Kingower Concert 13 -15 March 2015

Once again, I was in an advance party of one.  Given that I hadn't got all of those bloody Bindi eye weeds out last week, I wanted to finish off the job - so came up on Friday again.

There were still plenty in the cricket oval/future vineyard side of the garden, and as you can see from the below photo, all traces of green are now gone from the "grass". It's back to dust bowl status.  That and bindi eyes that is.

a bucket full of bindis

And I found a few strays on the other side too.  In some perverse way, I was quite enjoying the hunt for the bindis, as they could be quite disguised/hard to see.  So when I found a less obvious one, it was strangely satisfying.  They were certainly easier to find/capture than yabbies.

Did a bit of tidying up in the garden also, - cutting back unwieldy branches, trimming a bush rose, pulling our escaped calendulas etc.  And it was while pulling out the calendulas in the pebble path that I found a crystal with the other quartz stones.  I've now unfortunately misplaced it, but hopefully it will show up again

my found and now lost crystal

Helen had given me a big tub of  Dynamic Lifter a while back, so I thought I'd give the fruit trees a good feed and then water.  This took some hours...

feeding the lemon tree

and by the time I'd finished I was ready for a nice cold drink.  There were no dinner invitations this time, and I didn't want to ask myself around anywhere either, so I had a quiet night at home and watched a couple of episodes of the Bridge

Saturday morning, and I was due at Terry's at 9am for the Kingower Concert community cook-up. On arrival the charming Terry made me a very good coffee, and the others arrived soon afterwards - Arlene, June, Chrissie, Bev, Damien, & Nicole.

It was a simpler yet more fiddly menu this time - ie 3 dips - hummus (which Terry had already made) a fresh beetroot dip, and a tzaziki which I was in charge of

chopped cucumbers draining for the tzaziki

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Terry and I were perhaps gently teasing Arlene about the tzaziki.  She had said to take the seeds out of the cucumber as they produce too much water, and make the tzaziki too thin.  Initially I pooh-poohed this idea, but then recalled that sometimes my tzaziki was a bit thin and watery.  So I met her half way, kept the seeds, but salted the chopped cucumbers and left them to drain.  I was actually surprised by how much water came out.

In the meantime I chopped up heaps of parsley, and skinned chicken fillets etc.  There were a few hungry sounding young magpies out the front, so I threw them some chopped up skins.  Initially they flew away, but they soon came back

there is a magpie in the very middle of the photo

they've come a bit closer now

June made up the beetroot dip

big bowl of beetroot dip

Chrissie and Arlene marinaded the chicken fillets

marinading chicken fillets

And Arlene, Nicole and Damien organised the sandwiches.  One type of sandwich was made from a whole loaf of bread.  All the slices were taken out and buttered, and then the fillings added.  ie Chicken/avocado/mayonnaise, salmon/capers/lettuce etc.  The sandwiches were then piled on top of each other - ie the loaf re-assembled, and then put back in the bread bag to "set" until later this evening when they were cut into qaurters.  Quite a nifty method.

Arlene buttering the sandwiches

Damien photobombing the sandwich stack

Terry was in charge of the sausage rolls.  I was invited to also assemble these, but Terry's were so perfect, that I thought I might disgrace myself, so quickly found myself another job.  Terry thought I shouldn't have worried so much.

Terry's sausage rolls

 Arlene had made a sponge for the lamingtons, and she and June assembled them.  Other cakes were made off site.

 
As per last time, Terry provided us with a lovely lunch. There was a salad of basil, cucumbers, and capsicum all from the garden.  The basil leaves were so large that they were the salad leaf equivalent. And Terry had made up a eggplant(from the garden also) parmagiana which we washed down with a crisp white wine.  All very civilised

al fresco lunch #1

al fresco lunch #2

  
Given that we were just about done, I excused myself after lunch and went back too Inglewood to see if the guests had arrived yet.  Surprisingly, I was there first.  Justin, Chris and Yvonne had expected to arrive around 12.30.  They arrived around 1.40 and Justin and Chris rushed off to Michelle's to each get a haircut as she closed at 2pm

Karen and Mark arrived whilst the boys were having their haircuts.  They soon returned, and we had lunch (not me) under the hoop pine

After lunch the band - Justin, Yvonne and Chris practised some more - outside in the shade.  They had set up Chris' amplifier, so the guitars boomed out, while the voices were not amplified and so were overwhelmed.  We wondered what the neighbors thought....  During this time, Karen and I went off to one of the secret dams to catch us some yabbies.  Took a couple of chairs and our books too, but we just chatted while the yabbies filled our nets.  Or at least that was the plan.  Yep, we chatted and had a bit of an explore around the "ruins" but unfortunately no yabbies, not even one.  Michael had said that they were more active/easier to catch after it had rained.  But there hadn't been any rain for weeks.

