Inglewood Alive Dec 7 & 8 2013

What a glorious day Saturday was for the 2nd Inglewood Alive Festival.  Justin & I arrived around 10.30am and couldn't even get a car spot at the front of our place so had to drive around the back and parked in the back garden.

no available parking outside our place

Inglewood Alive program

There were events on at the Town Hall :- a Magic show and a photography exhibition.  There were also pony rides outside the Town Hall as well as face painting and horse & cart rides.

Further along there were the now familiar mystery steam engines

outside the steam engine display

steam engine light

On to the main street, and there were various stalls and the other side of Verdon Street was blocked off with a brass band, vintage motor bikes, CFA open house  and the very popular wood chop

Blocked off Verdon Street with horse and cart in the background

vintage motor bikes

Inglewood Fire station (photo from the internet)

brass band

in preparation for the wood chop

 At the Melbourne end of Brooke Street there were vintage cars and a rock and roll dancing display

vintage cars

rock and roll dancing

Inglewood fire station

But my favourite has got to be the wood chop.  I guess I first saw it at the Royal Melbourne Show 4 or 5 years ago and was immediately taken.  Now I've seen it at the Rheola Show a couple of times and also at the Blue Eucy Festival.  Maybe this now qualifies me as a wood chop groupie although I don't play favorites with the actual wood choppers.

The had different sorts of events - the classic 3 man time trial with handicaps.  Which the same bloke seemed to keep winning even though they lengthened his handicap. It was obviously very strenuous, also as although it only took a few minutes they were certainly puffing at the end of it.

wood chop #1

wood chop #2

wood chop #3

 wood chop #4

There was a new type of chop (for me) where they had to scale the pole with a couple of planks and then chop the top off.   He accomplished this by cutting in a small notch about 1m off the ground and then putting one of the planks in it as a platform, climbing up onto it and hauling the other one up after him.  He then cut another notch in the pole a bit higher up and so he climbed...

notch for the 1st level

on the 1st level and preparing the 2nd level

on the 2nd level now

on the top level and looking a little precarious #1

on the top level and looking a little precarious #2

The choppers also had an 11 year old son/nephew with them (they're all related).  He did a chop by himself but under his Dad's supervision.  It's amazing how these guys all just wear Dunlop volley shoes and their axes are incredibly sharp.  No accidents though.

11 year old chopping #1

11 year old chopping #2

To mix things up a bit they also did a chain saw carving.  Turned out to be a little chair

chain saw carving

 And the last event was the 11 year old in a time trial against his uncle.  The Uncle had a huge handicap of 50 (seconds?) further lengthened by the commentator initially counting rather slowly and then stopping the count at the end and just chatting a bit.  Suffice to say the 11 year old won.

11 year old vs his uncle

We wandered around in the morning went home for some lunch and I went back primarily for the wood chop and also to have another chat with Denise and Steven.

Did a bit of watering in the late afternoon as it was quite warm had a quick dinner and then off to Kingower for a Fire talk followed by the film Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

one of the brochures we received

Fried Green Tomatoes poster (from the Internet)

The Fire talk was very interesting, and reminds you how important it is to have a proper plan in place in case there is a Code Red day, and the decision has to be made whether to stay or leave.

On Sunday, the overalls were donned again, Justin gave the upstairs red room window frame another coat of paint

caught in the act

from the outside looking in

And I pulled out dead pea plants and calendula, and fed them into the mulcher - killing 2 birds with one stone.

a small pile of mulch that I created

 But I presumably wasn't using it correctly, as it kept blocking up, so I had to open it, clear it and start again, made it slow and dusty work!

I was also pleased to see that some tiny lemons  had formed on the lemon tree that Cheryl had given me from her garden in Glen Iris.  Maybe just maybe they'll mature to ripeness

some hopeful lemons

Pedalling to Kingower Nov 30 - Dec 1 2013

I can't believe it, but the weeding is pretty much all done... In the garden beds that is.  I guess mulching really does work.  Sure I did a little bit of weeding, but no back and nail breaking stuff, and it was just really spot weeding as opposed to wholesale clearance.  And sure, there are still weeds in the grass, but I'm  not too bothered by those.

