Pre Easter 2011 Saturday : Kites and Goop

Mad and I drove up here – no traffic diversions this time.  Arrived around 11.30, Justin and Fraser had beaten us – and had gone on to Becky’s to get a trolley to move the fridge that Penny & Gavin had given us. 

Unpacked, yes we’re still bringing lots of stuff up – my car boot was still full.  Once unpacked, I realised that the box of books wasn’t there.  Mad swore black and blue that she had taken them to the garage, and put it next to the car, but I didn’t remember seeing it there, let alone packing it.  I didn’t like the thought of the books perhaps remaining exposed to the elements – dew, rain, possums for almost a week so tried calling Clancy (on Mad’s phone of course as mine still doesn’t get reception)  to see if he could check.  Only got voice mail – so rang Peter & Sue, and luckily they were there.  Peter went and checked, and it was all fine – no box of books in outside sight.  I wouldn’t like to see Madeleine in a witness box!

Saw that Gordon had done a lot more work, pruning trees, felling the huge ivy clump (infested with bees) near the back door.  We also had our official Loddon Shire bins delivered – yay – now we can have rubbish removed.  Also saw that those damn Inglewood mice are still thumbing their paws at us – traps licked empty again, and still not set off – despite J having made them “hair trigger”

Becky and Elise came over and J and I manoeuvred the fridge into the kitchen (couldn’t be any wider – or it wouldn’t fit through the back door) – and then Becky went back home to work.

I wanted to go into Bridgewater to buy some Old Loddon Wines (we had very much enjoyed the Merlot Franc last week) - and the girls decided to come with me.  I had seen the turnoff before – so just followed that.  Saw some vines soon afterward, but no sign, so just kept on driving.  Mad fell asleep.  Kept driving all the way into Serpentine – which was a fair distance.  Stopped there and asked, and was told that Old Loddon wines was just over the railway line very close to the Calder... Well, it was a nice day for a drive. 

On our return, I saw a tiny sign indicating Old Loddon Wines (it had been a brown tourist sign from the Calder – so I had expected something more  significant)  Drove down the driveway, and there was another sign (under a tree) saying that it was open so we continued.  However it just looked like someone’s house – with a ute parked out the front.  There was also a large shed, so went and investigated that – but it was all closed.  Went and knocked on the front door (at this stage the girls were too embarrassed so – escaped back to the safety of the car) – no one answered, went and looked around a bit more – but nothing. 

Mad wanted to go home at this stage - but I was on a mission, wanted to buy some local wine.  Well, I knew where Water Wheel was, so went and bought a dozen whites from there.  I also asked the lady what she knew about Old Loddon Wines. She said they were small and probably closed – had been effected by the floods etc.  I’ll try and call them during the week – see if there’s a response.

So, we had been gone quite a while –40 mins -hour?? – and should have been only 15 minutes  Came back and had some wraps for lunch.

I also called up Jill from Passing Clouds – who seemed pleased to hear from me.  I arranged for us to go over tomorrow afternoon.

Kids got into totem tennis after lunch, which I had brought up from home.  They loved it, although Fraser was curiously hit in the head a number of times – standing too close? 

We also tried flying the kite that I brought up.  Fraser was the self professed kite runner – running with the kite, trying to launch it while M and I held the controls.  Not successful.  J also came out to assist – and realised that it was a bit tangled, but we still couldn’t successfully launch it,  J thought it wasn’t windy enough.

Elise and I persevered, and had it in the air (not very high up) for some seconds – but we ultimately gave up also – and the kids returned to the totem tennis.

I donned my overalls and work boots, as I had a patch of weeds in the front that I wanted to decimate.  J attacked the cellar and found some very curious old bottles of soft drink.  The metal caps had corroded out and a couple of them had gelatinous foetus looking solid bits in them – looked very strange.  Tried tipping them out in the garden, but had to really shake the bottles to get the slime out – took a number of photos....

Back to the weeding for me, and we had another visitor, Steve who asked to speak to the owners – seemed surprised that one was me... – maybe hadn’t expected us to be hands on.  He had cleaned up the garden prior to the sale, took 11 days...(and had a couple of others helping him for 3 days).  He wanted to know if we needed any further garden/maintenance help – we said we already had someone (Gordon) – but we took his details just in case.

 Finished off my patch, and went up to the veranda with J with a cold bottle of Passing Clouds (from the IGA) and some cheds; sat, ate, drank, chatted, read the paper, very pleasant.  And of course it was another stunning blue sky day, warm enough for t-shirts during the day, but cooling down overnight.  Becky came back, and joined us for a drink.  Some people stopped in their car opposite us and waved, took photos, said they liked the architecture etc.

Then off to the pub for dinner – back to the Royal again.  And this time we didn’t sit in the back room – as there was plenty of room for us. 

J, E, & I had the roast pork, F the lasagne, M a carbonara and B the mixed grill.  Saw Gordon there and had a little chat.  Also had a chat with the post master and his wife  - Trevor and Maree.  While we were chatting with them Rachel (who works in the pub) came over and asked how frequently we came up – because she had some information about one of the builders of the house.  She has an internet site, selling cards (the ones that Karen bought for us?) and an American relative of one of the builders brought over contacted her and gave her some further information.  Hopefully she’ll show us while we’re here.

Back home for some more guitar playing in the kitchen (J has his Inglewood guitar now), the kids had a cup of tea – Fraser wondered why his was a darker colour – didn’t realise that he needed to add milk to make it lighter brown (and less hot). 

Had a relatively early night – as we were all quite tired.