Planned to catch the train to Bendigo and then the coach onto Inglewood on Friday after work, however, they're doing track work for the next month on the Bendigo line, so had to catch a stop start coach (very jerky driving in the peak hour traffic) to Bendigo, and then another coach to Inglewood.
From door to door it was close to 4 1/2 hours! Obviously some of this was down time through waiting - waited til 6pm for the 1st coach to leave, and then had to wait another 3/4 hour for the Inglewood coach. No matter, I had both a book and an ipad.
Arrived around 9.30, and settled into bed and watched a couple of episodes of Monarch of the Glen. They likewise had a touch of damp in the cellar (which with typical British understatement was few feet of water)
Had a lovely leisurely breakfast outside with my standard morning classical music and the newspaper. Then mixed up a double batch of pizza dough in preparation for lunch.
Went and had my haircut at 9.45 (this was why I came last night, Justin didn't feel like driving up on Friday, and wanted to take his time on Saturday morning)
Justin arrived after 12, and we did a bit of a tidy, and made the guest beds. Leslie, Chris, Andrew & Miranda came around 1pm. Welcomed them with some bubbles
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| Andrew & Lesley |
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| Chris & Miranda in the background |
Showed Andrew and Miranda around, as they hadn't been here before. Cracked open a bottle of bubbly and the gals assisted me with the pizzas, while the blokes went and kept Justin company with the pizza oven.
Jill and Mick also dropped by with 3 cases of wine (which I'd ordered). It was sadly the last of the Old Loddon.....that was it no more. Chris and Leslie had asked for 2 boxes, and we took one box. Jill said there might be a few odd ones lying around in the sheds etc, but certainly no more cases. It was a little bit sad, end of an era.
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| here's a photo I found of Jill from the internet |
Another splendid leisurely, late lunch under the Hoop pine, and Miranda told us about her Bunya Bunya and how some guitar makers had taken the wood (they'd been offered it), but they'd heard nothing since. Given that they didn't pay for the wood, and it's quite rare, the expectation was a couple of ukuleles. - unmet so far....
After lunch we went for a wander in town. They were interested in looking at the antique stores. Also stopped for a drink at the pub where we said hello to Enzo and also saw Christopher (who'd been up in Wedderburn, Wally's old mate). Didn't recognise Christopher at first, because he was out of context, and I'd been told that he was living in Melbourne now, but he's moved to Inglewood, behind the old bakery.
After the pub, we were all a bit tired, so I suggested a siesta which was enthusiastically embraced. So we all retired for a couple of hours, and actually slept.
Woke up refreshed around the same time, and very surprised that it was 7pm! How did that happen?
Up to the veranda for some light nibbles and G&Ts - it's that time of the year, and it was a lovely evening.
And then it was onto dinner prepararations, as I thought it would be nicer to have dinner at home in the dining room. Prepared our fabulous, never fail Inglewood pork rack, and some veggies, and then just let it cook
Dinner in the dining room, lots of wine and good conversation, and another late night. Prepared a ciabatta bread loaf for the morning(sadly it didn't work out, didn't put the pan in the machine properly, so had a half cooked floury mess). Dinner was great though,
Upstairs to the music room where Justin led, and the rest of us joined in wholeheartedly
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| Andrew on harmonica and Justin on guitar |
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| Miranda and Lesley admiring the performance |
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| a trio now |
A latish start on Sunday morning. Some who will remain nameless, slept in til after 10am. Excellent blackout curtains.
Chris Lesley, and I also went for a walk to what Chris called the junk/scrap yard, but was really where those rusted out tanks are, and the very full yabby dam. I think he might have wanted to salvage something, but both Lesley and I knew the pieces were beyond redemption.
Nice walk anyway, just did the mini one, not the big circuit
Back to the house, and then a walk around town. We all had a coffee at the Paris end of town at Gee Gees, and then into some of the shops. Barry at Fusspots had a few keys for me to try on our locked glass cabinet. Chris was sure that they wouldn't work, but I wanted to try anyway. And yes, of course they didn't work.
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| Coffee at Gee Gees |
However Chris had also brought a whole lot of keys. His didn't fit either, but he had also brought tools and had a key that was a close enough fit that could be filed down.
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| Chris' box of odd keys |
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| the locked cabinet |
And yes, brilliant success, he did it! The cabinet is open!
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| Unlocked!!!! |
I also planted a whole lot of cuttings, plants that Lesley and Miranda had brought for me. Hopefully at least some of them will survive.
I should also say that the almonds are looking nice and plump, lots of nuts on most of the trees. with a bit of luck we'll even get to eat some of them - ie the cockies won't get them all
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| plump almonds |
The Buninyong crew left before lunch, and I did some more weeding after they left.
And our last job was to remove the old oval table from what was the study, as we planned to take it back to Melbourne to repair the crack down the middle.
Now I don't remember it being a problem getting it into that room. Maybe I didn't assist Justin that time, but it was certainly extremely difficult getting it out this time. We made a number of attempts, and almost gave up. Thought we might have to take the door off. But no we turned it over, flipped it around, did all sorts of things to coax it through the door, and finally made it, without too much damage done to either the door frame or the table
Got it onto the ute, packed up and left. Weather was fine when we left, but started to spit a bit and then rain quite steadily. Not good, but what could we do. Didn't have a tarp. So had a wet table and bags. All survived
