Toaster and kettle together 28 & 29 May 2016

I drove up on the Friday night, as Justin was having a "boy's night" going out to a Bob Dylan music night.

The last 1/2 of the drive was a little tense, of course it was dark, but it was also raining, at times quite heavily, which made it that much harder.

I gave myself a fright at one stage - careening into a body of water in the middle of the road.  It made quite a noise, and sent a sheet of water up into the air, there were a couple of smaller ones on the left hand side of the road also, but they were more expected.

Arrived around 9.30, got myself a nice glass of wine, and got cosy in bed watching Monarch of the Glen.

Awoke to a glorious morning and everything was green, and damp.  Went and visited the Op shop ladies,and took a whole lot of Madeleine's stuff - which they were pleased to get, and bought some meat from the butcher.

Liz (old friend from I-View) and a couple of her friends - Sue & Helen had been visiting Bendigo, and had suggested a visit - bringing morning tea with them.  A splendid idea.

Showed them around again (as they'd been up a couple of years ago).  Told them that I couldn't show them the Green room, they'd have to look at it themselves.  They understood my rationale having checked out the blog in preparation for the visit.  (It's funny, sometimes I'll people something about Inglewood, and they'll know already as they had read it in my blog.)

Had our morning tea outside in the sun

Morning Tea with the gals #1

Morning Tea with the gals #2

Morning Tea with the gals #3

With all of this rain and new grass, there were also lots of new weeds, so I did some weeding after they left.  Now, most of the ground is covered in green (some grass, lots of weedy groundcover), as opposed to it being mainly bald over Summer

look at all of that green

Despite the sun, it was a bit cold, so I felt like a hot lunch, and treated myself to a hamburger with the lot from GGs

Justin arrived mid afternoon, but by that stage it was cloudy, our beautiful day had disappeared.

I thought that we would have a nice roast dinner, so did a chicken in the oven with various vegies, and our first open fire of the season.  Had a McLarenvale red in celebration of our recent trip to Kangaroo Island Very cosy.

Maybe not that cosy - Justin with a scarf on inside

roaring fire

Justin made me breakfast on Sunday morning.  Eggs. toast and coffee - and was able to do them all at once, as Powercor had finally come to flick the switch or whatever they did on the last bit of wiring.  We now have no more old wiring, it's all new all safe, all good.  There are still a few niggly things that have to be fixed up - they had lengthened the pull switches, but had just got additional lengths of cord and tied them on.  Not very satisfactory to my way of thinking (and Justin didn't think so either).  The scullery cord still needed lengthening, and the power-point in the kitchen was a bit loose.  So nearly there but not quite.  I sent Josh an email about it, so he'll come back and fix it all up for us.

And, speaking of emails, I emailed the bloke who wrote the cook book that I got my proscuitto recipe from, as I wanted to know if he had any advice as to how to make it less salty - ie use less salt, or have it in the salt solution for less time. I was surprised and pleased when he wrote back very quickly.  Basically he said to keep it in the salt tub for 5 days (I had in there for 3-4 weeks).  The rationale is 1 day per kg, therefore it was a 5kg leg = 5 days.  Helen thought it very funny that I had left it in there for 4 times the length of time that I should have.

However, I thought it could be longer than that, and when I came back to Inglewood this time, I checked the recipe - and yes I'm vindicated.  It's a bit hard to read - but he says  "but I've left it in the salt for over 25 days with the same result"

vindication

   
So, yes I ended up with a very salty proscuitto, but for the first time, it was very good, and I figured the more salt, and the longer the better (belt and braces type approach)

After breakfast some more weeding - didn't quite finish the below patch

lot of weeds

less weeds

And also transplanted some lettuce/rocket etc that had self seeded and was growing in the wrong places.

rocket

more rocket

lettuce

Also took some home to Melbourne to plant

transplants

And found a whole lot of tiny toadstools (unfortunately all the mushrooms have disappeared)

lots of toadstools

red toadstools

different red toadstool

Justin and I also went to visit Samuel who was fixing his guitar amp.  Samuel thought it had been fixed, but had left it for a few days, and when he switched it on to show us, it was popping again - so he wants to look at it some more to fix it properly.

I am also pleased to say that the hole which had been dug as a result of the fuel tanker accident has been refilled, and the temporary traffic lights taken away, however the Royal remains closed after Paul sold the lease.  Let's hope that it reopens again soon.