Kingower Christmas and Mum's birthday 20 &21 December 2014

A relatively full house this weekend.  :- Justin, myself & our kids, Mum, Helen & her kids, and Karen & Mark.

Reason being, it was the annual Kingower Christmas party on the Village Green.  Mum and Helen had come last year and had a ball, and it was also Mum's birthday on the Saturday, so another reason to invite her.

Anyway, we arrived around lunch time.  Helen and Mum had arrived a little earlier, and Mark and Karen came after lunch.

Mark  and I thought we'd be able to move the war tanks as a project this weekend.  They look ugly so close to the house, we thought they would be better up in the far back corner of the garden.  So it was my job to go and see if we could borrow/rent a forklift - either from the supermarket, or else from David - Karen came with me for moral support.  Didn't see Peter at the supermarket, so we went around to David's.  He thought a forklift wouldn't be appropriate.  Suggested a tractor with forks instead.  We asked if we could possibly rent it, but he declined, saying it wasn't available for rental, but said it would be available to help neighbours.  So this was all very good.

Helen, Mum and kids to the pool, around 2.30, and  Karen and I joined them later.  As usual there weren't many people there, so almost had the pool to ourselves.  I swam around a bit.  Michaela joined me briefly in the big pool, whilst Xavier splashed around in the children's pool. Helen, Karen and Mum stayed dry, and Justin joined us a bit later.

Michaela warming herself

Michaela and I

Helen keeping a watch out

hello there

look at us 

nice and cool

Thinking about jumping in

and she's done it

3 wise monkeys

3 wise monkeys and log

 

Got back to the house after the pool, and found that Mark had unattached the overflow pipes and the drainpipes from both tanks.  This made Justin nervous, as he said the tanks would have to be moved and plumbed in immediately - just in case it rained as we wouldn't want 100s of litres of water cascading down the drain pipes and beside the house/into the cellar etc.  We rushed back to David. before his shop closed, and asked if he could possibly come over tomorrow. At this stage I was still gung ho, and thought we could do it all on the Sunday....

Watered the garden a bit, had a shower, and then went up to Kingower around 6.30.

Was a lovely night (as usual), I was wearing a dress which is unusual for me, but brought tracksuit pants and a jumper etc in case it got cold at night. Luckily it didn't,  The usual crowd was there :- Terry, David, Arlene, June, Alvin, Damien, Nicole, Mark, Chrissy, Jill, Daniel, Maile, David, Jan, Jeff etc etc.  There were about 45 of us all up with everyone bringing either some nibbles, a salad or dessert.  Burgers and sausages were provided @ a reasonable $5 a head.

pre dinner drinks and nibbles

Mark and Madeleine on the left

Madeleine centre, Mum behind, Mark, Fraser & Karen to the right

Justin. Mark, Mad, Karen etc #1

Justin. Mark, Mad, Karen etc #2

twilight

Fraser walking with purpose

Karen with Fraser photo bombing

Michaela looking happy

serve yourself dinner

Jeff having a chat

Madeleine looking doleful

nice looking desserts

Terry and me

Justin had also brought his guitar on spec, and had it in the boot of the car.  He pulled it out and joined the band for a few songs.  I also got them to sing Happy birthday to Mum

the band, and me in the background

the band and Xavier with arms crossed

huge goat moth #1

huge goat moth #2

Finished up around 12 or so, and drove slowly home, luckily didn't encounter any kangaroos.

Unfortunately woke up early, so got up and watered the garden.  And then went back to bed again around 8.30 to see if I could fall asleep again.  Might have catnapped.

Had a late breakfast with the others under the hoop pine, and David came over around 11 or so.  By this stage I had backtracked, as I hadn't actually figured out how we would plumb the moved tanks, and the thought of digging trenches by hand in that concrete hard earth was daunting.  Mark and I had been talking about getting an electric/petrol? trench digger - but we obviously didn't have one today. So we thanked David very nicely, showed him the tanks and explained that we weren't really prepared, and that we may call on him again once we were ready.  By the way, Justin just wants to pay someone to do it properly, and wasn't that keen on Mark and I doing it.  David didn't mind, and stayed and had a nice long chat with Mum.  In the meantime, Mark and Justin re-attached the overflow pipes and drain pipes.

