5 Red Ferraris Oct 27 & 28 2012

This time it was just Justin and myself for a lovely child free weekend, no hassles, no whingeing, and no arguing - bliss!  And when we left Melbourne it was cold and drizzly, but by the time we crossed the Great Dividing Range it had fined up into a lovely warm day (remained cold and miserable in Melbourne though)

Soon after  we arrived a veterans bike ride was setting up outside, and planning non riding up to Rheola, Dunolly etc - 55 km or so

I actually just found out that it was the :-

Inglewood IGA Blue Eucy Classic October 27th

Veterans bike race #1

Veteran's bike race #2

Went and said hello to Denise and Steve - who gave me the novel inspired by our house to read.



The author's note at the back reads:-

"driving through central Victoria, we stopped in Inglewood to stretch our legs.  I wandered off and came across an old house that captured my imagination.  I found myself weaving a story around it.  Later, when I saw a photo of the house I realised I had transformed it from an old Victorian mansion into an Italianate villa.... "

So that is obviously our house, they probably would have stopped at the Town Hall and used the toilets etc.  She also wrote about cast iron fence and gate, and a huge monkey puzzle tree, which may have been inspired by the bunya bunya, which I initially thought was a monkey puzzle.

Anyway, I'm more than 1/2 way through the book (I think it's junior fiction, as the protagonist is Year 8 girl), but I'm quite enjoying it, and wondering about the mystery.

They (Steve and Denise) also gave some some lemons - which I made into another batch of lemon marmalade and cordial.

After lunch, J's self appointed tasks  were to paint the ceiling and  window frame in the red room

getting ready

yes they're high ceilings

working well

the master at work

I pottered around a bit - had to dust/wash down the window frame before J painted it, and this then led me to washing the window - wet newspapers are incredibly effective.  Which then led me to washing the windows in the top big room - as there were lots of streaks left over from the bees  (which incidentally are back)

see those streaks - and the butcher shop on the corner

Whilst looking out the window I noticed a new red Porsche drive by, and then another, and another.  At this stage I alerted Justin who corrected me - as they were actually Ferraris.  (red sports cars all look alike to me!)

In the end there were 5 of them - out for a country jaunt....

Those 5 cars might be worth more than our house?

But enough about cars. I also had to see to the vegie beds, as the weeds were starting to get a grip on the gravel.  I had already sprayed them once, but there were now a lot more.  So despite my reservation it was out with the Round up again....(but just on the gravel)

My vegie patch is still thriving, and the artichoke is looking great.  I better start looking at some recipes for these artichokes, as I'm doing all of this writing about them,  and want to enjoy them once I finally eat them

2 x large globes in this photo

I've also got some raspberries forming - and hopefully I'll get to eat them too, not the birds

Happy Raspberries

I mentioned in the last post that the irises out the front were all in bloom, however I had forgotten to take a photo of them.  Well I did this weekend, however 2 weeks later, and they were quite faded

to the left

to the right

The poppies are looking good though

beautiful poppy

And I also found some pretty new white flowers (bulbs) which I had obviously planted there ( as most of the plants there are recycled from other parts of the garden, with the exception of lavender from home, and some succulents from Denise & Enzo).  I tried researching them on the internet afterwards, and think that they might be some type of Allium or onion flower

My somewhat blurry photo

stock shot from the internet

 And of course, once the work was all done,  drinks on the veranda given that it was warm sunny day.  Steve and Denise dropped by with some nibbles and 2 large bags of flour which David had ground from his own wheat.  I plan to make up a lemon cake using Inglewood wheat, Inglewood eggs and Inglewood lemons - but make it in Glen Iris.

Given our extensive nibbles, we didn't feel like much dinner, so J and I shared a parma meal at the pub.

Breakfast was fresh bread baked by me with my lemon marmalade - how domestic!

Also picked up a brochure about the upcoming Inglewood Alive fair - set for 1st December.  This will be a Town Garage sale, but also have food and wine tasting classic cars etc.  

Add caption

Before leaving I made sure I harvested some of my bountiful vegie crop

Bag full of vegie goodies

Axe Queen and brickie :- October 13-16 2012

Well, despite thinking that we didn't need a dining table quite yet, as the trestle tables were fine with a covering table cloth - here we are with a rather fine looking French Oak dining table - too good to pass up.  Another Ebay special discovered by Justin.

Local removal men

assembly

Assembly complete

some polishing

And we also brought up a Chinese Cabinet which J thought would look good in the red room.  Note the back of the cabinet is coloured glass? - which is coincidentally pretty much the same colour as the walls...

Chinese cabinet in red room 

In celebration of the new table, we decided to have dinner at home on the Saturday night, rather than our usual pub outing

Dinner at home #1

Dinner at Home #2

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny, and Justin was out with the whipper snipper taming those rampant weeds and grasses near the vegie patch

Whipper snipper man

And, speaking of the vegie patch - it is thriving!  I was only there 2 weeks ago, and the growth in that time is phenomenal.  Yes, the artichoke still dominates, but I can now see at least 4 artichoke "fruit" (not hearts as Justin has corrected me).  The lettuces in the other bed  have doubled in size, broccoli florets are forming, the coloured chard looks great, the raspberries are also bushing up etc

artichoke, potato, broccoli, coloured chard, radishes, spinach

Spinach view

Spinach, garlic, lettuce, sorry looking dwarf peas, raspberries

Remember, it was only a year ago, that the beds looked like the below photo

From weekend of Oct 15 & 16 2011

The irises out the front are in full bloom - but have been a little wind damaged.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of them .

