Grand Final Long Weekend 2 - 4 October 2015

Only in Melbourne could you have not one, but two public holidays for sporting events.  We've had the Melbourne  Cup Day public holiday forever, but this was the first time that we had the Friday off before the AFL Grand Final.  Fine by me I say.

Anyway, I drove up early on the Friday morning, as I had to be there by 9.30am to meet an electrician who was coming to give us a quote.  Mum, Helen & kids went up on the Thursday morning, as it was still school holidays.

I got there around 9.15, only to be told by Helen that the electricians had come and gone.... They would be back though.  And they were, Michael and Michelle had recommended them, and  Barb from across the road had seen their truck and also had good things to say about them.   Fingers crossed they won't break the bank.  They did say that we'd need to get more power in from the street first, as we're currently drawing 32 amps, and would need more in order to do normal things like have the kettle and toaster on at the same time.

Anyway, in the 2 weeks since I was there for the music night it's certainly got drier, the green is browner, and the ground is harder.  We seem to have gone straight from Winter to Summer.  It was 27 degrees in Bendigo on Friday, and over 30 degrees on both Saturday and Sunday, and it would have been a few degrees warmer in Inglewood.  Definitely no need for a fire in the evenings, nor even for long sleeves.

Anyway, after the electricians had left,I inspected the garden and found Helen's apple tree had a few shy leaves unfurled.  So it had survived, hoorah!

see a few leaves

And, the rhubarb had resuscitated, 2 weeks ago there was nothing to be seen; and there were a number of delicate asparagus shoots from the seeds which Maile had given me.  I was thrilled

feathery little asparagus shoots

Saw that there were some people over at the Town Hall, so went and had a look - Donna & Rick - who were cleaning it up in readiness for the 1st stage of the renovation.  Went up onto the terrace

Helen & kids on the terrace

view of the house from the terrace #1

view of the house from the terrace #2

Aview of the house from the terrace #3

Michaela & Xavier grumbling down the Town Hall stairs

Following the morning garden inspection and the Town Hall visit, it was time for a coffee.  And off to the Royal we went,

Enzo's fab coffee

I had a haircut at Michelle's after this.

Back home around 2pm, and had a quick pie under the big tree.  The others had eaten long before that.

Lots of weeding in the afternoon.  Out the front first - to make good first impresssions

the kids helping with the weeding

always helpful Xavier

Had a miscommunication with Jamie the estate agent.  We'd been interested in seeing Memsie, and he'd called and said meet him out the front now!  So I went out the front and waited, only thing was he meant out the front of Memsie.  About 10 or 15 minutes later I realised that might have been the case, and gave him a call,  He had to go off to Echuca, had only had a 1/2 hour window, so we left it at that.  That was until he called back around 5pm, and this time absolutely said meet at the Memsie gates.  So we did so.  Everyone came along, it was turn right at the Service Station in Bridgewater (before the bridge) drive 4-5 km down the road and turn left at the Newbridge road sign,  Too easy and there was Jamie waiting at the front gate.

A nice drive down a tree lined drive and then there was the house standing beautifully in the late afternoon sunshine - just stunning!

the grand facade of Memsie

the wine store with the termite ravaged beams in strips above 

the same wine store floor but from above

shingled roof of the wine store

wine store from the outside

wine store again

One of the other outhouses was a bit tumbledown also

a real doer upper

And then we went inside the main house - there were some rooms with no floors, and other rooms with no ceilings.  Nimmitabel was not this bad when we bought it, despite there being a hole in the roof, and the cellar  flooded.

the ceiling in one of the rooms

A couple of rooms had fine white marble fireplaces, other rooms had timber over mantles

fancy marble fireplace

A couple of rooms had swallow's nests with darting swallows flying around

swallows up in the corner

There was stunning wallpaper in the hallway

very fancy wallpaper #1

very fancy wallpaper #2

And some lovely coloured glass fanlights

fancy fanlights

In the old kitchen building there was a huge old stove

big old rusty stove

The outlook was lovely also with the river on its doorstep.  The 2010/11 floods didn't quite reach the house.

just the other side of the house

Lots of green grass, and very peaceful. Would need to drive into Bridgewater about 5km away for supplies - or into Inglewood or Bendigo for something more substantial.  I think I would prefer to be in town - so easy walking distance to most things

back of the house

another side to the house #1

another side to the house #2

majestic palm, a few roses and remains of circular drive at front of house

I was very pleased that I had seen it, and Jamie was very good to have gone out of his way to show it to us.

