Fraser and I took the ute fully loaded up to Inglewood on Boxing Day. We had the big tv cabinet which we'd had made up some years ago, and the king size bed from Prue with an almost impossibly heavy and unwieldy mattress.
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| fully loaded |
Drove the ute around the back and covered it with a tarp in case it rained (it had poured in Melbourne earlier in the day, and we'd had a few sprinkles on the trip).
Mum, Helen and the kids were there already, while Justin, Mad, and Basil came up the next day.
Given the weight of the cabinet, and the fact that we wanted it upstairs, I enlisted some local help. Michael and Jamie to begin with, and Jamie brought along a posse of Nevins.
Well, we, or rather they got it up there in one piece, and without straining any backs. Although it did look like poor Michael bore the brunt of the weight up the front. It was also rather tight turning it around on the landing
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| heave-ho #1 |
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| heave-ho #2 |
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| heave-ho #3 |
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| heave-ho #4 |
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| heave-ho #5 |
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| heave-ho #6 |
We all had a well deserved cold drink on the veranda afterwards!
Prue had also given us an old scooter of April's - so the kids (and at times Helen and I enjoyed scooting around on this and the other 2 that we had)
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| Xavier and Helen scooting along |
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| Just Helen scooting |
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| Michaela taking a break from scooting with Helen and Mad |
The mulberry tree also had lots of ripe mulberries which we all enjoyed. We could always tell when the kids had picked and eaten some - with red fingers and faces
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| guilty #1 |
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| guilty #2 |
Given the lovely weather, we had drinks on the veranda, and sometimes downstairs with entertainment thrown in
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| Cheers Justin! |
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| live entertainment #1 |
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| live entertainment #2 |
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| live entertainment #3 |
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| appreciative audience |
But it wasn't just beer and skittles, we also worked. Helen and I boncreted (to seal the cracks, dusty holes etc) the walls in the scullery, and I sugar soaped some of them, and took off flaky paint on one wall too
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| Helen boncreting #1 |
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| Helen preparing for boncreting |
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| flaky scullery wall |
Justin affixed the stairs to the cubby hosue
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| secure stairs on cubby house |
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| enjoying an icecream on the cubby house stairs |
and then worked on the shelving - first patching and painting the cupboard.
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| action painting #1 |
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| action painting #2 |
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| patching? |
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| more painting |
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| looks pretty good |
Then I helped with the removal of the rotten lino underneath the bottom shelf in order to make a flat surface. I must admit that I particularly dislike this lino - stupid faux pebbles - but it does disguise a lot of dirt...
Removing the actual lino was easy enough. However there was a sticky under lay that was glued directly onto the floorboards. This was extraordinarily hard to scrape off. Both of us got blisters doing this
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| lino, underlay and sticky boards |
Then I had the idea that it might be easier to use the mini steamer, so I gave that a shot. Worked ok, but was still hard, and also didn't leave a clean finish
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| mini steamer |
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| leaves bits on the boards |
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| Justin working away |
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| more scraping |
So we scraped and scraped for hours, and then Justin decided that it wasn't really good enough, so bought some mdf? to lay flat on the floor, He then proceeded to build the framing for the future cupboards. Had to buy some sort of new electric tool though!
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| Have put down base, and starting to frame up the sides |
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| some nifty tool |
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| framed up, waiting for the cupboard doors |
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| my carpenter #1 |
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| my carpenter #2 |
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| my carpenter #3 |
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| my carpenter #4 |
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| the almost finished product |
I was initially going to help Justin with all of this, but he wasn't too good at delegating so I decided to patch, sand, and paint the small room upstairs which will one day become a second bathroom.
Helen and I set up the scaffolding - my favourite piece of kit, as it makes it so easy to work on the high walls and ceiling.
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| scaffolding |
Xavier helped me at ground level by as he calls it "brooming"or as the rest of us would call "sweeping"
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| Captain Sweeper #1 |
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| Captain Sweeper #2 |
I must admit that I quite like filling the cracks in the wall (with hindsight, I filled too many of the smaller insignificant ones that would have been filled by the paint - this caused more work filling, sanding, and, eventually sweeping.
The filling of the cracks reminded me of icing a cake with frosting, trying to make it as smooth as possible.
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| mixing up the "frosting" |
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| have just finished off one lot of filling |
I quite liked the sanding also, and yes, I certainly wore a mask, as I didn't want to breathe in the plaster dust. But of course I was absolutely covered in dust
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| geisha effect |
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| I'm looking quite tired - with slumped shoulders |
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| goggle marks |
But I hated the sweeping up afterwards, it literally took me more than one hour to sweep up the plaster dust from that little room, and yes I got more blisters from sweeping of all things! The dust was so fine, it was difficult to sweep up effectively. I also vacuumed and mopped.
