Hot Christmas Party & Mum's birthday 19 & 20 December 2015

Hot hot hot!

Summer is here with a vengeance

It was hot for my work Christmas party on the Friday, but there was a slight cool change in the evening.

Justin and I were originally going to leave for Inglewood after the party, but we decided to leave early on Saturday morning instead.

And early it was, just after 7am, as I had wanted to be there by 9am to start in with the highly anticipated sausage making with Terry & co.

Justin thought it better to stay behind and paint the little yellow room's window with the top coat (already had an undercoat)

I arrived at Terry's around 9.30, and the 2 of us got started.  He had about 8kg of a pork/beef mixture which he had already ground up with garlic.  He then divided it into 3 bowls, and  added minced rosemary and fetta cheese to one lot, and I ground up some cumin seeds and black pepper and added it to another batch of meat.  We thought we would make chilli sausages with the 3rd lot, however he had some home made rather dark chilli sauce which he tasted a smidgin of.  Just about blew his head off, it was that hot.  So added in some homemade sweet chilli sauce instead, but that was too subtle, so we did end up putting some of that head blowing chilli in it!

Even though it was so hot (temperature) he had the wood stove on, as that is the only way he can get hot water.  Cooked up some small bits of the chilli sausage mix to see if we'd got the chilli mix right, thee was a little kick at the end, so that was good.  We figured that people could always add more heat to it afterwards.

And then the fun began - with the actual making of the sausages

I was the pusher - pushing the meat down the chute so that it would get in the skins, Terry was in charge of the skins, making sure that that they filled properly and telling me when to stop the flow.  June was the sausage twister, and Mum who came later kept up the supply of meat to me.  We were a well oiled sausage making machine - definitely a 4 man job

a fab new Kenwood

a rather skinny 1st sausage

here they come

I enjoyed it, but must admit it was a demanding job, as pushing down on the meat for some hours with pretty much full strength started to take it out of me.  And I felt vindicated today when  my triceps felt a bit sore.

And yes, we made sure that we kept the 3 different types separate, so that we could tell them apart.

Finished around 12.30, and went home.  Terry had invited us to stay for lunch, however Helen had already made up her famous tuna and corn sandwiches, so we had to go home for them.  We were also supposed to have had the 3rd? annual Op Shop Ladie's afternoon tea, but they piked it!  Shame on them.  Essie was the only one who was still free to come, and she told Mum & Helen that it would be a waste to just have it for her, so it was cancelled.

Maybe we were a little relieved that the afternoon tea was cancelled, as we all had an afternoon nap, which seemed a lovely indulgence.  Felt refreshed afterwards.  Helen, Mum and the kids went to the pool, and Justin and I moved the furniture back into place upstairs so the red room and the little yellow room have been re-set up.

Then went back downstairs and just read the paper on the bed, too hot to do anything else.  Was apparently 45 degrees here on Friday and same again on the Saturday.  Helen came back to see if we wanted to join them at the pool around 4.30pm or so.  This time I did come, but the weather wasn't very pleasant, Yes it was HOT, but very blustery, and mainly overcast.  Stayed til close to 6pm, and then went home for a longed for gin and tonic, not on the veranda, rather in the dining room.

We were all very surprised when it started raining, and the wind really came up and was swirling dust around from the building site across the road at the Town Hall.  It was really awful, and we certainly wondered what dinner on the village green was going to be like.

The weather calmed down after 7pm, so we assembled all of our gear - chairs drinks, Helen made a baby spinach & parmesan salad, and I brought dips, chips and crackers (shame on me for not making anything, but I'll say it again, it was just too hot!)  Had thought about making an onion tart, but Justin easily talked me out of it

There were a few people there already when we arrived - David and Maile, Lee & David, Ann & Phillip etc.  We were all supposed to be dressed in Christmas type clothes also

Maile and David certainly were

Mr & Mrs Claus

We were in red shirts which Mum had gotten us  and I'd also dug up an old pair of Christmas socks that I'd been given years ago

Christmas red shirts #1

Christmas red shirts #2

well, one of us was in pink

And then, there was the moment of truth when Terry started cooking up the sausages...

starting the cooking

look just like store bought

Justin & sausages

Success!!! Everyone thought they were delicious.  So job well done.