Returned home empty handed, and no one was really surprised.  During our absence, Mark had been assisting with the jigsaw, and we got quite a bit more of it done.  Although the sky and sea will undoubtedly prove difficult.

Left for Kingower around 6.30.  The band in Chris' car, and us roadies/groupies in Mark's car.  Did some sound checks with Terry, organised a table,and mingled with the others

Justin with a couple of Damien's friends

me & Justin in matching black and white (unintentional) #1

me & Justin in matching black and white (unintentional) #2

getting started

Yvonne, Justin, Mark, Chris and Karen #1

Yvonne, Justin, Mark, Chris and Karen #2

Yvonne, Justin, Mark, Chris and Karen #3

The New Kingower Rangers kicked off the evening with a blistering set of old and new favourites

The New Kingower Rangers #1

The New Kingower Rangers #2

The New Kingower Rangers #3

The New Kingower Rangers #4

They were followed by Dave P - who had additional fans in the crowd as his son, daughter-in-law and grandkids were visiting from America

Dave P - solo

Karen enjoying the music

And then it was our band....I had recommended to Justin that they have a name, but he didn't think it necessary.  Now, most of the audience wouldn't have known who Yvonne and Chris were, and some may not have known Justin either.  So, I helped them out/heckled them by calling out and asking who they were.  That got me reluctantly dragged up to introduce the band.., But once there, I didn't mind the spotlight, and even got to christen the band with my suggested name -  The Inglewood Intruders.  Just snuck that one out, and no one was going to disagree with me...

They played a half hour set, and were well received (although there were some comments that we didn't hear enough from Justin)

Inglewood Intruders #1

Inglewood Intruders #2

Inglewood Intruders and Dave P

And although I didn't go to any of the practice sessions, I was invited up to shake a musical egg for a couple of numbers, and I also got Karen to accompany me - on tamborine.  we certainly had a good time!

And we even videoed it - as we'd dragged out our old video camera, attached it to a small tripod on the table, and had Mark operate it.  I think this worked better than using a mobile phone.  

for some reason I can't get the audio to work

Daniel came on and sang after our band, and then it was open mike.  Chris came back on afterwards also - and then basically stayed til stumps

The night finished up around 12.30, and we drove home slowly.  Remember I'd seen 7 kangaroos on the way from from Jill's the previous week.  Luckily we didn't see any tonight.

Pottered around for a little while once we got home, and I was in bed by 1am.  The others stayed up in the kitchen and sang and played guitar (the band that is) til rather late.  Justin came to bed at 3.45!

Needless to say, that I was the first one up in the morning.  Tidied up the kitchen, did the dishes, and then went out and watered the garden.  Yvonne was the next one up some hours later.  We went to the IGA to get some bacon and hash browns etc, (I'd already got some eggs from David the day before) and proceeded to cook up a big recovery breakfast.

Breakfast, or more accurately brunch, was eaten out under the hoop pine again

recovery brunch #1

recovery brunch #2

And I couldn't resist taking a photo of Chris's rather fancy cowboy boots

cowboy boot #1

cowboy boot #2

Chris and Yvonne left soon afterwards, and Karen and I drove back to Kingower to see if we could find Mark's missing sunglasses and a bag that we'd left behind.  Yep, we found the sunglasses, but minus a lens.  We also saw Terry who had collected the bag the night before and gave it back to us. We were glad that we'd found the sunglasses, but disappointed that they seemed to have been run over.

Returned to Inglewood and broke the news to Mark, who asked us if we'd looked for the other lens, as no the glasses probably hadn't been run over, but rather just been stepped on, and the lens if found could easily be snapped back in.

So, back to Kingower we went - the 4 of us this time. Karen found the lens in their wine bag, so all was good, the glasses were fixed and Terry invited us in for a coffee (he does make the best coffees in the district)  Stayed for a little while and chatted with him and his sister Carolyn and brother in law Sean.

Back to Inglewood, didn't really need lunch, and Karen and Mark left soon afterwards and I did more of the jigsaw puzzle - it is somewhat compelling, just one more piece.....

done quite a lot now

 Justin and I pottered around a bit, tidying up, and Gordon dropped in to say hello.  We hadn't seen him for ages, so it was nice to have a catch-up