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| mopping now |
And, finally onto the painting, I enjoyed this also, as you could see an immediate effect even though it was only the undercoat. I guess I made a bit of a rookie mistake with the roller though. I didn't put it on the pole properly, so it sprayed paint drops around a but (good thing we haven't done the floor in this room as yet)
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| painted wall |
I also found it hard to paint the ceiling (in the yellow room I think I still had the scaffolding up, so painted the ceiling from there)
I found the long pole very unwieldy. I asked Justin about it, who first commented somewhat judgmentally about all of the floor paint splotches, and pointed out that I hadn't pushed the roller onto the holder far enough. He then pointed out that the pole could extend, but I still found it difficult. I think painting the ceiling is now my least favourite job of all time. At least with scraping the sticky gunk off the floor in the scullery, I had Justin there for company, the sweeping was painful, but possible, but with the ceiling painting my arms were already tired, so this made it so much worse.
I was very pleased to have completed this (or at least to have done the first undercoat)
There were also social activities. I went to the pool a few times with Helen, Mum and the kids. Fraser thought he'd cook up a big breakfast for himself - eggs, bacon, hash browns, but then decided to cook for all of us
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| Fraser cooking breakfast |
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| Looks pretty good |
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| Fraser's cooked breakfast |
We had Terry over for dinner on the 30th. I made a so-called Jamie Oliver 15 minute meal of lemon marinaded chicken with couscous etc. The couscous was a bit gluggy (surprisingly I followed Jamie's instructions to a t for the couscous re the water/couscous ratios), but the rest of it was pretty nice, and I marinaded some tofu in lemon and oregano for Helen
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| Jamie Oliver dinner with Terry #1 |
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| Jamie Oliver dinner with Terry #2 |
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| Jamie Oliver dinner with Terry #3 |
And Terry brought some rather curious Persian candy floss - like cotton wool only sweet. The kids though it pretty nice
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| Xavier eating Persian candy floss |
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| both kids eating the Persian Candy Floss |
We also went to the Empire one night during the week, and for whatever reason, all of our meals were not that good. I gave Enzo some gentle feedback a few days later, and he apologised, and said he'd make it up to us. I said not to worry, as he's been very good to us over the years, but lo and behold, Justin went to buy some chips to accompany a mussel meal that Karen had put together, and he gave him a few bottles of sparkling and a flat white. How nice was that?
I also received another Christmas card from the lovely Jean who used to live in Inglewood. I am yet to respond to her (sorry Jean)
On New Years Eve, Justin and I had a quiet night at home. He didn't feel like doing anything special (he doesn't really like the socially enforced festivity of New Years Eve). Sat up on the veranda, and waited for midnight. No fireworks, or shooting stars. We had a glass of champagne each, and then surprisingly stoppered the bottle.
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| a modest meal of spag bol |
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| New Year's Eve on the veranda |
Back to the house and garden, and as I was watering the garden one day, I noticed that a slate had come loose on the front left hand side
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| loose slate above the drain pipe |
I thought that I would text Gordon C from the Scottish Tilers company as they had fixed up the roof for us some years ago, however Justin thought that they had gone out of business...
Well, I texted him, and he called me a few minutes later. I thought I was used to a Scottish
accent due to George our Melbourne neighbour, but I found it rather hard to understand Gordon on the phone. He said he was working in Castlemaine, and could come and have a look the next day. He also said that he'd found another finial - like our missing one, and would bring that for us also.
The next day, I had cause to text him again, as it had rained the night before, or more precisely for about an hour in the afternoon. Justin and I had finished working, and were walking to the IGA to buy some tonic water for G&Ts. It was starting to spit, but we weren't too worried. However by the time we walked back, it was coming down more decisively - big tropical splotches of rain that you could dodge if moving quickly. But this then graduated to more continuous rain, so we had a run for it. Made it back, a little wetter and then up to the veranda for our G&Ts. I must say that I love a G&T in a storm (yep there was thunder and lightening too) while undercover. It looked fine and sunny up Kingower way,so I texted both Terry, and Maile & David to see if it was, or had been raining up there too. A definitive NO to that, and another reason for the Passing Clouds winery name.
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| Rain |
The next morning I was feeding Basil, and saw that there was water next to his bowl. I thought it was spilled from his water bowl. But then noticed that there was also water on the banister, and a fresh damp patch on the ceiling in the top hallway. Not happy. So of course I texted Gordon again
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| wet floor |
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| new damp patch on the ceiling |
A few days later I heard crunching footsteps on the white stones out the front, which immediately jerked me out of my half sleep.....(good burglar alarm!)
