Queens Birthday and more olives for oil Fri 10 - Mon 13 June 2022

Well, Justin and I weren't going to be silly....

There was no way we were going to try and battle the traffic on a Friday afternoon of a long weekend.

So we took our time, had some dinner at home in Melbourne, and then left for Inglewood around 7pm.

Perfect, no traffic, just like normal

That said Alex and Sarah had left Melbourne before lunch time 

Alex sent us a photo of Sarah enjoying a new purchase - a portable heated electric blanket, that you can snuggle around you while out of bed

Anyway, we got there after 9pm, stayed up for a bit  - and then bed

Saturday morning - and not quite as leisurely a start as always.   

Damo and Nicole had said they would help us pick olives, and Damo was arriving at 9am (as Nicole had a haircut at 9.10)

So, I was obviously ready for him by 9am - and out we went.

Justin and Sarah came out to help a bit later (Alex was decluttering and vacuuming the upstairs green room in preparation for Peter)

I could only stay til 10.25, as I was having my haircut and coloured at 10.30

I got back around lunchtime - and Justin had organised a nice antipasto lunch in the rotunda

Vic also dropped by while we were having lunch - to see if he could have some of the black wrinkled olives for pickling. And yes we left him a tree  

And then it was back to more olive picking - but with 6 of us picking - it was very fast (much better than when I did it by myself the first time last year - and picked 102kg (and Alex you and April helped me on the 2nd batch where we picked 76kg)

So, we ended up picking 120kg - which we put in the rotunda overnight 

Sarah also took a very nice photos of the sun streaming through the coloured glass, and lighting up the floor.  I hadn't seen that effect before, have seen it on the walls, not the floor

  

Peter had also joined us in the late afternoon, and we had a nice dinner of roast beef, potatoes, pumpkin and gravy in the dining room

Was very pleasant

Sunday morning - and Sarah and I drove to Macca's the olive processor to drop off the olives. Sarah was impressed by the machinery

Then back home, and some pies from the bakery for lunch. Peter had left already - he only really came overnight  

And then to the 2021 Wine Release at Both Banks and Old Kingower (Blanche Barkly)

Had a few drinks, a bit of food and a nice time. And of course bought some of the wines on offer

Back to our place, had some George Foreman toasties for dinner (we weren't too hungry). We then started watching the new Nicholas Cage movie :- the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent 

We were enjoying it - but it kept buffering - which was so annoying that we ended up stopping watching it - and just sat and chatted instead

Monday - and a late-ish start. 

I did some work in the garden - trimming  and also replanting bulbs that were in the pathway

Also found some more self sown roses that I replanted elsewhere - we'll see if they survive.  Hopefully - as there has been a lot of rain

The lemon tree (or is it an orange?)is also looking very good - lots of fruit.  Alex and Sarah think that it might be a specialised Japanese lemon - yuzu because the fruit looks a bit lumpy.  But who knows - we got the tree from Andrew & Cheryl years ago, as it wasn't doing well in their garden in Ashburton

 

More toasties for lunch and we watched the end of the movie.  I would not normally watch tv during the day, but what the hell - why not - we'd picked all the olives

Alex and Sarah left soon after that, and Justin and I left around 2.30, but had to go home via Sutton Grange to pick up our olive oil - around 21 Litres.  I was very pleased. I bought 2 containers from him @ $15, so all up it came to $164.  

I was also pretty pleased that we'd pick on the Saturday, dropped them off on the Sunday, and then picked up the oil on the Monday.  John did recommend that we let the oil settle for 3 weeks before decanting it.  So we'll do that.