Drove home, and had the 1st gin and tonic of the season up on the veranda,  Mum found it very tasty, as did I,

late afternoon drinks

late afternoon drinks

and then onto the Empire for dinner.  Parmas as always for Mum & I, Helen & Xavier had fish & chips, and Michaela had quite a large pizza.  Home and a couple of games of scrabble and bed

Relaxed in bed for a while on Saturday morning, nice and relaxed in the quiet of the morning.  Didn't let anyone else know that I was awake...

Breakfast outside in the bright morning light - it was going to be another hot one

Weeding and more weeding, We'd had rain earlier in the Spring which made the weeds ferocious  Finished off the front, and then went back to the vegie garden, around the mulberry trees, other fruit trees etc.  Not too many photos, as how many photos of piles of weeds have I already posted over the years?

a grinning Xavier

Mum, Helen & kids had their lunch organised, so I had to look after myself.  We'd already had a mid morning coffee at the Royal, and yes Bryn had remembered me.  So I decided to have lunch there too, was intrigued by the shrimp po boy.  Took myself off there around 12.30 (the others were at the hairdressers as Mum and Xavier were having cuts, and Helen & Michaela were watching/waiting) and they'd had lunch before 12.

Took the ipad and read the "paper" at a table inside.  Decided to treat myself and have a cleansing ale.  It was hot, I was in my tomato picker's V Line overalls and had been working so why not?

icy lunch time beer

 And the po boy was pretty good too

shrimp po boy 

Despite my best efforts, I was found by Helen & Xavier after a while as they had come looking for me.  Oh well, back to the weeding

Drove up to the Kingower Village Green at 6pm as Terry had organised a monthly casual get together on the 1st Saturday of the month.  the idea was to have have some snacks, a casual meal, chat etc. The usual suspects were there, and we brought some snags and a couple of salads, Mum had made her famous potato salad, and I made what I called an Inglewood green salad - rocket, parsley, chives, spring onions and lemon thyme all from the garden.  Not bad

Terry had also fixed up Justin's dad's old banjo ukulele.  He taken it back to the wood, stripped off the old black lacquer.  Looked really good (although I wasn't that familiar with what it looked like before)

Terry and the banjo ukulele

a gathering #1

David & Terry

Michaela, Dawn, & Mum

Terry and David & his new guitar

David playing his new guitar

BBQ Damo & Helen

Xavier & Jerry

Xavier was surprised by Chris who said that he'd give him a kick up the bum (for being cheeky).  He then proceeded to take his leg off (prosthetic).  This gave Xavier a tremendous surprise, and is obviously quite the party trick.

I had also managed not to find out who had won the AFL grand final until we'd been at the gathering for a while, and someone had said that his friends who were Hawthorn supporters would be very happy.  Oh well, I couldn't not know forever


Got home around 9.30 or so, and Mum and I had a game of scrabble

Sunday, and breakfast outside in the garden again - another lovely day, and hot.

Helen wanted to get back to Melbourne early enough so left mid morning.  I had lots more weeding to do, but also had some more flowers to admire and photograph, and also my flowering olive trees

healthy flowering olives

don't know what this one is called

pig faces in my succulent bed

pigfaces and other flowering succulents

tiny wild orchid?

more tiny wild orchids?

Had a coffee with Denise at the Empire, and Enzo floated his idea of a big dinner at the Town hall again.  Would be fun to organise.

Back to the weeding, but also more watering, as I wanted to give the fruit trees a good water as it was so hot.  Don't worry, it went down through the mulch, so it wouldn't evaporate

Strangely, (or not) there were a lot of flies buzzing around in the shade by the back door, and also in the wood shed.  Away from the heat?  In fact there were so many and so loud that I thought they were bees buzzing.  They weren't normal flies, sort of stripey, but I'm pretty sure they weren't bees or wasps, rather strange.

you can't really see the flies, but they were there....