Flies and other insects proved to be very thick on the ground/table/air - detracted a bit from the atmosphere

lots of insects

even more...

The other food - salads and desserts were likewise delicious, and the wind did die down enough so as not to blow our chips away, nor bring any gum tree branches crashing down (some people were worried about that)

 Got home around 11.30 or so, and it was around 30 degrees in the house, but we all managed to sleep.

I was 1st up on Sunday, and took over an hour watering my poor parched garden.  Justin had come out to help me, but then hurt his back moving the tub that had the ice in it from last night.  Poor thing.  He had to move very carefully for the rest of today, and it's still sore today (Monday 21/12).

Didn't do too much this morning.  Had a birthday game of scrabble with Mum, did a light fitting audit (have 8 light fittings that we could use - 3 from Alex, 3 from Tooronga Rd, 1 from Frank, and 1 that I'd bought from Camberwell Market a while back

Camberwell Market light fitting

Michaela reading on the gout stool

Given that it was Mum's birthday, Justin suggested that we go out for lunch somewhere nice.  He thought Bendigo, but I suggested the Spotted Cow in Maldon where I'd been before with Karen & Merrill,

So we packed up and went there.  Great choice.  Delicious food, and the same droll waitress as last time.  Helen, Mum and Michaela had the wild mushroom gnocchi, Justin & Xavier had the fish and chips, and I had calamari.  All beautifully presented, and very tasty.  I also told the waitress that it was Mum's birthday, so they brought out her gnocchi with a birthday candle in a small piece of fried bread.

Xavier & Helen

me & Michaela

birthday Mum #1

birthday Mum #2

Helen

Local cider that Justin & I drank

Mum with her birthday candle

Sanding by Ear Saturday 5 - Sunday 6 December

Less than 24 hours in Inglewood.

It's crazy at this time of the year.  We had a lunch to go to in Melbourne, so didn't get to Inglewood til after 5pm.  Just in time to stock up a bit at the supermarket before it closed at 6pm.

Now, between this visit, and the last one 2 weeks ago, part of the front fence had fallen down in fierce winds. And so many people had called/emailed/texted to let us know.  What a wonderful community.  Steve and Denise had also put up some CFA tape to stop people walking through the garden, or at least discourage them.

Luckily no more of the fence had fallen down, and it was so heavy, that the fallen pieces couldn't move any further.  I'm pleased that my peach tree was unscathed.

Fallen down fence #1

Fallen down fence #2

Fallen down fence #3

It was opportune that we already had an planning permit in for a new fence. So I called up the council during the week to see if they could hurry it along.  (Note we now have the planning permit, but are waiting on a building permit!  which is apparently needed because the fence is higher than 1 metre, and on a corner, irrespective of just replacing old for new)

And you can see how dry everything is

even the weeds are dying

 
The artichokes still look lovely though

artichokes

And the mulberries are starting to ripen.  I picked and enjoyed a few.  Don't like sharing them with the birds though

yummy mulberries

I'm assuming that Justin fiddled around a bit with the below photo of the hoop pine, as the background has faded away...

Hoop pine

 He is also quite pleased with his mended axes, as he had fixed the split handle a while ago with epoxy, sanded it back, maybe filled it some more etc.

axes

 Went up to Kingower around 7pm ,as they were having the 1st Saturday of the month get together.  We'd been told at the supermarket that there was going to be a bloke from the CFA giving a talk about the upcoming fire season

Fire talk at Kingower

Dunolly fire truck at Kingower

The talk was quite good.   He was an entertaining speaker, and had some very good hints. Afterwards we sat around and chatted with the usual suspects.  Just had a roll for dinner, as we'd had a nice big lunch at Peter's (with Lana & co)

twilight in Kingower #1

twilight in Kingower #2

At some stage the conversation turned to yabbies, and I once again shared my bucket list dream of catching some yabbies.  Terry invited me to come up to his dam tomorrow, or anytime.  I'll certainly take him up on that. Didn't on the Sunday though - as we had other work to do....Finhsed up there around 11.30 or so, and a non kangaroo drive home.

