27 & 28th August 2011 :- Hippy Vest & more weeding

Seems like forever since we've been here as a full family! Justin, Fraser and I were here this weekend.  Mad had her last night of her school play - hoorah! - and so is staying over at Aimee's.  Hopefully next time we'll all manage to come.

Stopped off at Becky's before Nimmitabel, and picked up Elise to have a play with Fraser

Yellow and orange sunny flowers everywhere in the garden, very hardy and bright, and attracting bees.



photo from the internet - I don't know the name of these flowers though


 And yes,  there are still bees up in the wall near the jacaranda tree.  Justin has been in contact with the bee guy, who's actually in contact with his lawyer re the wrong sized scissor lift.  Anyway, at least the bees seem to be gone from the other 2 locations

Did my habitual trip to IGA, where they're running a competetion :- spend at least $20 and get a stamp towards some subsidised moulinex fry pans.  May as well..

J made sandwiches for lunch which we ate up on the veranda.  the weather was lovely - sunny and warm,and I thought that this might be the end of Winter.  I was wrong...as I found out that evening/the next morning.

Fraser and Elise disappeared after lunch - having lots of fun.  J recommenced painting the white trim in the hallway, and I attacked the weeds again.  This time fiddly little weeds that were a nuisance to pull.  I had debated with myself whether I should usee the round up or not - but I don't really believe that it works - or that it would differentiate the weeds from the plants that I want to keep.

I had also perhaps mistakenly thought that numerous plants that I was keeping were california poppies

actual california poppies (photo from internet)

(it's been a long time since I've seen them)  However I'm a lot less sure now, as some bigger versions were near my transplanted rose - and it looks decidedly weedy.. so I've pulled them out.

I'm also not sure if the almond that I moved has survived (fingers crossed) - the small twigs are still green which is a good sign, but the buds haven't opened yet, and the other what I assume to be almonds in the back garden have already flowered and are now in leaf.  The pears and the cherry that I planted have similarly not flowered, so I gave them a good watering too.

Gordon dropped by also - and we asked if he could make a couple of raised vegetable beds like he did for Becky - so he'll do that out the back. I'm looking forward to that - and incidentally, the parsley and rosemary that I'd planted a couple of weeks ago - out the back (in rather stony soil) was still ok.

Fraser and Elise reappeared - begging for some money to buy a really "cool jacket" - actually it was a hippy vest from the 70s.  Multicoloured shagpile wool, hand made - and quite heavy.  I relented, gave them the money and off they went to buy it - in Elise's words - it's better than the gilly suit.

They came sauntering back - quite the huggy bear from Starsky and Hutch..



Michael Jackson action..

 So weeded until 5 or so - which is when it started getting cooler.  Came in and cleaned up, and read the paper a bit.  Justin set the fire in the dining room in readiness for after dinner.

Becky came over around 6 or so, and we went down to the Empire (had booked earlier) wasn't that busy, but took a while for dinner - didn't matter, lots of fine wine and conversation, and Elise was wearing the vest - so that provided much entertainment for both kids. I saw James & Pat (butchers) in the bar and went and had a chat also - thanked them for the note in the  letterbox re coming and knocking on the back door when they were closed.

Enzo also told me that it was old Mr Nevin's birthday (would have been 90) - I assume he was Jamie & Luke's dad - so he and others were raising a glass to him.

J & I sat in the dining room when we came back to the house - in front of a roaring fire - lovely.  J played his guitar and I read the Age and had a glass of muscat.  Although I'm sure I've said this before, there's something to be said for simplicity/lack of technology/distractions.  And the fact that most things we do here are a bit of an effort, no easy hot water - therefore no easy washing the dishes, showering etc.  No easy plumbing - shocking water pressure, and no functioning toilet.  No easy electricity, a lot of rooms with no lights.  No easy heating - just the fireplaces, wood stove  etc etc.  But despite this we enjoy it - or at least Justine & I do - hopefully the kids will too one day...

In the meantime, Fraser and Elise watched Bedtimes Stories on the portable dvd player - harder for them to do without technology! Elise had a sleepover which was nice.

Was freezing over night - literally, as when I got up - there was frost on the car (woke Fraser up to have a look - as he felt cheated that he hadn't seen any frost here yet).  Went back to bed afterwards.

grafitti - frost on the windscreen

frost on the car roof

Not too much frost on the grass, but I did find some in the back yard, where the sun hadn't really hit it yet

frosty weed

To help pay for his vest, Fraser cooked us all breakfast :- egg in a basket on the wood stove.  Took a while as they had to be done one at a time, but they were certainly delicious

who needs cutlery?

After breakfast I went back outside to the weeds...And Justin set up one of the trestle tables out the front and read up on his case for Monday.  He had a delightful time just sitting there in the sun - giving me encouraging comments and weeding advice every so often....

As probably mentioned earlier, he is a Round up Man - doesn't believe in weeding.  And at the end of my back-breaking labour  I didn't have that much to show for it (as they were fiddly little weeds - not like a couple of weeks ago - where they were big clumpy weeds and I was able to fill Gordon's trailer)  Anyway, I did put mulch over what I had weeded, so at least that was something, but I guess it would have felt more satisfying to have done more of the path etc.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Walked up to the butchers at lunch time to buy some small goods that they had told us about. Bought a couple of free range salamis (one hot/the other mild) and some cheese

Had a late lunch outside on the table that J had set up for his work - I guess you could call it a portico :-

A portico (from Italian) is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in Ancient Greece and has influenced many cultures, including most Western cultures.
Some noteworthy examples of porticos are the East Portico of the United States Capitol, the portico adorning the Pantheon in Rome and the portico of University College London

Anyway, had some salami, cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado etc with some crusty bread - rather nice.  The kids had gone up to the IGA and bought dratted instant noodle cups, corn chips and salsa dip.  Although to Fraser's credit, he did say that our lunch looked nice (he had assumed that we would have just had boring sandwiches)

Back to more weeding after lunch, then a quick tidy up, and homeward bound until next time.