What an action packed 4 days ! And, I only wore my overalls once for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon - out in the garden of course. I didn't have the time, nor I must admit the inclination to don them again.
Anyway, first things first, a compulsory inspection of the garden :- some of those lupins have finally flowered
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lupins - grown from seed from
Catherine & Barry @ Fusspots |
And Justin got out the whipper snipper and trimmed around the yuccas
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| whippersnipper man |
We also worked out where to put those rugs that I'd brought up a few weeks ago. The larger one went in the "dormitory" and we got Fraser to sweep up in there first (more dead bees and lots of dust)
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| boys at work in the "dormitory" |
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| Basil & the new rug |
And the smaller one went in the study
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| what to do? |
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| rearranging artifacts |
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| new rug in the study |
Fraser also played with Basil in the study, he had posed a scene with the toy monkey putting a friendly paw around Basil, but I missed the shot, so had to make do with these
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| Basil not cooperating with the photographer |
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| Fraser trying to rearrange the scene |
Justin also hung some of those pictures that we'd brought up, but I forgot to take photos of these.
On Saturday night Justin, Fraser and I went to Damien's 40th up at the Kingower school house. The "usual suspects" were there :- Maile & David, Arlene & David, June, Terry, Jan & Geoff, Chrissie & Mark etc.
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| Damien - the birthday boy #1 |
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| Damien - the birthday boy #2 |
Fraser thinks it's uncanny how much Damien looks like Justin - it's the colouring more than anything, salt and ginger red hair, beard, a red head's pale skin. Of course Damien is also 10 years younger, and doesn't wear glasses.
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| Justin at the party |
Unlike the last party back in June where it was bitterly cold, the weather was much kinder. In fact we started off in t-shirts, and only resorted to one jacket.
This time the band was 2 Fat bastards (but they were missing one and had a ring in?) Despite this for 3 blokes, they had a good sound which Justin later congratulated them on.
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| watching the band |
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| watching the band #2 |
But, apart from celebrating Damien's birthday festivities, I had an ulterior motive, and that was to liaise with David from Blanche Barkly to invite us over for a coffee on Monday. I had already spoken to him about this last week, and he said he was "up for a conspiracy" The "conspiracy" was to get Justin out of the house as I had organised a surprise 50th birthday "party" for him. And that was the other reason for me coming up last week. My public reason was to tidy up for the bus tour, my real reason was to tidy up for the party, and transport a trestle table, additional glasses, party stuff, & small fridge up in preparation - as I didn't want to arouse Justin's suspicions by bringing this stuff up this week.
Anyway, while Justin was away getting a drink, David checked with me as to what time I wanted Justin out of the house, and then casually wove his invitation into the conversation when Justin returned. It was priceless, although Fraser later told me that he was laughing into his drink, during this. So, going just as planned.
Damien's family had produced a lovely slide show for him - amongst other things concentrating on his many varied hairstyles over the years. Who would have known he used to have dreadlocks? It made me think that I should have done something like that for Justin, but I was busy enough with organising the surprise, and keeping it a surprise. In fact, it was nearly cancelled when Justin told me that he would probably have to work on Monday (before Cup Day, his actual birthday) I of course had to look unperturbed by that, but internally I was furiously working out other possibilities, have him commute and return for Monday night, have it in town, or cancel it. Sarah had suggested that if need be we have it without him, and just connect via skype! Anyway, good sense prevailed, Justin didn't have to work, and the plans continued.
The (Bendigo) National trust bus tour was organised for Sunday afternoon, however Gary had invited Justin and I to come along to the crystal mine in the morning as they had a couple of spare seats. I accepted immediately, Justin graciously declined as he had work to do. Gary came and picked me up in the bus around 10, and then off to the mine. Maile had told me about this crystal mine, and I was keen to see it. It was about 15 minutes past Melvilles Caves, down a potholed, unmade road. Then we had to walk a little way. The mine itself seemed quite small, and was filled with brackish water
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| crystal mine |
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| It's a tough life for a gum tree above the crystal mine |
Gary, and another bloke from the National Trust - Darren gave us a potted history ie they used to mine it in the 1940s for crystals for crystal radio sets. They also showed us some crystal specimens that they had found in the area including a dark/smoky crystal which had been in contact with radioactivity for XXX years and so turned it dark! We were invited to fossick around and look for crystals, I found some nice little pieces of quartz, including some with mica, but nothing to pay for the renovation!