I did take a photo of a rather pretty purple flower - however I have no idea what it is.  It was one of those mystery bulbs which I had transplanted to the front garden bed

unknown purple flower

My lemon trees are still touch and go, but I'm still persevering in nursing them back to health after their prolonged severe frost damage. After all, the grapefruit which never looked very good is sprouting new growth, and the blood orange & cumquat both look good.

A couple of the new bare rooted roses might be dying - who knows why.  They had looked fine a couple of weeks ago - and after all I'd done them a favour removing the those choking calendulas.  Anyway, we'll see.

The orchard is looking quite good, with the exception of one peach tree which I'd moved there over the Winter.  It still has green wood, but no flowers or leaves yet. But there's still hope, as a couple of the other orchard trees that I'd moved there this Winter had looked doubtful, and they've pulled through

And, there are some almonds on some of the almond trees.  Curiously not all of the trees - who knows why not -as they all flowered profusely.

And now for something more strenous than garden observations - and that is that swinging an axe is quite tiring work, especially if you're working with a large pile of rather hard wood.

I was determined to get rid of that stack of wood on the Storm Lane end of the garden - remnants of the fallen down side fence

Fallen down side fence from a year ago

I had a bit of help from Mad - appropriately attired in safety goggles and steel capped boots

Safety girl

Fraser also wanted to help, as he had been a keen wood chopper a few weeks back, - but he didn't want to don the safety gear - and opted instead for wheelbarrow duty, while I did the chopping and chain sawing. He did do a little bit of chopping at the start however.  And Gordon admired his style - thought he had a good arm on him - perhaps his cricket bowling skills are being utilised?

Barrow boy and Gordon in the background on the mower

Safety Mum

And, despite wearing gloves the whole time, I did develop some blisters, and sore hands - and got very tired.

J and the kids left around 1pm, and I soldiered on with the wood.  It was a warm day, made even warmer by the chopping and my ubiquitious coveralls.  I thought a cold beer would go down very well, rather than  an afternoon coffee with Denise.  However J had warned against alcohol and sharp axes/chainsaws.  It got to about 2.30 or so, and I still hadn't finished. I'd set myself a target of finishing off all of the wood, and then going and having a beer, but the last few logs were really hard, and taking much longer than expected.  Thus I had to revise my target and just finish off the log I was working on - and then stagger off to Denise's for a less satisfying cold fruit juice

I guess the juice and the break gave me some fresh energy, so came back and finished off - hoorah!!!

wood all chopped up now!

 And then a welcome shower to wash off the saw dust and grime, and up to collapse on the veranda  with a Gin and tonic (didn't feel like a beer now) and some nibbles

well deserved gin and tonic

Denise and Steve dropped by a few minutes later - so I invited them up and we all enjoyed  a chat and a drink up there - till close to 8pm

During this time, I thought I saw Don through the Town Hall top window - walking left to right, however I then realised that the Town Hall was all locked up and that no one was actually there.  This felt a bit eerie, and I assumed I must have been seeing things - and no, it wasn't a reflection of movement from our house.  Ghost?? - but I don't believe in them.  When I told Madeleine I had assumed she would be fascinated and immediately think it was a ghost, but she thought it was probably a robber who had come in the back way! That also sounded unlikely - as there is nothing to steal there....Who knows...

And, Denise told us an interesting story.  A friend of hers had bought a book in an Op shop, and it was about a man who fell in love with a woman, and went to her parents in Italy to ask if he could marry their daughter.  They refused, and he came back to Australia where he improved himself and built a big house for them etc.  Anyway, the friend looked at the back flap and saw that the author had travelled extensively around country Victoria and had been inspired to write the story by a mansion in the small rural town of Inglewood.  That would be our house!  Denise will borrow the book, and we will be able to have a look at it then - how coincidental!

And, the Saturday Age general knowledge crossword had another local clue :- ie Which Victorian country town were NZ Prime Minister Julius Vogel, and Reg Ansett born in?

bit hard to see the answer of Inglewood

Couldn't seem to turn the flash off.... to read the clue

As well as weeding/trimming etc, I also wanted to get something else constructive done.  And that was a brick border around the mulberries.  Once again, I'm assuming that Justin will come and adjust/fix it up, but I'm pretty happy with it as it certainly looks a lot neater, and its using up those left over chimney bricks which are just in the way now.  I also put in some plants - lilies, irises etc

Mulberry border

Given that it was raining, and I didn't really feel like it anymore, I didn't finish off the 2nd one - mostly cleared around it though

in preparation for more bricks

And whilst digging around - I found a curious metal implement :-

a metal whatnot?

Justin had also wanted to do something constructive and he had put the top coat on the skirting in the red room

Top coat painting 

Whilst it was raining, I did some interior decorating - rearranging the dining room

freebie drinks trolley when J had bought the dining chairs

Dining Table with candles #1

Dining Table with candles #2

slightly re-arranged ie wood baskets/paper removed etc 

I was also pleased to have finished off the "hard" Age Samurai sudoku

And lastly, I have a couple of miscellaneous photos of the kids - leaning out of the window - before throwing me the long extension cord to plug the chain saw into

No, not a guillotine, although Ken didn't
fix these properly and they do slide down 

Still not a guillotine 

big smile #1

Big smile #2 with Justin polishing the
oak drinks trolley in the background