Irises and trifles

Weekend of 30 April.  Mad had yet another party and stayed home in Melbourne with a friend.
However 4 of us sttill went up to Nimmitabel as I went and picked Alex up to join us - as he wanted to finish up his painting job in the hallway.

We left home just after 9am, and got to Inglewood  really early for us - just after 11am.

J and A commenced in the hallway, I unpacked the books (yes we'd brought them up this time), and Fraser grudgingly picked some more olives.  - and then disappeared to watch some dvds

Given that we hadn't brought the ute up this time, we still didn't have a wheel barrow, so I went and borrowed one from Francine next door (as well as a rake)

I then started on the garden outside the fence - beyond where we'd spread the mulch.  F actually helped  a little there too.  I was mattocking to get rid of the weeds and he was picking them up and discarding them

This was relatively tiring work... I also dug up the irises that you can see behind me, separated, and re-planted them.

Gordon dropped in to say hello, and also to tell us that Don (who has the keys to the Town Hall) would let us up anytime to take a comparable photo (to the old one that we were given)

In fact, Don dropped by soon afterwards to say hello, and took us up...
First inside the town hall, then up the stairs - where there was a gallery of previous town mayors - including Joseph Tivey who commissioned our house

Then across an open terrace and up a ladder to an interim roof

and up a second ladder to the "viewing platform" (above the clock) which had great views of not only our house, but Inglewood

We also went up those steep stairs behind Justin - through a trap door, and up into the  roof  bit

J even went up a little further ( to the base of the flag) - that was high enough for me

 Anyway, while we were up there with Don, a couple were down at our house chatting with Alex. They had seen our olive tree in flower a while back, and were wondering what sort of olives they were.  Told us it was a wild olive, and that the olives would be no good - not enough meat.  Well, that didn't dissuade me, I still wanted to pickle them - so we'll see how they turn out.  Nigel and Jenny pick olives and produce olive oil, and had also made a straw rendered house - I'd be interested to see it.  They stayed and chatted for a while, and then it was back to work...

G&T time with nibbles followed on the veranda.  Had invited Francine and Grant, but they couldn't make it.
We did see them in the pub a little later though.  It was the Royal's  turn.  We arrived after 6 and wanted a table for 5,  - J,F, A & B - however the larger empty tables were all reserved.  Francine saw us looking around and kindly invited us to sit with them which was nice.  After dinner, back to our place and J got out his guitar again in the dining room.  I was quite tired - so had an early night

The next morning Fraser said that Grant had dropped in (before we had breakfast) but it wasn't Grant at all - but rather Frank from Adelaide who came up prospecting this way every April.  He'd seen the gate open and couldn't resist coming up to see if he could have a look inside.  So, I showed him around and he also told us about prospecting and gave F some good tips about metal detectors etc.

 After this F and I made both jelly and custard for our proposed trifles to take to Nin and Clare's for dinner.

Also got J to hang up the hammock that I'd bought a while ago.  He put it up between the 2 mulberry trees - and it proved very popular

Then, back out the front, shoveling and spreading mulch.  Finished up just before lunch, and just about finished the mulch too.

Sandwiches for lunch, and then more gardening, this time planting some strawberry plants and a couple of peach trees that Francine had given me.  Watering all of these new plantings also took a while, as I had to troop back and forth from the one of the water tank taps - with just a small bucket.

I also picked some more olives, and assembled the trifles (which turned out quite well)

And the boys painted...Alex has started calling the hallway, the foyer, J still prefers hallway, but also called it the entrance hall.  There was a bit of discussion as to whether the woodwork in the hallway should be white or stripped back to the wood, after much too-ing and fro-ing we decided on the white option (easier)

Started packing up to leave around 3.15 (as we wanted to leave by 4, to get to  Nin's by 6)  But it always takes longer than you think...and we got to Nin's a little late (but still before Frank)