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| Gathering around the mine |
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| slag heap of quartz |
There were also some nice wild flowers - lots of yellow paper daisies, and a purple native orchid
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| native orchid |
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| paper daisies |
Back to Inglewood before lunch time, and tour reconvened at our place at 2pm. There were 28 people, so we had 2 x tours of 14 or so people. I thought that Darren was going to lead the tour, and that I would tag along as an interested observer/proud house owner, but I ended up leading the pack, spouting forth all sorts of guff, and answering numerous questions (when I could). I must admit I enjoyed it, and would do it again. Some of the National Trust people were very interested in the colour schemes, saying that the small room upstairs would probably have the original paintwork and wallpaper. Blue trim on the window sill, and blue/yellow flowers on the wallpaper. Darren told us that his father used to deliver groceries to the house in the early 1980s, but always via the back door. Darren sometimes accompanied him, and he said that even then there was an air of neglect with waist high weeds!
I started some serious (party) cooking after the tour left, and did some more on Monday morning. Luckily Justin was doing some work, and not that interested in coming to the kitchen. Fraser also helped out by taking Justin across the road to play hockey. Justin said later that he was a little suspicious of this...
Anyway, I made up savoury apple sauce for the birthday roast pork rack, and sweet stewed apples for breakfast, a quadruple amount of chocolate mousse (16 eggs!), made jelly & custard for the trifles, a huge serve of red dip, a huge serve of olive dip, and 2 x garlic rosemary loaves of bread. And I'd like to point out that all is not lost if you get a little bit of egg yolk in your egg whites - as if you remove it carefully, the egg whites still whip up beautifully.
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| sweet and savoury apples |
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| one complete chocolate mousse in background, and one in the making |
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| whipping up those egge whites |
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| 16 x eggs |
I also had to make sure that I only used one x electric heating utensil at a time, as I didn't want to short the wiring. And, given that I didn't want Justin to be suspicious, I washed and put away the cooking dishes as I went, and "hid" suspicious packaging/rubbish under "normal/expected" rubbish. I was trying to leave nothing to chance, although would Justin have noticed anyway? I also had to hide all of this food somewhere. Luckily, my QLD/Inglewood friends let me use their empty fridge, so I carted the mousses (somehow that plural doesn't sound right), the jelly, custard, and vegies for the BBQ over there. Didn't tell Justin I was going. just went! Upon my return he obviously knew that I had been out, but I just said that I'd gone for a drive (had spoken about going for a drive the night before, so I hoped that the seed had been planted)
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| jelly and other goodies on the way to Boorung Road |
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| capsicum, red onion and asparagus for the BBQ |
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| 2 x mousses, and jelly/custard in the fridge |
We had some further visitors on Sunday afternoon/evening - a relative of a woman who had married into the Tivey family, (perhaps that old photo that we have), and he was also related to Charlie Catto who used to own Michael & Michelle's house, and also Peter Walsh - our current Water minister, a very well connected man. He said that his mother would have some stories about the house, so we look forward to a return visit.
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| Old Tivey wedding |
Well, we were captivated by these visitors, and chatted with them for quite a while, too long as it turned out. I had put some pies in the electric frying pan earlier, and they were rather burnt by the time I returned to them. Unfortunately they could not be revived, so they were (reluctantly by me) dumped, and Justin and Fraser went in search of some quick take away for dinner.
I took a while to fall asleep on Sunday night, ridiculous, I know, but I was excited about the upcoming surprise, and hoped it would all work out. Brought Justin breakfast in bed, in fact I had also given him breakfast in bed on Saturday and Sunday as part of his birthday long weekend spoiling, visited Michael's place again this morning to assemble the trifles, and relaxed - reading the Sunday paper. As I said earlier, I didn't put on my overalls again this weekend!
