"Paying" Bus Tour 18 & 19 April 2015

My usually uneventful drive to Inglewood was punctuated by what could have been disastrous. Travelling through the Domain Tunnel I suddenly saw a stopped car in front of me, near the King Street exit.  I couldn't change lanes as cars were blocking me, so I had to slow right down (from 80kph).  It was then that I saw a man walking across the lanes.  This gave me a tremendous fright.  By this stage I could change lanes, but then saw a ladder on the road, so obviously had to avoid that too.  Seems as though the man had dropped the ladder from his ute which was parked further up  in an emergency type lane at the tunnel exit.

I'm assuming that he successfully retrieved the ladder and that no one was hurt, nor accidents occurred as there was nothing on the news about it later.  At least it was relatively early - around 8am, so not that much traffic.

Anyway, got to Inglewood around 10.30 or so, went and bought some pork, saw the Op Shop ladies etc,

This was followed by some light gardening, as I had brought some plants/seeds etc  from home, and needed to get them in the ground.  We'd had some rain in the last week, so I didn't need to do any watering

a large yucca to go in my succulent bed

the ground was very hard to dig after about 20 cm, so I filled it with  water

Naked Lady seeds

a transplanted crab apple  tree

bamboo & loquats that I'll give to Arlene

After this I went up on the veranda with a newspaper to wait for Denise and her busload of Kangaroo Flat tourists.

I like "spying" on people from up here. As they generally don't know I'm there if I'm sitting down and quiet.  I saw they stopped at Storm Lane, and Denise gave them some information, and then they continued on to here for our 12 noon "tour".

From memory there were 17 of them.  I gave them the "standard" tour, I've shown many people around the house now, and have sort of a standard spiel pointing out the various features/ points of interest.  We start in the hallway, with its lovely tessellated tiles and fragile ceiling wallpaper, then onto the wonderful green room with its sumptuous wallpaper, impressive gold coloured tin pelmets and (tastefully) multicoloured ceiling rose and 3 dimensional cornices. etc

One of the men told me about "another" mansion owned by a friend of his in Peterborough in South Australia.  He said she got it to pay for itself by conducting ghost dinner parties etc.  And that it was for sale, and did we want another mansion? Actually it looks a lot more impressive than our house....

image from the internet

I regretfully had to decline the opportunity to buy another "mansion" - one is surely enough.  But I was interested in the dinner party idea.  Karen and I had already discussed the possibility of "murder dinner parties"here, and Wally and Christopher had also discussed having dinners with interested people who would pay for the pleasure of our company and the ambiance of the house,  But we would have to smarten it up a lot more before we could entertain such notions.  The kitchen and bathroom are certainly not up to scratch.  And electric lights in all rooms would be a bonus.  But then again candle light has a certain appeal.

Anyway, my "tour" was well received, and at the end I asked for a gold coin donation to go towards our renovation fund.  Didn't really like asking, but Denise had apparently told them about it beforehand.  Made just over $40, which I'll put with the other money from the Castlemaine National Trust people.

After they left I had some lunch, and then proceeded to unpack the goodies that Karen had given me from her Dad

the jigsaw caddy - will be used for the next time

Beautiful Folio Society books on the Mike Terry shelf

And of course the kitchen goodies :-

a multitude of glassware/crystal

8 place dinner set #1 

8 place dinner set #2 

Surprisingly I was able to make room for everything.

After this I went and did more of the jigsaw upstairs - had the speaker with me, so listened to music.

jigsaw work in progress

Given that it was a sunny afternoon, I had my (probable) actual last Gin & Tonic of the season on the veranda around 5pm - but it really was getting a bit cool by this stage, so I didn't linger.

Terry had organised another film night for tonight, at the local village green.  I was determined not to be cold, and to be comfortable, so I amassed various necessities in the hallway.

In the first instance I wanted a beanbag and picnic rug to put it on outside.  Plus gloves, beanie, a scarf, thick socks, warm jacket and hiking boots (because of the thick sole)

film night requirements #1

And then I remembered that I also "needed" a hot water bottle and blankie to put around my cold knees/shoulders

film night requirements #2

And I was already wearing thermal underwear, and 3 layers of top clothing.  I was definitely not going to be cold.

I left for Kingower around 7pm, and found the village green empty.  The venue had been changed to St Marys, as there was the possibility of more rain.  Saw Arlene and June as I was parking the car, and gave the bamboo & loquats to Arlene which she appreciated.

Then went inside with all my stuff - beanbag, rug, bag etc etc.

Of course it was relatively warm in there, and I had to take my jacket off, leaving just 2 upper layers on.  Didn't need the other stuff at all - but I was very glad I had been prepared.

Terry had set up tables and chairs, and Maile invited me to sit with them at their table.  So I gave Maile the persimmons and fejoas that I brought for her from our Melbourne garden.  She gave me some sail cloth for the salted olives that I will be making from her olives.  We'd tried some of her salted olives a while back and thought they were delicious.  Sort  of like sundried tomatoes in texture, with a very concentrated olive taste.  Delicious.  I hope that mine will turn out as good as hers.

Had a good old natter with Maile, Davids, Arlene, June, Terry, Chrissie, Jan etc

And we all enjoyed the film - that old Sidney Poitier/Lulu classic :- To Sir with Love

 

Image from the internet

Sat around and chatted afterwards also.  Terry told me that they were interested in Karen and Mark conducting a trivia night taking up Karen's offer at the Music night.  Should be fun.

Got home around midnight, no kangaroos sighted.

More pottering around the garden, and more jigsaw "work"on Sunday. I now think that I might actually finish it - that is if no pieces are missing.....But, it is difficult, as some pieces "fit" with a little coaxing, but then others don't fit with them, so you think that some pieces must be missing.  This happened to me a few times, ie when I looked more closely I saw that some pieces just weren't quite right, and when I removed them was able to fit in the right pieces and subsequently close the gap. But, I don't have brilliant light there, especially when it's cloudy, so the different blues all sort of look the same...which makes it that much harder  

few still missing on the right

got the ones on the right, and more on the left too

It was quite cold in the house this morning, although the day was bright.  I spoke with Justin and he said it was dull and overcast back in Melbourne.  I took a couple of photos in Inglewood and he took one in Melbourne to compare the weather at the same time - around 9.20am

Inglewood weather at 9.20am  #1 

Inglewood weather at 9.20am  #2

Melbourne weather at 9.20am

I called up Maile in the morning to see what time I should come over and pick the rest of the olives, but she said to wait, they weren't ripe enough, so I'll go up another time.

Maile had also recommended that I salt the olives in a polystyrene box that I should be able to get from a fruit shop. And that I should put a few drainage holes in it also.
 The nice people up at the IGA gave me this one

And this is Maile's recipe for the salted olives - from SBS

Arlene had also recommended that I throw my own single solitary olive from the garden in with Maile's olives too, or else just put it in the salt shaker

my rather good lucking single Inglewood olive

I also swapped plastic boxes for my cured pork.  The blue one from George was just too bug and cumbersome, and didn't seem to seal properly.  The new one was a snugger fit, and I put it in the cellar to cure....Now just have to make the box with Justin for next time.