The cherries are also ripening quite nicely, and strangely have not been picked off by the birds yet

delicious cherries

I know they're quite small, but they're tasty, and my yield has increased substantially.  The first Summer I harvested 6 cherries, last year there were none, as they all dried up and dropped off, while this year, I picked 20!  I thought it safer to pick them this week, rather than let them ripen a bit longer and run the risk of being eaten by birds.

bountiful yield

I also ate an almost ripe raspberry, yes it was red, but was still a bit tart.

1  x ripe raspberry

Did my customary promenade up Brooke Street.  Ran into Nicole, so stopped for a chat.  Saw Denise and Steven, enquired about a Christmas Turducken at Inglewood Aged Beef, and was asked if we might open the house for the Inglewood Alive festival next weekend while visiting the supermarket.  This was rather surprising, I wasn't sure what to say to that.  Maybe next time.  Another suggestion was that we have an announcer from ABC radio - Bendigo do a live broadcast from our veranda when they start doing up the Town Hall.  Very interesting.....

On the way back to the house I passed a well dressed couple sitting at the picnic table having an early lunch,  I congratulated them on their civilised looking picnic (I consider myself some thing of a picnic connossieur) and they told me that they were waiting on friends who hadn't shown up.  They then offered me a Boston bun, I declined, but they insisted, as they had a LOT.  They ended up giving me a whole packet, and told me they were Jehovah's Witnesses out touring the country. No conversions were attempted.

freebie Boston Buns

One job that I didn't finish last time was picking up and throwing out the broken glass from the a painting that had fallen off the wall.  It was one of the paintings that I had bought at Joels, and I must confess I had  always thought was a just a print.  But I saw once the glass was off that it was actually a painting as there were brush strokes and globs of paint.  Justin already knew this - old art student that he was.

Broken picture glass

 
Anyway, had a sandwich for lunch, pottered around in the garden, and then thought that I would ride one of the bikes up to Kingower for a lark.  I didn't want to use the one that I had repaired about 5 punctures on from the dreaded bindis.  Because who knows maybe I didn't fix it properly, and I didn't want to get 1/2 way there and then have to wheel the bike back.  Truth be told if  this had happened I would have called someone and asked nicely if they could come and give me a lift back.  So, I pumped up the tyres on  my old road bike, but unfortunately didn't raise the seat.

Now, I always thought that the 10 km or so to Kingower was a straight, flat road.  And so it seems zooming along at up to 100kph in the car.  However on a bike you  are painfully aware of the long gradual inclines, and then the steeper shorter hills.  And it was about 12 km according to my sports-tracker on my mobile.

Google maps - Nimmitabel to Blanche Barkly, Kingower

I knew that Justin wasn't keen on the idea of riding to Kingower because  of trucks thundering down the road sometimes.  But I was careful, didn't wear headphones, and carefully pulled over into the gravel when I heard a car approaching.

I must admit, the slight inclines were a shocker, especially as it was a warm day, bright sun, no water, and a seat too low for my legs.  I soldiered on, and was thrilled once I eventually reached Kingower.  I thought I would go and visit David and Arlene at Blanche Barkly and hopefully score a glass of water

made it

Blanche Barkly Winery

The door to the winery was closed, so I wandered around to the side, and found them sitting under their pergola - enjoying some bubbles. They had just come back from America the day before, so were enjoying themselves.  I was given some iced water, and then shared some red with them  afterwards.  All very good, but I still had to cycle home

David & Arlene

I left around 5.30, and yes the ride back was slightly better, more down hill bits, so more coasting

view back to Kingower

view back to Inglewood

Got back home round 6.20, and so buckled down and did some much needed watering

watering the vegie garden

Then, up to the veranda to relax and read the papers and sip on a G&T, just lovely.  Damien and Nicole drove by and called out hello, so I beckoned them up for a chat and a quick drink.  I told them how I had ridden to Kingower.  Nicole had seen, but not recognised me, and thought the poor cyclist was struggling/going slowly.  I said that I was out for a leisurely, not a fast ride, and that the seat was too low for me.  Was I protesting too much?