So I hurriedly got dressed, and yes it was Gordon out the front having a look (it would have been around 7am or so).
He had a couple of ladders, but not his tallest one, so only managed to climb up onto the kitchen roof. thought it might have been some loose flashing. But said he'll have to come back the following week with a longer ladder. He hadn't found the finial either, so said he'd bring that back also.
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| Going up #1 |
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| Going up #2 |
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| Going up #3 |
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| Up there #1 |
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| Up there #2 |
Mark, Karen, and her cousin David (from the UK) came and stayed from Sunday 3rd through to Tuesday 5th.
I was still painting the ceiling of the little room and getting mighty tired when they arrived.
Mark had also brought up a good load of mulch which we put straight onto the garden, followed by some sandwiches on the veranda
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| David & Justin mulching |
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| lunch on the veranda |
Took David on a walking tour of the main street, and saw that a school kid had done an assignment on our house - can't really see the photo properly because of the reflection
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| Tivey House school project |
Terry had called up yesterday to invite us to dinner, and I had cheekily asked if K, M & D could come too, he said of course, so we went there on Sunday night.
Dropped into the old Passing Clouds Winery first (still for sale) as Mark has grand (unrealistic) plans for David to buy it
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| Passing Clouds |
Arrived at Terry's around 6.30, and had a lovely Gin and Tonic - with some teeny tiny limes from Terry's garden
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| miniature limes |
David, June and Arlene came a bit later, and Terry served us up a lovely meal. Lamb on the spit in the BBQ marinaded in a delicious sauce.
A good time was had by all!
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| marinaded lamb |
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| checking the lamb |
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| checking the wine |
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| 2 x beaming smiles |
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| s strange contraption |
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| actually combines the white and yolk of an egg by spinning it |
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| having a chat |
The next day Karen and I drove into Wedderburn so that I could meet the council people face to face regarding our fallen down fence. I also wanted to express my feelings about needing permits to replace an existing fence.
We first had a bit of a wander around, and were amazed at how green and soft the grass was in the local park
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| how lush |
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| strangely cracking building |
Once we got to the council, it took ages.....met up with both Tyson and Glenn who were both quite nice. I also spoke to Glenn about a Town Framework that I'd seen on the Loddon Shire website detailing a grant of $40k for the Tivey House. Obviously I wanted to know more about that. Unfortunately it all came to nothing, but Glenn suggested that I speak with a fellow in Bendigo about grants, as one would be very handy for the underpinning.
Given that the plan was to go to the Bridgewater pub for lunch, and by this stage it was after 12.30, we hurried back - as country pub kitchens close at 2pm. The only thing was that it was a Monday, and the pub was closed, so we went back to the Empire for lunch. The meals were back to their normal excellent standard.
After this onto Melville Caves, via Arlene & David's.
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| 2 of David & Arelene's strange looking sheep #1 |
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| 2 of David & Arelene's strange looking sheep #2 |
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| Melville Caves #1 |
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| Melville Caves #2 |
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| Melville Caves #3 |
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| Melville Caves #4 |
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| Melville Caves #5 |
And then onto Maile and David's as they had invited us over for "prosecco o'clock". Maile also put on a lovely antipasto platter.
Once again a very pleasant afternoon, and then back to the house for a special mussel dinner (as I had written earlier Karen had brought up the mussels from Melbourne). We did them in a coriander, coconut, curry sort of stock. Delicious! And Justin went and got chips from the Empire
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| pre dinner drinks |
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| mussel prep |
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| some de-bearded mussels |
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| dinner table with Christmas remote control candles |
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| dinner #1 |
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| dinner #2 |
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| dinner #3 |
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| dinner #4 |
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| dinner #5 |
Woke up early the next morning, and saw the sun golden on the Town Hall opposite, so took a few snaps.
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| golden morning #1 |
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| golden morning #2 |
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| golden morning #3 |
Went back to bed and was just dozing/reading when I heard the previously mentioned crunch on the white stones outside - and it was Gordon - the roof man.
Saw quite a bit of wildlife this time (luckily for David, our international visitor). Saw wallabies, kangaroos and an echidna at Melville Caves. Had a blue tongue lizard sunning itself on a slate tile in the back garden, and also a cannibal daddy longlegs on the kitchen window sill - having wrapped up another daddy long legs in its web.
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| cannibal daddy long legs |
Also saw lots of kangaroos at Maile's, and of course lots and lots of flies. David and I had a walk in the bush, and our backs were just covered in flies. he also suggested that I save champagne corks for a swagman's hat.
We were pretty lucky with the weather also. It was hot, but not too hot, certainly very bearable. I got started on another room which made me pleased, and Justin made a good start on the scullery cupboards, and of course we had a good social time as well.
