Friday, and it was Fraser's birthday, made us (me, Fraser & Rileigh) all a nice breakfast - Justin was in Brisbane for a conference
Chris M came and picked me up around 3.30pm. It was yet another glorious day, the weather really is superb
However the traffic was atrocious - not even a long weekend - it took us over 3 hours to get to Inglewood
Susan and Mark had already been there for over half an hour - had rugged up and made themselves at home on the front veranda
We arrived in darkness - around 6.30pm, and joined them up there for some bubbles and cheeses - very nice.
Pauline and Peter arrived around 7.30pm, so we quickly ushered them in, and then to the pub - as the kitchen closes at 8pm
It was fine - we had a pleasant meal, saw Pauline and Jerry there - and more people who had seen us on TV
Back to the house and we rugged up and all sat on the veranda for a bit longer. Had a relatively early night
Susan, Pauline and I decided that we would get up at 7am - and go looking for the elusive Bridgewater platypus - so we did - Another gorgeous morning (bit cool) - went to the water hole - nothing, along the river path -nothing, back to the water hole - still nothing - but at least we had a nice walk
Back home for a simple breakfast and then out olive picking by 9am. I was a little concerned that the birds may have got a lot of the olives - as we didn't think there were many left on the self sown olive tree out the front when we went to the pub for dinner last night
However - our fears were unfounded - there were plenty of olives - not a bumper crop mind you (that was last year) - but plenty so we should easily be able to get the minimum 80kg
All 6 of us were out there picking - and it was actually quite nice and collegiate. Of course picking the bigger olives was preferred as the baskets filled up quicker with them
At one stage Susan and I were out the front picking from the self sown olive tree. A lot of people were walking past and talking about the TV show
One woman stopped and said she was glad to see me - as she had taken some photos of the house last October - with the Aurora Australis
She texted me the photos and they are stunning! I asked if she had put any filters on them, and she said no, I wondered why the house was lit up - but Justin said that could happen with a long exposure
And here they are
Kept picking til Justin arrived around 1.30pm (He had been at a conference in Brisbane, and was coming straight from the airport), and we had a very pleasant lunch under the tree (too many of us for the rotunda)
More picking after lunch - the others were leaving on Sunday morning - so wanted to get as much done as possible today
I was outside the front again and stopped by a couple of blokes who do a travel podcast - and they interviewed me - ha ha
We also had some curtain people come from Bendigo to give us a quote on wooden venetians for the dining room and bee room etc.
At the end of the day we weighed the 10 x olive baskets and estimated 131kg - without taking off the weight of the basket. Thought we did pretty well
A hearty dinner in the dining room - and a not very late night again. Pauline and Peter were leaving at 6am, as Pauline had a flight to Dubbo for work
I had experimented with the aga and put a cast iron pot of oats with some milk and water in the simmering oven overnight - as Susan had made a lovely fruit compote to go with the porridge. Sadly it was a bit overcooked/claggy, should have put the pot in the warming oven. Next time - plenty more opportunities to experiment
Susan, Mark and Chris left soon after breakfast - as it was Mother's Day - and they had their mothers to see for lunch in Melbourne
I went back out to pick - wanted another 10 or 20 kg, but the pickings were slim, more hand movements for less olives = not as efficient. Oh well, I picked maybe another 10kg over quite some hours
I should also point out that Shane had moved the little self sown tree near the garage (forgot to take a photo), and also pulled out that big stump that we sometimes used as a chopping block - as we will be putting turf down next week - and it would look dumb if we kept the stump in the turf
Tidied up, and left around 3 or so
Had to go home via Sutton Grange to drop off the olives for processing into oil
Got home 6-ish and Madeleine and Fraser had made me a lovely Mothers day dinner
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