The weather wasn't as beautiful on Sunday as Saturday.  It was somewhat overcast, and pretty hot, which made working in the garden a bit off-putting.  I did potter around in the morning, a lot more watering, front and back, and also general tidying up of dead branches etc  

plum tree with dead branches 

dead branches sawn off

plum tree without dead branches

I also wanted to take some photos of the study/garden room, because although we haven't done anything  significant renovation ie fixing up the plaster.  We did have the windows fixed, and have furnished the room, so before and after shots are quite different

before shot of the study/garden room

after shot of study/garden room #1

after shot of study/garden room #2

after shot of study/garden room #3 (had the boarded up window)

after shot of study/garden room #4

Burnoff November 16-18 2013

Not too much to report for this visit, arrived late on the Saturday, as I had helped out at Michaela's 6th birthday - which was a combined mermaid/pirate party.

Michaela's party #1

Michaela's party #2

Michaela's party #3

Anyway, got to Inglewood around 6.30pm, toured the garden and was pleased to see more lupins out - different colours

The mulberries were also looking mighty fine, with lots of new low growth, I'm looking forward to a bumper crop this year.

lush mulberrry tree

And the cherries are also ripening.. The 1st year I harvested 6 edible cherries.  Last year there were none, as they all dried up due to lack of water. This year I might have a dozen if I'm lucky.  One of these days we'll have to put in a watering system...

look at those ripening cherries

I then watered the "orchard" and the citrus trees, as they were looking a bit thirsty.  Given that it was such a lovely evening, I repaired to the veranda with a glass of wine, some nibbles, and the Saturday Age.  Very pleasant.  I didn't bother with dinner as I'd been picking at the party food earlier too.  So to bed relatively early to watch an episode from the last season of the Wire.  It's getting pretty exciting!

Sunday dawned bright and sunny.  No surprise there.  Tootled around in the garden.  Bought some stakes for the olive trees as they were bending in the wind, and needed further support.

supported olives

Mucked around with the yuccas, watered and weeded around them.  A bloke called to me from the back gate, as he was interested in the house, and was asking me questions about it.  He told me that his friends  had walked into the garden under the hoop pine to look around, which we agreed was rather cheeky to do.  He also asked me about the fire out the back, and whether it was a regulated burn or something out of control.

This surprised me, as I had been so engrossed in my gardening that I hadn't noticed the large plume of smoke out over the scrub behind the IGA.

DSE burnoff

 

Of course I went to investigate, not too close of course, and eventually found out that it was a planned burnoff  by the DSE as per the notice put up on the IGA notice board.  Luckily it wasn't a windy day, but on the other hand the smoke hung around, and got in the house making everything smell smoky.

DSE notice

Another solo rendevous on the veranda, this time with a G&T before dinner, and then the last 2 episodes of the Wire.  I think I'll have to watch it all over again one of these days, as there are so many strands and so many characters to keep track of.

Monday morning, and I did some experimental cooking.  I had read that you can eat artichoke stalks, as they taste like the heart.  So I made up 4 jars.  we'll see what they taste like in a few weeks. I had also given myself another day at Inglewood, as I would have felt cheated leaving on the Sunday after only arriving on Saturday evening.

Pickled artichoke stalks

I also thinned out the vegie patch, cut back the brocolli and rocket, and collected the seeds from these, and the lettuce and red hot poker - making my very own Inglewood seed banks!

vegie patch pre thinning #1

vegie patch pre thinning #2

rocket seeds

lettuce seeds

brocolli seeds

red hot poker seeds

I sowed some further vegie seeds in the now cleared space  - more rocket, spinach, beans etc.  And I cleared out the new bed that I had made opposite from the vegie bed, next to the wood shed. There was a lot of couch grass that I had to dig out, and that was quite tough.  Then I dug through some horse manure, planted some more raspberries there, and also put in some pumpkin and cucumber seeds.  And finally covered it with mulch.

horse manure in preparation for the unweeded bed behind

    


Went and visited Steven and Denise around 11, and Denise and I went off to have a coffee at the Empire, so had a chat with Enzo as well.  He offered us shot, by this stage it was about 11.45.  Denise initially said no, but I surprised her and Enzo by saying yes, as after all it was my birthday (the previous Wednesday) so I could still celebrate.  Enzo made the 3 of us a Monkey punch - kahlua, creme de menthe and Tia maria.  Rather nice.  He then told us about a new honey whisky and gave us a taste of that too.  Woo hoo, we stopped there, as I was driving back to Melbourne later that afternoon.

  

Stock shot of a shot (my phone camera was full by
this stage and I couldn't take any more photos