The Chill has gone, haircut, weeding and mulch

My hair was getting a bit scrappy, so I booked in for a 3pm haircut/colour with Michelle on Thursday, and also contacted Maile to see if she and David were having their fortnightly dinner at the pub tonight

And yes they were, and they invited me - or rather I asked if I could come along too.

They came and picked me up around 6.30 (so I wouldn't be waiting there by myself) They had some other friends there also - most of whom I'd met before

I had the fisherman's basket which was pretty good.  They've changed the set up a bit.  Now you get your own salad and hot vegies at the salad station/bainmarie near the TV. Seems to work well.

Given Justin's influence, I bought a bottle of Shiraz to share. I wanted a local one, so bought a Blanche Barkly, 2008.  Was like nectar!

Had a relatively early night, walked back home and watched a Bosch or 2 on my laptop

On Friday, had breakfast on the back deck, and a glimpse of red in the grass near the vegie patch caught my eye.  On closer inspection it was a small Flanders poppy

Ended up moving it to a "safer" position in a front garden bed.  Hopefully it will survive, as it has some more buds yet to flower

Weeded /gardened pretty much all day, I also tried something new, which was listening to a podcast while gardening - Teachers Pet - about a young wife/mother who disappeared - presumed murdered 36 years ago.  Quite gripping 

More of the same on Saturday morning,

 I thought I'd concentrate on the front, as there were quite a few weeds there

And then drove into Bendigo to pick up Justin who was catching the train. 

Alex and Sarah were originally going to come, and one of them would have given Justin a lift, but then Alex got a stomach bug, and Sarah had a rotten night's sleep, so neither came

Given that Justin was arriving after 12.10pm I thought we might have lunch at the Wine Bank on View Street

It was a lovely day, however the shaded outside seats were taken, so we sat inside.  Very impressive space, bit like Syracuse (both had been Victorian banks)

We had a Chef's platter to share, and I had some lovely french rose to drink

Was a terrific, leisurely lunch

And then back to  Inglewood, and recommenced my weeding

Also went and bought 3 x 10kg bags of chicken manure from David, as well as 3 dozen eggs for my CWA Christmas baking

Found a dead and pecked mouse on the grass whilst tracking to and from Gordon's trailer (weeds)

  
Last week we had tried to see a new bloke about putting in a watering system for the "orchard", and moving the tanks etc.  And he came and met up with us Saturday afternoon.  Seems good, and will hopefully start up in a couple of weeks.  I will be very glad when I don't have to hand water anymore, as it takes well over an hour....

We also went to the 1st Saturday of the month on the Village Green in Kingower.  Was a lovely evening, still, clear, and not cold.  In fact, the chill has gone - until next Winter I suppose

Drove back home (no kangaroos) around 7.30 or so.  Assembled an antipasto type platter for dinner and watched I Tonya on Google movies

Sunday morning - and more weeding....And then, miraculously, I had finished, or I had had done what I had wanted to achieve

So, I asked Justin to water the front beds (as I believe that you shouldn't mulch on dry surfaces), and I started spreading out the mulch that I had bought earlier in the year. 

It was quite warm, I still had my "Winter" coveralls on but had the top half down tied around my waist.  Next time I will have to transition to my "Summer" overalls.  

We were pretty pleased with our work, the garden is looking good, and getting ready for Summer 

 I also took some photos of my teeny tiny asparagus - re-grown from last year's wild asparagus

   My happy lettuces and spinach

And flowering rhubarb - which I've never seen before

Justin liked these pig face flowers

All in all the vegie patch and rest of the garden was looking pretty good (dry though)

Used up the last least year's home made salami for lunch

On the way back to Melbourne I asked Justin to take some photos of the stunning carpets of gazanias on the roadside between Inglewood and Bridgewater.  It was hard to get a photo to capture the vast expanse 

Murder Dinner Party & Grand Final 28-30 September 2018

Well, another big weekend....

But first, Justin and I had to drop by Jan and Peter's to pick up some heavy pieces of mahogany/red gum? which had been their kitchen bench-top, and will be eventually re-purposed into one for us at Inglewood

So arrived at Inglewood around 12, unloaded the ute, had a quick wander around, and yes the "grass" is yellowing off, and a quicker lunch - butter chicken pie from the bakery, and then I was off to Maile's for her "Old Ladie's" movie afternoon

A small group, myself, Maile, June and Jan, and we watched "I can only Imagine", which I hadn't heard of previously

Was a bit of a tear jerker, so Maile brought out the tissues....

I left around 4pm, as Karen and Mark would have arrived by then.  I also dropped in on Terry first to give him the Dane's $40 for the Music Night.  Had a coffee and a chat, and he showed me the table that he's fixed up for us - looks great!