As breakfast had been rather nice under the hoop pine, we had lunch there too, but moved the table a bit so that it was in the shade.

picnic lunch #1

picnic lunch #2

picnic lunch #3

picnic lunch #4

picnic lunch #5

picnic lunch #6

  
Justin & Mark also put the new old door knob on the front door which I had been given a while ago by a chap from Castlemaine, who had come through on my "National Trust tour"

giving it a once over

right to attach now

attached nicely #1

attached nicely #2

The children sat around a bit after lunch, and we didn't too much afterwards, as it was getting quite warm

Is Fraser giving his father the finger?

the thrill is gone?

November heat :-29 & 30 November 2014

Hot with dry grass, and humid air.  Another solo trip basically to water the poor plants.

I'd been told that it had rained earlier in the week, but you wouldn't have known it, as sadly expected, those little seedlings which David had given me had dehydrated into dust.

The fruit trees are still looking good, but the figs that I had been so excited about must have already been eaten by birds.  There was one left, which although small was relatively soft.  I picked it and took a bite - no good, wasn't ripe, so had to throw it away.

the lone unripe fig

I was also pleased to see that the 2 x pear trees have finally sprouted some leaves.  The frost had hit them hard, and then something had initially eaten their fledgling leaves. Fingers crossed that what ever it was won't come back for a 2nd course.

leafy pear tree

I was surprised to see some buds on the pomegranate tree that I had bought from Rodney this Winter. Who knows I night even get some fruit ??

2 x pomegranate buds in view

And the lilly pillys continue to cling to life.  They are all still alive, and I gave them a good drink each .

most alive lilly pilly

One new plant was an orange lily that I'd forgotten I'd planted.  It had arisen, and even put out a flower (that's obviously how I knew what it was)

somewhat stunted lily - with unopened flower

The vine on the front fence near the gate looks fabulous and must be very hardy as I don't water it at all

orange vine #1

orange vine #2

  
And the jacaranda looks better than last time, more flowers and more leaves

jacaranda

There are some patches of green grass still - basically where there is some shade some of the time ie behind the pile of bricks etc.  It's funny the green grass almost looks like a shadow for the brick pile

scant green grass

Given the heat and humidity, I didn't do anything else too strenuous, and retired to the veranda in the late afternoon to read the paper, and have a nice cold drink.  Had a simple dinner and watched True Detectives on the portable dvd player.  Justin has already watched this series and had recommended it to me.  Was engrossing, but I was tired and was falling asleep in the 2nd one, so I called it a night and went to sleep properly.

Given my early night, I woke up early - and so decadently watched the episode that I was falling asleep in.  I then read a little bit, and fell asleep again.  I was rather surprised and pleased when I awoke again at 8.30am!  

Did a bit of tidying up in the garden - cut back dead plants in the front bed, and yes pulled weeds, and also got rid of the weeds around the yuccas which was a job that Justin had wanted done.  I was careful around the rocks and rubble - as I didn't want any snakes to surprise me.

Had an odd assortment for lunch outside under the hoop pine.  A thick slice of my fresh home made bread, heaps of my tiny Inglewood olives, the rest of a jar of artichoke hearts, a bit of fetta, a tomato, and a fabulous ice cold beer to wash it all down

Sunday lunch

 Did a few more odd jobs in the garden, and around 2pm I decided to call it quits.  I was hot, a bit dirty, and didn't feel like doing any more work as after all it was pushing 37 degrees in the shade

Hot

I thought I'd have a shower and wash my hair - without turning on the gas for the hot water!  I figured I was hot enough, and I remembered from last Summer that the cold  "hot" water was actually pretty warm.

So, I gave it a shot, didn't linger as it was a bit cold at first, but then the warmer sun heated water came through and it was all good.  Felt great to put on some clean clothes again (after my well worn overalls)  In fact when I got back to Melbourne Madeleine had commented on how clean I looked... I don't normally shower before coming home, so I guess I normally look a bit filthy after a weekend working in Inglewood.

And after the shower, I guiltily  watched another episode of True Detective in the dining room.  Just one more to go now, I thought there were another 3, otherwise I might have watched 2 episodes, but I needed to get back to Melbourne by 6pm.

My rule of thumb when I'm by myself is to have everything tidy and ready to go before I start out in the garden in the morning.  So I was pretty much ready to go after the show, and did get home by 6pm,