sunday, the Town Hall was open as the plans for the proposed Hub were on display
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| one of the proposed plans |
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| proposed floor plan |
Of course, we all went along, and saw lots of people we knew ie Denise from Inglewood Emporium, Jill from Bendigo Bank/Old Loddon Wines, (incidentally she has sadly closed the winery down), other Jill from Passing Clouds, Kevin, Don etc
Also met a couple of new people :- Murray - the Community representative, and Tim the Loddon shire representative. Murray knew who I was, or rather that we had the Tivey house, so we chatted a bit about that also.
Had a look through the rest of the Town Hall also - saw the old projection room upstairs, a board room, the kitchen etc .
Michaela and Xavier enjoyed "performing" up on stage
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| Treading the boards #1 |
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| Treading the boards #2 |
I think that the Hub is a good idea, - ie to breathe new life into the Town Hall, much like what we are trying to do with Nimmitabel. Justin is less keen, he doesn't like the look of the new annex, thinks it would probably be pulled down again in a decade or so, much like the Melbourne Exhibition buildings.
Anyway, we had some lunch there - another free Lion's Club BBQ in the grassed area, and then back to look at the displayed plans again. Murray and Tim were asking what we had done in the house so far, so I invited them for a "tour" a few other people came and had a look also...
And then onto the local Anglican Church to hear the Cooma Men's choir. Helen and kids had left by this stage, but Mum was keen to come along. Once again saw some familar faces, Val, Peter Moore from IGA, Kevin etc
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| Cooma Men's Choir |
Was very enjoyable, and there was a lovely afternoon tea afterwards. The church windows were also beautiful, and we were told had originally come from an old Church in Clifton Hill.
In a couple of weeks the Mikado will be performed (or maybe just sang there). Justin might be interested in that
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