I also invited him to dinner at the pub tonight

So back to the house, a cheerio to Karen and Mark,and a bit of weeding before dinner.... I was also very pleasantly surprised to see that Justin and Mark had extended the white pebble path around the tap etc - looks fantastic

Terry arrived around 6pm with the table, and Justin was very impressed.  He'd fixed up the central crack, got rid of most of the unsightly marks, but kept the patina of age, and then french polished it.  Very professional, and much better than the condition that we had received it in (with a half crack)

Had a G&T in the dining room, we'd lost the sun on the veranda, and it was cooling down rapidly.

Went to the Royal for dinner.  I had fish and chips which were very good.  Also enjoyed Mark and Chrissie's Both Banks red wine

And then back to our place, had thought it would be an early night, but that wasn't to be.  Went upstairs and Justin started playing his guitar, and given that there no actual singers there, invited Karen and I to come up and belt out some tunes - which we did with not too much urging

Mark, Terry and Moby had more sense

Karen had some down time also

Anyway, some how it got to 1.30am, which is when I called it quits.  Unfortunately our pristine table somehow developed some new water marks and a couple of scratches - what a PITY! I had put out place mats, but should have used a table cloth.  Terry also said that maybe the polish hadn't quite cured yet

Well, a late night, and luckily a sleep in!  I did wake up around 6am, and read for a little while, but then fell asleep again, and re woke up around 9.30am - fantastic!

Gave Justin some toast and coffee in bed, and I read the Age on line.  Karen got up after 10, and Mark got up at 10.50am, and was extremely surprised by the time, he thought it was only about 9am.....


We thought that we would have hotdogs for our Grand Final lunch, so Karen and I set off for the shop, and bumped into Terry outside who had arrived with a bucket and some shellac etc to fix up the table, what a great friend!

More weeding/gardening, and then our hotdogs for lunch

Prepared the venison for slow cooking and popped it in the oven, and then went with Karen to harvest some scrounged asparagus in the secret location.  However there was none there, not a skerrick,  The reason I had gone, was that I'd had a look at Maile's and she had plenty.  And it had just come up in the last 2 weeks....so is very fast growing.

No matter, but I didn't want to buy any, I had it in my mind that I wanted wild asparagus

So back to the house, and more weeding - didn't bother with the Grand Final.  Mark gave me occasional updates ie Collingwood ahead, until they weren't in the last 5 minutes...

Came back inside around 4.30, and did roast potatoes, carrots, bean puree, salad etc

Then a shower and dressed in my finest for our Murder Dinner Party, - I was Major Lady Hilary Bagshaw, in the horsey set with pearls of course.

Damo and Nicole arrived around 6 while we were still getting ready.  I hadn't actually given them a definite time.  No matter, they waited a few minutes in the dining room

Had an introductory G&T and cheese and biscuits, salami, olives etc before we slipped into character

And then the games began....

Karen - Lindsay Johnson - the young secretary
Mark - the handsome flying ace, Captain Samuel Roberts
Justin - dashing Lt Commander Nathaniel Cooper
Damo - Lt Rex Diamond, duty officer, handsome, charming, irresistible to women
Nicole - Sheila Barnes, young witty intelligent, highly efficient

Started with Karen's spicy tomato soup, then my slow cooked venison shoulder, with white bean puree, roast potatoes and salad and custard and cake from Nicole. And of course lots of wine!

The game progressed with lots of laughter, but not that many clues, or that much  information.  At the end we had to say who we think had committed the murder, why, and how, and none of us got it right.  In fact I had played my role so well, that I was the popular choice for the murderer (and it wasn't me)  We all decided that we would have needed further information in order to make an informed guess.  But it didn't really matter as we all had a lot of fun

And yep, it was another late night.....after 1am again, and so yep it was another late start to the morning.

We had called up someone to come and give us a quote on the orchard fence, watering system etc, and he was going to come at 10am,  However he was too busy, so we had to make it another time

Tidied up a bit last night, but there was still more to do....Karen did a lot of it while I was out in the garden.  What a good friend

Toast and coffee for breakfast, and a bit more work in the garden

Found some home grown wheat also - which I didn't pull out.  Might keep it in as an experiment

Justin had also taken some nice photos in the garden

For lunch I suggested that we have a picnic at Melville Caves - Justin wasn't that keen, so I brought some chairs, chips, savoury shapes etc to soften him up.  ie I even brought up some Almond Magnums in a freezer bag, and they went down a treat

It was glorious up there - sunny and blue, clear and still

Quite a few groups of people passed through, but we had a good spot off to one side

On the way back we stopped at Mark and Chrissie's place as we had liked the Both Banks wine at the Royal on Friday, and thought we would buy some

Mark welcomed us with some generous tastings, and then we walked around the vineyard - lovely

Back to the house, after purchasing a case of red each, a bit more gardening for me, and Justin did a bit of whipper snippering