We left for Kingower around 1.30, as our visitor last night had told us about an old manor house in Kingower past the cricket ground, and Terry had tol us about the Church getting a new roof. We decided to check out both. Saw a sign for Glenalbyn Winery - but I questioned whether it was still a going concern (David told us later that it wasn't). Came across some large (new) brick gate posts presumably leading up to the Glenalbyn Manor, with the house and so other buildings in the distance. Given the lack of signage, we assumed that it was now a private residence.
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| Glenalbyn Manor (photo from web) |
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| more paper daisies on the way to Glenalbyn Manor #1 |
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more paper daisies on the way to Glenalbyn Manor #2
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When we arrived at the Church there were a couple of workmen on the roof, wearing safety harnesses I was pleased to see
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| St Mary's Church Kingower #1 |
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| St Mary's Church Kingower #2 |
They were also installing new lining boards underneath the roof
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| St Marys Lining boards #1 |
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| St Marys Lining boards #2 |
Arrived at David & Arlene's lovely stone house at 2pm. David showed us around, as Arlene had gone into Bendigo. We were very impressed by the artisan stone work, and the lovely timbers used throughout. Chatted for a while, and David invited us to try out a new Italian grape wine that they were developing, a lighter more afternoon type red. We had it with some cheese and biscuits, and some home cured olives (very good). Madeleine texted me just before 3pm saying that she was at the house and asking where we were. We had tricked Justin into thinking that she was catching the train to Bendigo and then the bus to Inglewood, as she had some things on in Melbourne on the Saturday and Sunday. In reality, Sarah was picking her up on Monday morning and driving her up to Inglewood.
We made our goodbyes soon after this, and David gave us a cold bottle of Passing Clouds Sparkling wine "in case we had something to celebrate".
Approaching the house I was getting very excited. Luckily as per my instructions, no one had parked out the front. Saw some people by the Town Hall, but didn't pay them too much attention. turned out they were Penny, Gavin & kids who darted back to hide when they realised it was us. They had been just about to cross the road and go in the house, however Penny had called Alex to check what car we were driving, realised it was us, and ran back to hide.
Went in the house and all was quiet, the dining room door uncharacteristically closed. Justin was carrying the cold wine, and wanted to put it in the fridge. Had to walk around the car fridge which was (against orders) in the kitchen, and was thwarted by a strangely full kitchen fridge. There was now no room for our Passing Clouds bottle. This caused him to swear loudly, meanwhile I was calling to him that Fraser wanted to see him in the dining room, and to forget about the bottle.
Finally, the moment of truth, he opened the door and ....
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| Surprise!! |
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| Surprise #2 |
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| Surprise #3 |
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| Post surprise |
festive chaos ensued...Streamers, balloons, party poppers, whistles, and lots and lots of family wishing Justin a very happy birthday.
Unfortunately for me, Justin's training as a barrister not to be surprised at anything equipped him with a botox/poker face incapable of surprise. But on the inside he was screaming OMG!!! and extremely surprised, or at least that's what I'd like to think. Anyway, he was pleased, and everyone was happy.
Me being organised, I wanted to make sure everyone had their bedrooms sorted (before dark). Alex & Prue were downstairs, Nin & Clare in the unpainted room, Gavin & Penny in the red room, Sarah in the study, Fraser & Rory on the camp beds in small room #1, Madeleine & April on the green sofa bed in small room #2, and Cesci, Charlie, Martin & Amber in the dormitory. Jan & Peter, Frank & Penny stayed at the motel. All up, we were 17 in the house overnight, one more even than the original Tivey family with 14 children, and 2 parents. I was very impressed that we were able to accommodate so many, although it was only one night. I also had to set up the dining room to accommodate 21 diners. I had already done a chair audit last week, and had enough inside chairs, but I needed the 2 additional trestle tables.
I had organised drinks and nibbles for 5pm in the garden. Everyone had brought a nice cheese, a bottle of sparkling wine, and a bottle of still wine. Of course we commenced with the sparkling, as it was a celebration after all. And the weather was glorious, warm and sunny, and practically no wind.
