Easter 2017 13 - 17th April 2017

Another Easter at Inglewood

Justin and I drove up on Thursday night (Mum, Helen & kids were still there from last week).  Mum had stayed up, while Helen had gone to bed.  We arrived around 10pm, I went to bed and read, Justin stayed up for a little while.

Good Friday, and we managed to have a sleep in again. I think Helen must be keeping the kids upstairs and quiet until she hears that we are up...

Anyway, the weather all Easter was lovely and mild, just right for more yabby hunting.  Helen and the kids and I went on multiple occasions to various dams, even as far afield as Tarnagulla where we yabbied and fished for redfin (as per Terry's suggestion).  No luck anywhere.  The closest we came to anything was at the Inglewood reservoir where a large yabby hung onto my fishing line bait, however it let go once I had got it out of the water.















Michaela got excited at one stage, as she thought she'd caught something, but it was just a stick - which she wanted me to take a photo of



Another unfortunately short lived activity was playing with Justin's brand new drone.  He took it out on Friday morning, and flew it around the garden, much to Xavier's delight.

 It went higher than the Hoop Pine, and then just disappeared over the horizon.  Well, not literally, but as good as.  Justin flew it beyond the Hoop pine and over towards the olive trees, and then it was too high/too far from contact, and just continued on towards the CFA.  At first we thought it was funny, and then it wasn't.  Justin rushed off in the car with Xavier in tow, Anyway, they had no luck.  Below is the first and last photo taken with it.

 







Helen and the kids and I went off later on to search, but we had no luck either.  It was quite small, and could have landed on a roof, in a tree, someone's back yard etc.  The CFA volunteers were out and about collecting money for the Good Friday appeal, and they kept a look out also.

I put up a few notices re "lost drone" but Steve from Inglewood Emporium said people were laughing at it, thought it was a bit of a joke.  Oh well, at least it wasn't too expensive.

 And of course we had a number of games of scrabble with Mum

Despite not catching our dinner, I made a rather nice fish coulibiac - with a sour cream dill sauce 











Also had some nice lunches under the tree - between yabby hunting expeditions





Justin played a bit of music - with some help? from the kids






The kids took Denise's dog for a walk - much to their delight







And Justin commenced work on the scullery cupboard doors - buying some wood and routing the edges





I pottered around in the garden, found a few more bindis and tidied up a bit.

Terry had invited us around to dinner on Saturday night, along with Arlene, David and Alvin.  He made a superb meal as always.  A lovely antipasto platter, followed by prawns and avocado with a lime mayonnaise sauce, pesto rolled chicken with scalloped potatoes, and matchstick carrots and zucchini.  Dessert was creme caramel with a strawberry couli. Delicious, and so beautifully presented.  I feel very slapdash by comparison with my food. And of course the guitars/mandolins came out after dinner. Terry had fixed up Justin's Dad's old ukulele banjo again - so that it can now hold a tune.  So he was rather pleased.

Helen and Mum left on the Sunday,as Helen wanted to get everything organised for school - after the kids of course found lots of Easter eggs.  So Justin and I had a quiet movie night at home, saw the Upside of Anger and I started to see the original Italian Job - but fell asleep, so went to bed. Juatin stayed up to watch it all, an old favourite. (we had seen the Holiday with Mum and Helen on Friday night, it was ok, but pretty light on)

Easter Monday and of course the tradition was to go to the Rheola Show - 147th !

Dare I say, it was the same old same old, lovely of course.  Tractors, wood chops, sheepdog trials, steam engines, vintage cars etc.  Saw some of the usual suspects there, and then went home for lunch.  Justin took the below photos - as you can see he loves the tractors and only one of the sheep


    



























And here are some of my photos

I had a chuckle about the sausage testimonials

And here was one of the sausages - pretty tasty too

Helen and the kids again 7-9th April 2017

I had planned to go up on early Friday morning, as it's my day off.  However, I just had an hour or 2 of work to complete for an important meeting on Monday, one hour turned into two, two into four, and I didn't end up leaving till just before 4pm.(but at least it was done)

Given the time, I unfortunately struck traffic going into the City, and then a bit more on the Bolte Bridge... oh well.  Arrived at Inglewood around 6.30pm, and Mum and Helen had dinner waiting for me - a garlic pasta dish.  I had wanted to relax with a G&T on the veranda, but it was getting dark by the time I arrived, so not that conducive.

