Justin and I drove up on Friday afternoon - and the traffic was minimal - yay. Stopped in Kyneton at the excellent Fook Shing restaurant - had the banquet (yet again) - absolutely delicious.
The waitress was very good also - anticipating when our glasses needed re-topping
Got to Inglewood around 10.30pm, and to bed
Saturday, and a nice lazy start - Alex and Jane weren't coming up til later in the afternoon
I was surprised that the well plums were ripe, and not so thrilled that the birds had discovered them
Justin took a very nice photo of a musk lorikeet enjoying itself
That made me a bit mad ....- so I went out and picked a big bucket of pristine plums - and a smaller one for Terry ( will make more sloe gin)
The birds just seemed to play around with the plums - not eating them fully, just piercing them with their claws/beaks and moving on to spoil the next one
It was like they were making crazy plum jack o' lanterns
I also spied some bloomin' bindi eyes - pulled out about 70 small ones
And planted the mint and a geranium that Clare had given me
And then squashed lots of boxes for the recycling
We also had a visit from Steve (shed guy) who came out for a site visit - we plan to put up a garage - 6.5m x 10m parallel to the back fence - for cars and also a workshop/storage - and will put solar panels on it - yay. With a bit of luck it will be up by May next year
Alex and Jane arrived around 3.30pm, and after showing Jane around (she hadn't seen the latest developments ie kitchen en suite, mural etc ) - we prepared our offerings for tonight - I was bringing a fresh beetroot, green bean, fetta, rocket, walnut and blue cheese salad, and Jane made up a lovely berry pavlova
Gordon also dropped in to say hello - so he and Justin had a beer in the kitchen
Late afternoon - we started on the G&Ts - had them in the kitchen also
Left for Kingower around 6.45
We were outside St Marys to start with - bubbles and nibbles - very pleasant
And then inside for the main event - delicious rolled stuffed chicken and beef, accompanied by our salads, and finished off with our desserts
And there was even some music - as Mark had brought a guitar and urged Justin to play a few songs (he and David did too)
Another delightful evening - and Jane kindly volunteered to drive us home around 11.30pm (we were one of the last to leave)
Sunday and guess what - a slow start - just toast and coffee for breakfast
Phil had been telling me how lovely the pistachios were looking at the moment (last night) - so then they invited us to come and have a look - I called up and said we'd be there within the hour - which we were.
Their property is lovely - Damo had already told us how beautiful it was - but it really was
An iron bark flanked long drive towards the house, past a huge lake and then an "art sculpture park" on gorgeous green grass in front of the house - it was the type of place that you would come and have a picnic at
I guess we were all too stunned to take a photo of that - but we did take photos in the pistachio orchard
And they then showed us an enormous fig tree - you can't really get an idea of the scale from the photos
Then went inside and had a cold drink - and they also gave us some of their Rheola wine - made from their grapes by Cameron from Passing Clouds - which was very nice of them
Then back to Terry's but by this stage it was 12.30 - and his car wasn't there - so we went back home and had some lunch
I called Terry and he said that he had literally been gone for all of 5 minutes - anyway back to Terry's around 2.30 (just me and Jane) - as Terry had invited us to come and pick apricots - as he had a bountiful crop. They weren't quite ripe - but would ripen off the tree
The apricot tree is to the left of the car port
So we picked quite a few each - and then went inside and had a deliciously cooling G&T - yum
Then back to Inglewood and Alex and Jane packed up and left
Justin and I left soon after - but he had pointed out that the scones in the ensuite were not symmetrical - so we can now not unsee that - and it will have to be rectified - yet another thing to tell Cam....
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