Rain, and more rain
At least on Friday night when we were supposed to have an annual street party back in Glen Iris. what a pity, it had to be cancelled as we were expecting an unprecedented deluge. Emergency Services had sent millions of Victorians warning texts about flash flooding, don't drive through flood water etc.
As it was, we had a small and unofficial street party on the Friday night which was fun as always, and I left for Inglewood early-ish on Saturday morning.
Given that Ben had picked up the bathroom stuff on Tuesday night, I didn't need to take the ute, so drove there in more comfort in the passat.
Was still pretty wet everywhere
Got to Inglewood around 11 or so, and checked out Ben's progress myself
The upstairs veranda looked fantastic
And the new back veranda likewise looked marvellous
With all of the rain, I was relieved that there didn't appear to have been any roof leaks - must have just rained normally, as opposed to poured.
But that said, the evil bindi eyes have re-emerged after a Winter/Spring hibernation
I went searching and found 49 of them over the 2 days Better to get them early before they get too big and start producing the seeds/prickles
Also checked out the bathroom progress. Nothing fixed in place as yet, but getting there
Top landing is getting a bit full
They had also taken the lino out of the scullery (another awful job - because like the kitchen and the bathroom, the lino had been glued to the floor boards)
And I also saw that contrary to my instructions they had patched up and sanded the rest of the cracks in our bedroom.
I must admit that I was a little bit annoyed by this - as the weekly wages bills had been steadily creeping up - and we didn't want to run out of money before the bathroom was finished. I think I've written earlier that I had set Ben an initial task of doing the cellar stairs and replacing the bad boards. He did them well, so we then discussed him doing the bathroom, but then this ballooned into taking up all of the lino, doing the upstairs veranda, making a new downstairs deck etc etc - and of course it all added up $ wise. That said, they did a good job with the bedroom, so I was ultimately pleased.
Ben doesn't quote for a job, at the end of the week, he advises how many hours he and his blokes have worked. It's obviously a trust scenario. He also likes to keep them busy, so if there's down time, he gets them to work on something else ie cracks in bedroom, or sanding the front door etc.
Basically we want them to do work that either we can't do - like the bathroom decks etc, or that we don't want to do it pulling up the lino in the kitchen, sanding down the front door etc. Work that we can do ie filling sanding cracks in our room is within our capabilities, and we'd rather not pay them to do it.
Side of the house has also changed a little bit ie they've removed that awful black foam pipe that was running up the side of the house from the bathroom. They'd also moved the wood stand around to the side of the house
As you can see from the photos it was a dull and grey Saturday, I had thought of going out into the garden and weeding after lunch, but then it started raining, so I stayed in the dining room and read The Saturday Age online, and also had a restorative nap, as the non official Street party had ended up close to 1am, and I was a bit tired.
Got back to business around 4pm, as I had decided to make an onion tart for the 1st Saturday of the month get together in Kingower.
Now the kitchen was looking nice and clean and uncluttered, which meant that Karen and Mark's old oven wasn't there. This made it a bit tricky to cook a tart!. Luckily I still had the small bench oven, and once I'd found some scales, the flour, and a tart tin I was in business.
Drove up to the Church in Kingower around 6.15, and went in with Maile and David who arrived at the same time.
Mark G had organised a Fire safety talk by the bloke from Rheola? who we'd seen a couple of years ago on the Village Green. basically told us the same sort of stuff again, ie have a fire plan, no plantings within 10m of the house, have an escape bag packed etc.
After he'd finished, had a good catchup with everyone, and shared out slices of onion tart. Had made the base very short - lots of butter - people liked it. Was finished quite convincingly.
Terry put the movie once it got dark - Hidden Figures - about black women working for NASA in the 1960s. I'd seen it before, but still enjoyed it.
Also asked Terry when we'd go yabbying - and he suggested tomorrow - fabulous!
He said we should start early, so I got there at 9am. We set the nets in his dam, and then went back to the house for a coffee. Chatted, and then checked the nets. nothing in mine, a few in his. We repeated this a few times - and maybe the 3rd or 4th time I had some yabbies ( I was using chicken for bait, Terry was using beef)
I was so thrilled when I had more than 2 yabbies - 2 being the maximum I had ever caught in one sitting before. I had about 8 or 10 in that session, and then caught another 6 or so afterwards. Put the small ones back in the dam
Terry also asked me to lunch. Pulled some pasties out of his freezer, and cooked up some of his yabbies. He also opened a jar of pickled asparagus. Told me that he'd picked it wild and then pickled it. Was crisp,vinegary and delicious. Was a marvellous lunch - of course he'd made the pasties, and he'd foraged for the yabbies and asparagus.
In fact, he let me into a secret, and showed me where the asparagus was growing wild. I felt very privileged to be shown - "in with the in crowd" - didn't take my phone to take photos, as this place must be kept secret.
Basically it was growing in drifts, and we had to find the spears before they got too big and started to flower/ become ferny. I wondered how it had got there originally. It must be very tough, as it's obviously not tended to. There's hope yet for my little ferns that I have growing from seed in the vegie patch.
Went back to the house after this, and tidied up, looked for more bindis and ate some ripe young berries. First time I've got fruit from those canes
Wandered up the street to go and say hello to Denise. Didn't really feel like a coffee ( had already had 2 or 3 at Terry's) so we went to the Empire and had a lemon lime and bitters each. By that stage it was nice and sunny, and we were feeling a bit warm.
Left for Melbourne around 5pm, with my frozen yabbies (Terry had humanely dispatched them by freezing) and my bouquet of asparagus
And yes, that's what we had for dinner as well as a salami that I'd taken from the cellar.
Perfect - home made salami (was excellent this year, very tasty,great colour and consistency), my own olives, and the yabbies that I'd caught today.
I must say that the bowl of yabbies didn't produce that much meat - but they were delicious! The shell bowl was much fuller than the meat bowl.
Didn't eat the asparagus that night - pickled it on Monday (equal boiling water and vinegar)