Had a bit of a sleep in, read the paper, and then onto work.  We had to sand the floors upstairs again,to make them as nice and smooth as possible. This is the 3rd or 4th time.  Didn't take too long (but long enough)  It was dusty work, and , you worked up a sweat.

sanding #1

sanding #2

Justin also pointed out that the sanded vs the non sanded floor sounded different when sanding it. And if you paid proper attention you would know when you'd sanded enough just by the sound.  You could then confirm it be feeling it with your hand.  We did the upper hallway, red room, and little yellow room.  Justin then vacuumed, and tung oiled again while I watered the garden (which certainly needed it).

I'm not sure if there is any discernible difference between the below pictures of the freshly sanded and tung oiled rooms vs the previous versions. Could they look smoother? They certainly look shinier while oil is wet.  It dries to more of a matt finish

Hallway #1

Hallway #2

Hallway #3

Yellow room

Red room #1

Red room #2

I also checked out my ham/proscuitto hanging in the cellar.  Looking very promising with some authentic looking white mould/ not black or green!

good looking proscuitto

More Watering 21 & 22 November 2015

Back again so soon, this time a solo visit.

It had been rather hot during the week, so I came up to basically water the plants...

Also checked on the oiled floors upstairs, weren't as shiny as when wet, and the hallway still had a few sticky bits, you can see the differences in the surface in the below photo.

still a bit sticky

I also did some general tidying up around the garden, ie some trimming and yes of course some weeding.

Found a huge bindi eye creeping under the fence to our place.  Went  out into the lane and dug it up

you can see how big the bindi weed is

Admired the olives maturing on our trees

maturing olives

Saw that Mark had neatly stacked the bricks away a couple of weeks ago, and had also put the good bits of wood under the shed

bricks out of the way

And it was a nice sunny day too. I had spoken to  Mum in Melbourne who said that it was cold and grey, like a Winter's Day, not so here

nice day

Given that my mobile had been playing up the other day and not taking photos properly, I took a few of the works at the Town Hall

Town Hall works #1

Town Hall works #2

Town Hall works #3

Town Hall works #4

Town Hall works #5

Nicole dropped in to apologise for not responding to my invitation for drinks last week (She didn't have any phone service, and then forgot about it)  Of course it didn't matter, but she also invited me to go and join her and a couple of girlfriends for dinner which was very nice of her.

I'd just brought up a few odds and ends for dinner, so was very pleased to receive the invitation.

By around 4pm I was sick of working, so thought that I would go and visit Samuel and Fiona at the old Railway Hotel.  We'd met them when they came to the house for the Heritage Day in May. The bike's tyres were still pumped up, so I rode over there. They've done a fabulous job inside, Had imported some William Morris wallpapers, and and got some good curtains.  They gave me the
name of the shop in the UK that sells the wallpaper.  And they said that even with the exchange rate and the postage, it was less expensive to get the wallpaper from England than locally.

After this I went and had a look around the newly renovated railway station buildings.  They look very smart.

the railway buildings

 And then home for a long gin and tonic - unfortunately not on the veranda, as I can't get up there due to the sticky floor, so sat on the front step and read the paper on the tablet.

After a while retired to my room and continued to read there, but started feeling a bit sleepy so had a quick 20 minute nap (was up early today) and then off to Nicole's

She was there with a friends from her course - Carolyn, and another one called Lisa joined us just as we were serving up the dinner.

our dinner table outside

We had been sitting inside in the kitchen having some nibbles and drinks previously, as they weren't sure if she was going to come.  But then had dinner outside.  Back inside into the school room once it got dark

As anticipated, a good night was had by all, and I left around 11 or so.  Luckily no kangaroos on the way back.

Woke early and was going to go for a walk, but then I saw that my mobile was just about out of battery charge, so decided to read lazily in bed instead.

More watering of the garden, one of the pears is recovering, the other is still struggling, and the cherry is bravely putting out a few leaves, but something is eating them

poor old cherry tree

beautiful artichoke flower

Went around to Denise and had a coffee with her at 11.  Got it from Brock who is looking after the Royal for a while (Bryn still in Ballina, Paul back to Maryborough).

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I quite like stomping around the town in my old overalls (either summer no sleeves, or winter boiler suit type), large steel capped boots (all the easier to quickly slip out of them) and battered blue straw hat.  Makes me feel a bit like a city person pretending to be a country person, but when I'm working up here, be it in the garden, or in the house, I want to have clothes that I don't mind getting dirty/dusty etc, that I can wipe my hands on, spill paint on, get muddy etc without giving two hoots.