Midweek visitors :- Monday 10 December - Tuesday 11 December 2019

Karen's cousin David was visiting from Wales again, and Mark was taking him on a winery tour again, and they wondered if they could drop in

Sure, Fraser also joined me, he drove us to Inglewood, on Monday afternoon, after first dropping in and seeing Mum.

We got there in time for a late lunch, so I sent Fraser to the bakery to get us some pies.

Ate outside under the tree, as it was a very nice day

Took some photos for my work colleague Alison, as we'd had our work Christmas lunch on Friday, and ended up at the refurbished Esplanade Hotel- parts of which were quite similar to Nimmitabel.  However Alison who is friends with one of the owners said that the Esplanade distressed look was rather expensive, and faux, ours is real....

Mark and David arrived soon afterwards

And Fraser helped me with some weeding - there were lots of dock weeds by the back fence, in front of the yuccas, by the other shed etc

Donned gloves as they were spiky!

Once it hit 5pm, washed my hands, had a shower, and then a welcome Gin and tonic on the top veranda - with the boys which was very nice

Google also made up a now vs 4 years? ago photo for me

And onto the Empire afterwards.  Mark very generously shouted us all dinner, so I got the drinks.  I tried to get that fab Mary Eileen Blanche Barkly 2008 Shiraz again, but Steve couldn't find any more, so I bought the Hut - still good, but not as good...

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Back home and out on the veranda again. Polished off another bottle of wine.

Casual breakfast of toast and coffee.  Mark and David thought they'd go and have a look around Bendigo, so  I continued in the garden.

Because there had been quite a bit of rain lately, the ground was moist (we had driven past puddles), and there were new patches of green in our garden. And there were even mushrooms, and the sound of frogs!

The weeds were also rather easy to pull out, and oh so satisfying

Fraser came out and helped a bit too

As always, I was rather keen to catch some yabbies...., and Fraser  accompanied me to a nearby dam - which was pretty full

Prior to this I had somewhat bribed him, by suggesting that he go and get us a couple of burgers for lunch from GGs.  He tried, but they were closed.  I then suggested the Bakery again, but they were closed too.  Ridiculous!

In the end he bought some fancy pies from the IGA, and we put them in the small oven - which limited how long we could be away yabbying

He had his timer on his mobile to let us know when to come back and eat

Walked around a bit on the sharp look out for gold... as it had been raining, and we assumed the nuggets would all rise to the surface - this was while we were waiting for the yabbies to crawl into the nets

Saw some pretty big ant mounds - but not one yabby!

Anyway, his timer went off and we hurried back for our pies - only thing was that we didn't put the timer on the little oven, which meant that the heat didn't go on either!  We still had frozen pies.

So cheated a little, and put them in the microwave, and then finished them off in the oven.  Was Ok, and ate them under the tree.

After lunch, thought we'd try our luck again, this time at the dam in the Kingower - but no luck here either....

Stayed maybe an hour, and then back to the house.  Mark and David had returned, and had done the dishes - hooray!

Helen had called earlier and said that Mum had had a fall at home, and that she was taking her to Emergency to get checked out.

I had planned on leaving Inglewood around 5pm to miss the Melbourne peak hour traffic, but we ended up  leaving around 4pm - with Fraser driving again.  Got home, picked up Justin and Mad, and we drove into Box Hill Hospital to see Mum.  She was still in Emergency, they hadn't given her a room yet.  Lights were flashing and alarms beeping, over Mum, and no one seemed to be doing anything.  I found it quite upsetting, so took a photo of the monitor, so that I could text it to our neighbour who is a doctor, and see if she could interpret it for us.  This somehow got the nurses to do something, I guess they didn't like me taking a photo, and they came and explained that it wasn't as bad as it appeared.

Mum eventually got a private room in Oncology around 10pm. We celebrated her birthday with her on the Thursday, with French champagne, Glenn Miller, home made orange cake, dips and cheese.  And she sadly died the next day on Friday 21 December.  We'll miss you Mum

Another quick visit 7 - 9 December 2018

Received a call from Gordon during the week....

And it wasn't good news

The newly installed tanks were sinking a bit...

There had apparently been a lot of rain, and the tanks were full and heavy

I guess the concrete hadn't set properly or something....

Anyway, Justin called up T to discuss, who went out to investigate, and took the tanks back down (after emptying them first), and then removed the stands

He sent a photo showing the holes full of water, but I didn't really understand it - as the ground is normally bone dry. 

Anyway, it means we have to start over again.  Arghh!

No stand this time, rather wooden boxes filled with stones.  Gordon had dropped by on the Sunday morning, and suggested using up the broken bricks and rubble.

Anyway, I didn't get to Inglewood til early Friday evening, as I had some CWA cooking duties to attend to

Made a pumpkin and fetta tart

And lemon zest shortcrust pie shells for lemon meringue pies

Dropped them off at Margaret's (was for a catering job that we had) after 4pm, and then onto Inglewood

The fence had been painted

And water timers installed - unfortunately not automatic ones

There must have been a few hot days, my Youngberries which had been looking fabulous were dried on the cane (but they still tasted nice)

But that said, I've got a couple of lemons forming on the "new" tree.  let's see if they go through to maturity

And my asparagus is still going strong  - hoorah - as it hasn't been watered for a while

And, my earwig traps are tremendously effective.  I had noticed that something was eating the rhubarb, and some of the parsley so filled a couple of small jars with some oil

This is what I caught :-

 

I emptied it out, and put some more oil in the jars, we'll see how many earwigs I'll have caught next time

Had some Melbourne left overs for dinner, and then watched The Missing on SBS on Demand

Read the Age on line on Saturday morning, watered the garden, pulled a few weeks, and close to 20 bindi eyes, and then just stayed inside and read some more as it was another scorcher (close to 40 degrees).