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| Drinks and nibbles #1 |
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| Drinks and nibbles #2 |
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| Drinks and nibbles #3 |
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| Drinks and nibbles #4 |
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| Drinks and nibbles #5 |
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| Drinks and nibbles #6 |
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| Drinks and nibbles #7 |
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| Drinks and nibbles #8 |
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| Drinks and nibbles #9 |
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| here's looking at you drinks and nbbles #10 |
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| Drinks and nibbles #11 |
Nin very kindly agreed to be my BBQ chef, so he cooked up the 2 dozen sausages and the chopped vegies. I wondered if Justin wondered if that was all that we were having for dinner, as there was no sign of anything else. That is, not until James and Pat showed up holding numerous trays aloft. Yep, the fabulous Inglewood butchers back again saving me time and hassle. I had ordered a huge rack of pork, and enough potatoes and pumpkin for 20 people.
Once again they were terrifically on time, just before 7pm. I was very impressed. and the pork was fantastic (as always). Gavin said it was the best pork he had ever eaten.
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| Dinner for 21 #1 |
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| Dinner for 21 #2- - Fraser |
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| Dinner for 21 #3 :- Martin & Mad |
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| Dinner for 21 #4 - the civilized end of the table |
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| Dinner for 21 # 5 :- kids getting a bit silly now |
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| Dinner for 21 #6 - the civilised end again by candle light |
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| Dinner for 21 #7 - the civilised end again by candle light |
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| Dinner for 21 #8 - back to the kids being silly |
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| Dinner for 21 #9 - back to the kids being silly |
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| Dinner for 21 #10 - back to the kids being silly |
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| Dinner for 21 #11 |
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| Dinner for 21 #12 |
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| Dinner for 21 #13 |
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| Dinner for 21 #14 |
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| Just the adults left now |
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| and the celebrations are continuing |
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| before dessert I'm assuming |
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| the birthday boy is amused |
The kids disappeared upstairs to ostentibly go to bed, but not sleep......
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| kids by torch light |
Anyway, a fabulous night , and my fabulous brothers and sisters in law helped clear up and wash the dishes etc - making true the maxim many hands make light work. I must admit that I "cheated" with disposable plates/bowls, but wanted proper glass glasses for both adults and kids.
Tuesday, Melbourne Cup Day, and Justin's actual birthday. I had told everyone to get up when they wanted and to therefore make their breakfast when they wanted, as trying to wrangle 17 people together for breakfast in a timely fashion would be rather difficult. Well, we did in fact all breakfast together. Justin & Gavin did the bacon outside on the BBQ, while I cooked up the 36 x scrambled eggs in 4 or 5 batches in the electric frying pan. As it was another glorious day, we ate outside in the garden
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| starting on those scrambled eggs |
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| scrambled eggs #2 |
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| freshly squeezed orange juice |
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| fresh garden herbs for the eggs |
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| al fresco breaksfast #1 |
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| al fresco breaksfast #2 |
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| al fresco breaksfast #3 |
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| al fresco breaksfast #4 |
After breakfast, some of us went up to Melvilles Caves. Surprisingly, it was Justin's first time there.
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| boulder contemplation |
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| birthday boy |
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| almost birthday boy |
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| lovely view |
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| birthday boy again |
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| lovely view again |
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| wild flowers growing in the rocks |
Got back from Melvilles Caves late morning/early afternoon, as there were pizzas to be made for our birthday lunch. I had made up a couple of batches of pizza dough in the bread machine, and Clare and I assembled them, while Justin cooked them in the pizza oven. Once again Nin was BBQ king cooking up some marinated chicken. We had a late lunch out in the garden again, and I must admit that we didn't even need that 2nd batch of dough, as between the numerous pizzas and the chicken, we had eaten enough.
Last order of the day was to troop down to the pub, and to watch the Melbourne Cup being broadcast on TV. Along the way, I dropped off some rather tasty meal scraps for David's chickens
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| food scraps for the chickens |
The kids had organised a sweep, Alex came first, Prue 2nd and Justin 3rd, with Madeleine bringing up the rear with the wooden spoon.
By this stage it was after 3pm, and there was still some tidying up back at the house to be done. Once again everyone helped, and it was soon done, and apart from the odd festive streamer you couldn't have told that we'd had a surprise party here!
