Pen pals and rugs October 12 & 13 2013

Another solo trip in the ute, this time with a couple of bargain rugs strapped up in the back. I forgot to take a photo of them, so will have to wait til next time

It was a beautiful sunny day, unlike when I was there last with Helen and the kids.  Given that my email pen-pal Michael, his wife Michelle, and daughter Genevieve from the Gold Coast were in town for a week or so including this weekend I decided to pay them a visit before putting on my work clothes.

To be neighborly, I took them a bottle of local wine, which was coincidentally swapped for a bottle of bubbles which Michael gave to me.

Anyway, they showed me around and I was gob-smacked at the amount of work they had achieved in just a few days, false ceilings  and inappropriate 60s cupboards removed - a vast improvement.  Makes me think that we haven't done much at all.  I also thought it would be neighborly to ask them around for pre dinner drinks on the veranda, given that it was such lovely warm weather, but I also had an slight ulterior motive, and that was for Michael to help me take the rugs out of the ute and into the house.

Michael came around  a little bit later, and ended up hefting them out by himself, luckily he doesn't have a bad back!  We just left them in the hallway, as I had thought the smaller one could go in the upstairs hallway, but it won't fit, due to those archways.  So then I thought that the rug in the study could go in the hallway, and the new rug in the study etc.  But Justin likes a major say in decorating, and I didn't want to make these moves only for him to cock his head, say hmmm, and why don't we try it this way...

Now, as I've been saying it was lovely warm weather, definitely overall, not boilersuit work attire required. But with the warm weather came those pesky Inglewood flies.  So I was thrilled to try out one of my new hat fly nettings.  The only thing was, depth perception and general vision were somewhat impaired, which is not a good thing when working with sharp tools like secateurs.

selfie with fly netting

 
Yep, I'd got the secateurs out to trim the brown yucca fronds as they looked a bit untidy

yucca before shot

Yucca after shot

Trimmed yuccas

 And speaking of untidy, the grass was getting rather long and unruly, as it was at least ankle deep.  Gordon dropped in on the Sunday, and said he would get onto it as soon as he could.  We don't want too many snakes in the garden.  Blue tongue lizards and skinks can stay.

However apart from the grass, the rest of the growth was welcomed. The raspberries are going mad, I can't even count how may canes there are, the new growth is so lush and thick.  Alas no photos!

I spied and ate a couple of ripe strawberries - granted the smaller wild ones

1st ripe strawberry of the season

Some unknown flowers are emerging

mystery flower #1

mystery flower #2

The cherry tree is looking bounteous - I guess it's a bit hard to identify the cherries in the below photo, but there are lots of them there

And some of the poppies are irises are now in bloom out the front

Irises

poppies

After the fun of hacking into those yuccas, I also got the pruning saw out and cut  various dead branches off numerous shrubs/trees

Buddleia before shot with dead branches

Buddleia after shot 

I made an interesting (gruesome) discovery also.  When I arrived there was a drying fledgling on the front path, which I moved into the garden bed.  And when I looked out of the bee room window, I saw another dead fledgling stuck up high at my eye level in the jacaranda branches.  There was no nest above, Michael later suggested that a butcher bird may have thrown it there to keep as a snack for later.  Well, it is the country, no sentimentalising death here.  Unfortunately, it's hard to see the bird, and given that this isn't Powerpoint, I don't know how to insert a coloured circle to highlight the bird.  FYI, it's just about in the middle of the photo

Michael and family walked over for drinks just before 6pm.  I gave them the grand tour, and Michael pointed out that the bee room (upstairs large room) had never been painted.  We had been wondering about that, or whether there had originally been wallpaper.  He noticed that there were still the worker's pencil marks at the circumference of the ceiling rose.  Uncanny, we assume they had run out of money??  But, never to have been painted in 130 years, surely that must be some type of record.

Anyway, once the tour was complete, the pre dinner drinks began, and continued long into the night.  We all talked companionably and comfortably, and I look forward to when they move here full time.  Darkness settled in, so I brought out the candles and battery lamps.  We wound up at the surprising time of 10pm, at which time I didn't feel like my left over dinner anymore, given the chips, biscuits and olives that we'd had.  4 hour drinks must be some sort of record.  After they left, I made up some bread for the bread machine and then watched a couple of best of Antiques Road show which Michelle had loaned me.  Addictive stuff!

Genevieve, Michael, Michelle #1

Genevieve, Michael, Michelle  #2

Genevieve, Michael, Michelle #3

Sunday, and given my lack of dinner last night, I thought I'd lash out and have a couple of eggs and my fresh bread for breakfast.  Delicious.  More pottering around the garden, although the weather was decidedly contrary. Sunny in the morning, windy and rainy later, sunny again, and then dark and ominous.

To perk me up for the drive on the way home, I stopped at the Empire for a coffee.  It was lovely, just like being in my old favorite TV show Cheers - "where everyone knows your name" I walked in and there was Enzo of course, with  Andrew N, sitting at the bar chatting with Mandy.  Ron was by the wall, and Chris N came in a little later.  They all said hello, and we chatted about this and that.  I said to Justin afterwards that some days back in Melbourne I might only see/talk to the kids while he's away on circuit.  Here, for just a day and 1/2 I spoke with the 3 Queenslanders, Denise & Steven, Colleen the councillor (bumped into her at the IGA), Gordon, and the 5 people at the pub.  And I got a lot of gardening done.