Had an afternoon catch-up and iced coffee with Denise

Put the orchard water system on in the later afternoon, and saw there was a leak

Invited Terry for dinner at the pub, with a G&T at the house first.

We went to the Royal, and tried something different - a chicken caesar salad - and it was pretty good.

Got home around 10.30 or so, and read some more (Crazy Rich Asians) - then lights out, but couldn't sleep. (had a coffee at the pub after dinner) 

So read some more....

Finally turned lights off again around 2.15am....and fell asleep, but woke up again at 6.30am! And couldn't get back to sleep, despite my best efforts.

Felt a bit out of sorts all day - tired, and a bit sick

Was another hot one, but also stormy.  Lots of thunder and lightening, and had also had some heavy downpours, so read inside until Carolyn C came (she had been in Castlemaine).  We had a simple lunch - dip, cheese, olives - very nice 

Went for a little walk, - and then sat out the front and chatted.

She left around 3 or so, and I left not long afterwards, and was pretty tired on the drive home.  Was thinking of pulling over to nap, but didn't end up needing to.  Had an early night though

November Birthdays 23- 25 November 2018

Well, given that we have so many November birthdays in the family - me, Justin, Alex, Peter, Flissy, Michaela, I thought that we would have a November birthdays weekend - invite everyone up, tell them first in gets the bedrooms, (after Christmas 2016, I'd told our kids that they could have a room in the house, and that they wouldn't need to stay in a tent)

We've basically got 6 bedrooms set up - 2 King beds, 2 Queens, 2 King Singles in one bedroom, and 1 single, plus a sofa bed couch in the big upstairs rooms, and 3 x fold up beds

Anyway, Justin and I had our room downstairs,

Madeleine and April shared the downstairs green room,

 Alex had the red room upstairs,

Sarah had the Lime Parfait room upstairs,

Penny and Amber had the little yellow room (we had thought that Amber would share with the other 2 girls)

and Fraser, Zac, and Martin shared the room above the kitchen. 

Nin, Clare, Rory and Charly stayed at the Bridgewater Motel.

So, Justin Fraser and I left on Friday around 6, it was pouring with rain, and quite a lot of traffic on the Monash.  Fraser was driving, trying to get his hours up, so it was good experience for him.

Traffic thinned out after the Bolte Bridge, once we were on the Calder, and Fraser drove very well.

Got to Inglewood in the last gasp of daylight close to 9pm, which was good, and we didn't see any kangaroos.  Had also stopped raining by the time we passed the Great Dividing Range.

In order to appease the boys I had bought some yummy goodies, nice cheeses, small goods, chips, nuts etc, as the shops were bound to be closed by the time we got to Inglewood, and the pub kitchens would be closed too ie after 8pm.

So we had our snacks, and a drink, and then didn't feel like dinner (I was going to pull a frozen pizza out of the freezer.

The boys then went upstairs and Justin played a bit of guitar

And then they watched a movie - Buster Scruggs (not my favourite), and I read in bed

It was lovely to wake up there on Saturday morning, The day dawned lovely, blue and bright

   
Meanwhile the others were advising me via  whatspp how miserable it was in Melbourne

Sarah did send a photo saying that she was approaching sunshine (Zac was driving)

After breakfast, I inspected what Troy had done - ie put up the fence, set up the tanks etc

Moved the old tank away - not sure what we're going to do with it, cut it down form garden beds?, chuck it, give it away?

New fence is looking good - now we just have to do the other side ie trellis and kiwi fruit

Troy also irrigated my young berries

Starting to look dry

I must admit that it started clouding up later in the morning, but it then cleared up again to be lovely

All of the others (apart from Madeleine) arrived for a late-ish lunch which we enjoyed under the big tree

Fraser and some of the cousins climbed the tree - and luckily no broken bones or even sprains....

Went for a walk afterwards

 Sarah liked the look of the racing cars - thought Curtis would appreciate them

Boys played with the footy/soccer ball

 Penny, Justin and Alex had a musical afternoon

And then of course G&Ts on the veranda - and watched Madeleine arrive in the Ute (she had been working at Coles til 3pm)

Dinner at Royal

And a few games of pool

An animated Justin

Nice twilight views of the town hall through the pub grape vines

3 brothers mucking around on their mobile phones - like three wise monkeys

A fourth with Sarah

Off the mobiles now

And stripey women - someone must have sent a memo

More pool at the end of the night (and I ended up beating Clare in a very tight match)

Then back to the house for more Music, I helped Justin and Penny out, much to Madeleine's amusement ... And then some tv for some

Sunday morning, and people were getting up at all different times.  I had thought we'd have bacon and eggs but too hard to coordinate, so people just made themselves toast as they got up

We had brought Basil up for the first time in a long time (since Christmas 2016) - and although he was quiet in the car, he made a bit of a nuisance of himself pissing on both Alex's and Sarah's bags etc .

And he got into the linen press, also under/within Fraser's bed....

Played a bit of boule - boy's competition

And girl's competition

And then 10 x pizzas for lunch which I made, and Justin cooked up in the pizza oven

Was a bit hectic, but we managed, and all had a great weekend (even the kids!)