Carolyn & Morels? 8 & 9 October 2016

My old school mate Carolyn was down from Sydney so she, Justin & I drove up to Inglewood on Friday night after a quick dinner in Melbourne.

Fairly uneventful drive, but it was a bit rainy and misty at times, cleared up by the time we got to Inglewood around 9.30pm or so.

Showed Carolyn around the new and improved house - still waiting on the upstairs hallway lights to be fixed, and Justin pulled the string off the scullery light, so that has to be fixed now, but, it's certainly changed a lot since she was here last.

That was about 4 years ago - when we had a wedding in the garden, the roofing scaffolding was up, and the electrician came to hook up the new hot water service

Below is a photo from when Carolyn was here last in Nov 2011.  Looking very dry, and the side fence had fallen down

brown and threadbare

This is what it looked like this weekend

much greener

Note that the pebble and sand piles are still there (but smaller).  I must admit that Mark had de-weeded the pebble pile, as it had got quite overgrown

Anyway, back to Friday night, we sat in the dining room and had a few drinks and some chocolate.  Nice combination.  Justin went to bed, and Carolyn and I stayed up longer chatting, as we hadn't seen each other for a long time.

Saturday morning, and it was a brilliant sunny blue day.  Carolyn and I went for a pre breakfast walk, leaving Justin to sleep in.  Chose the scenic loop past the rusty eucy equipment, and the very full dam, that I'd walked the week before with Alex, Sarah and Jo.

Saw a couple of kangaroos, some rabbits, an eagle, and more wild flowers - very nice.

Back for breakfast which we had outside on the Mark fixed ex Ocean Grove table.  Also very nice.

Showed Carolyn around town, borrowed some small keys from Gypsies - but none of them fit our locked cabinet.  Will have to keep trying.

Also had to bail out the cellar - I was the bailer and Carolyn and Justin were the carriers - took quite a few trips even though there were only a few centimetres deep.

Lunch was IGA antipasto, cheese, smoked salmon, dip,etc- up on the veranda for a change of scenery,

cheers

Read the papers and relaxed for a while, and then went to Bridgewater, showed Carolyn the river walk, and was surprised at how high the river still was.  Could tell by the submerged bathing platform.

submerged bathing platform #1

submerged bathing platform #2

Carolyn pointing at something

And then a visit to WaterWheel where I bought a mixed dozen.

Back to the house where we picked up Justin,and my supposed morels and drove to Kingower for official morel identification by Arlene.

Saw Terry along the way, and said hello.

Found Arlene and David at the winery, and showed them the morel mushrooms.  They thought they were right, but perhaps a bit finer than theirs, so wanted to compare to their own.  And the internet said that they're supposed to have hollow stalks

My morels #1 

My morels #2 

My morels #3 

Went back to their place, and Arlene pulled out a bag of frozen chopped morels.  Theirs were darker and had thicker striations, but we thought ours were right.  Given that I had found them, I was going to be the guinea pig again, and just try a little. Post script to that story was that we ended up throwing them out.  I'd frozen them in Melbourne and put them in a zip lock bag, and then put them in a cooler bag for transporting.  Anyway, after Arlene's we went to Melville caves, and then onto Kangderaar winery, back home and forgot to refrigerate the cooler bag.  By the time I looked at the morels again on Sunday there was a lot of brown liquid, and they were looking a bit mushy.  Not appetising at all.  So threw them out, hopefully I'll find some more on the verge.  Second post script, just went and had a look with Fraser - couldn't find any at all.  Will have to wait til next year?

Stopped at a wildflower spot just before the caves (Arelene had told me about it, and I remembered it from the tour a few years back)

Found a spider orchid, and some other flowers

spider orchid

unidentified flower

 That said, Melville Caves was perfect, very clear, and lovely blue sky, could see a long way.

Melville Caves #1

meadows of cape weed (pretty though)

Melville Caves view

view #2

between the rocks

Justin #1

Justin #2

And  the garden at Kangderaar Winery winery was lovely also. Lots of very fragrant freesias, ranunculus, some tulips etc.  Bought a case of wine here too.

Back home, and some more relaxing on the veranda.  Justin played his guitar.

And off to the pub for a reasonably early dinner.  We were pleasantly surprised at how quickly our food came.

Back to the house, and upstairs in the music room.  Justin also wanted to watch Would I lie to you on Channel 2.  He also got Carolyn and I up to sing - we were great! (or at least I thought so), however there were no offers forthcoming to join the band....

Carolyn & Justin duet

Sunday morning, and I had planned to go for another walk with Carolyn, however given the late night the night before, I guess I was still a little tired, so didn't wake up til after 8.30 - too late for an hour walk as we had planned to cook up pizza for lunch, So we had breakfast instead, just toast and inside, as it was a bit windy, and grey,

Prepared the pizza dough in the breadmaker, and then went out to weed.  Still lots to do.  Carolyn came out and helped also - told her she didn't have to, but wshe wanted to - very nice.  Justin did a bit of whipper snippering also.

 Filled up Gordon's trailer (again).

Justin fired up the pizza oven, and I prepared the pizzas.

Delicious as always.

pizza for lunch

pizza close up

More weeding after lunch, then a tidy and pack up, and back to Melbourne. dropping Carolyn at the airport.