Dinner was good, kids not too raucous, and we had a game of scrabble after dinner (Mum's favourite)

Early-ish night, and a little bit of a lie in, read the Age on line in bed.  I must say that Helen kept Xavier pretty quiet in the morning.  Normally he can't be muffled....

Got up around 8.30 - nice, and had breakfast outside, was cool, but lovely in the sun.  I was currently Xavier's favourite person, and he always wanted to sit next to me, do what I was doing etc.

After breakfast, we all trooped up to the Op Shop to say hello to the ladies, (i bought a book about ex- pats in Tuscany) then to the butcher to buy some pork for dinner, and then onto the IGA to get some further supplies, including some yabby bait.

Yep, I was determined to do a bit more yabby hunting.  

We set off full of high hopes, up to Webbs Dam in Kingower.  Took a couple of chairs and some reading material also

   





Helen and the kids went for a walk around the dam, and skimmed stones etc, while I waited patinetly for our monster haul.




Used some raw chicken wings for bait.  Left the the nets in there for an hour, and pulled them out with great excitement....



Unfortunately - nothing....

So we packed up, but left the nets there, and went back to the house for lunch, where we had some sandwiches under the tree, and then another game of scrabble

After having left them there for a few hours, we  ventured back to Webb's Dam to check the nets.

And.... joy, there were two large yabbies in the 2nd net.  Two yabbies does not a meal make, nor even a snack really, so we threw them back to live another day





By this stage, it was a bit wet and rainy, but we were thrilled by our catch

Anyway, back to the house, as I'd also asked Terry over for dinner (and was planning a nice one for us all)

I made a couple of dips for starters, and had some cheeses to go with them.  Then the pork, various roast vegies, and salads,

Harvested my first ever pomegranate to be used in a pomegranate, cucumber and fetta salad.
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And, as my crowning glory - schwetchen knodels (plum dumplings, except the IGA had no plums, so I used nectarines.

I wanted it to be a surprise for Mum, so just found a recipe on the internet, and didn't tell her what I was making.  She normally makes a couple of batches over the Summer, but hadn't made one this Summer, and they were always such a treat for Helen and I growing up  - Austrian delicacy.

Terry arrived pretty much bang on time at 5.30, and by this stage the weather had improved again, and was still relatively warm, so we had the starters on the veranda (might be the last time for this season)

Xavier was being a bit rambunctious at this stage, but nothing was spilled or broken, so it was OK.

Down to the dining room for dinner, and it was all delicious (if I do say so myself)



Mum was delighted by the knodels (dumplings), and declared it the best surprise ever
(she may have been exaggerating a little)



Sunday, and I actually slept in til 9am.  Granted I was woken around 5am by the insistent thunder and lightening - as it had been going most of the night....quite a bit of rain too (and the roof leaked ...will have to get our roof man back again)

I fell asleep again, but woke again around 7am, and read for a bit, fell asleep again, and then got up at 9am - everyone had been keeping very quiet.  I was very impressed,

Given the rain, and that it was cold, we, or rather I had breakfast inside.  The others had all eaten earlier.

I'd told Terry last night about our yabby venture, and he had invited us to come and try our luck at his dam.  I had also angled for some more basil to make more pesto, which he was glad to give to me,so we went up there around 10 or so.

He put some yabby nets in also - but used some beef for bait
'






So let the nets do their thing, and went back inside Terry's place for a nice hot coffee and a chat.  Also harvested some lovely red and golden delicious apples.





And then back to the nets.  Xavier was very excited, and pulled our two out first.  Nothing!!

Terry then pulled his first net out, and he had about 4 little ones, and then he pulled out his second, and he had about 10 little ones...(not fair as Xavier might say).  Some of them were so little that they were able to escape through the holes in the net.  Definitely not big enough to keep, but good to let grow for next year's catching...Anyway, we were still excited, and considered it a "group" success.



Back to Terry's house and Xavier declared himself "starving" so we went back to our house and had some hot pies.  Just right for a cold day.

But that said, we weren't finished with our yabby hunting. This time off to the Inglewood reservoir,.  where we left the nets a while in order to catch as many as possible.  But unfortunately once again - nothing!

Back to the house, and another game of scrabble, and then I packed up and left, leaving Mum, Helen and the kids as its School holidays.  But we'll be back at Easter.