Group painting & J's birthday 3rd - 6th November 2012

Had a lovely long weekend up here - given that the kids had the Monday off as a Curriculum Day, and Tuesday was Melbourne Cup Day.

Mad's friend Aimee came up with us, and the girls had a lovely time trawling through the shops for clothes bargains - they literally spent hours in the Inglewood Emporium.

off on one of many shopping expeditions

Some other friends came up too, Chris & Jo and their 2 sons Nick & Hamish.

J and F were carefully painting the back veranda posts when they arrived, so Jo suggested that they all pick up a paint brush and help (very Tom Sawyer like with the painting of the fence - if I remember correctly)

J on ladder, F in overalls, and Chris barefoot

many hands make light work

I just watched and took photos, as there weren't enough paint brushes to go round

Chris enjoyed clowning around a bit

no belt Chris #1

No belt Chris #2

At some stage Chirs and Justin disappeared off to the pub to sink a few coldies.  Jo and I went and found them later and found them deep in discussion with 3 locals :- Wade, Ron and Andrew.  I was still in my overalls, and was somewhat taken aback when Wade demanded (nicely) to know where I had got them from.  

I'd bought them years ago at Camberwell Market, and had used them well in the ensuing years, gardening, painting, plastering etc .  I'd just brought them up to Ingewood however, as it was a bit too warm to wear my normal long-sleeved coveralls

Well, the reason for the interest was that they were Vicrail overalls with the little insignia on the pocket.  I was offered a cool $100 for them on the spot ,and told that they were collector's items.  Train spotters would pay a fortune for them on ebay.   

the overalls in question (photo from last year)

the overalls in question (photo from last year #2) 

I politely declined, and said they were all dirty anyway ie paint, plaster, dirt etc - no matter - they were still of interest.  

Once we got home, we had a  BBQ feast for dinner, with some delicious pre dinner starters by the BBQ area 

Jo with pre dinner snacks

 

a bountiful spread #1

a bountiful spread #2

And of course the guitars came out after dinner

Chris and guitar by candle night

Chris & Justin & guitars

Even though it wasn't that cold we had a fire in the dining room - to create even more atmosphere

Jo, ipad and open fire

The 2 younger boys had electronic stimulation on the couch

Shy boys

While Nick entertained Mad & Aimee - no photos of that

And as per normal, when we have guests, we had a slap-bang bacon and eggs breakfast with sausages, and my home made bread the next morning

Chris hamming it up again

passing the salt

breakfast for 9

 

And, speaking of food, I had also made us what I coined an Inglewood cake (back in Melbourne) :- made from Inglewood organic lemons  from Denise & Steve, Inglewood free range eggs and wheat grown and then ground by David into flour.  

Inglewood produce in Glen Iris kitchen

The cake itself was a lemon yogurt cake - very moist and quite dense, no fluffy sponge that!

the finished cake

 The idea had been to have it as afternoon tea with Denise & Steve.  Given that they close up the shop at 5pm, we took it around to to them with a pot of coffee around 4pm

me, wearing my sentimental I love Casa Lucati t-shirt

The 4 of us sat outside at one of Greg's tables (and chairs). It was all very civilised, and we enjoyed ourselves.  Cake tasted quite good too.  Gayle came outside to see what we were up to, so gave her a slice, and Don also walked by and had a chat, so we gave him a slice too. 

Pub for dinner that night, with the kids as per usual trying their luck on the claw chocolate machine

Aimee & Fraser expecting a huge cache of goodies

Came back and took a number of photos of the sunset from the veranda - as you could see rays of sun striped against the darkening sky.  Looked great, and I think I managed to capture this

Sunset #1 

  

Sunset #2

Sunset #3

Sunset #4

And the next day - Monday was Justin's birthday, 

Made him a nice breakfast

Birthday breakfast #1

Birthday breakfast #2

Birthday breakfast #3

He had a nice relaxing day, played a bit of Sony play station with Fraser. I know, I know, we relented and brought up an old small tv, and the playstation so that there is more there for the kids to do.  Had to run the long  extension cord up the stairs and into the big bee room.  Obviously a temporary measure until we properly wire up the house. 

birthday boy & Fraser racing

 The girls went off scootering and more shopping

 

They also had homework to do

sunning and homework on the veranda

clowning around

couch homework

"the horror" 

And of course I pottered around in the garden - putting the brick perimeter around the 2nd mulberry tree.  I was quite pleased with that

Lisa - the brickie's handiwork

Hamish had also drawn our attention to how incredibly dusty the downstairs back hallway light shade was - by writing an H in the thick dust

you don't notice the dust until it's wiped off?

 

This of course shamed/spurred  me into cleaning it - of course without touching the frail electric cord

look - it's blue!

And it seems as though we are always eating and drinking up here.  Well sometimes we bring some Inglewood food back home with us.  last week i had rought a bag full of spinach, chard and lettuce home.  this week i did the same, but also picked some artichokes

I found a recipe for baked artichokes with lemon, garlic and olive oil which I liked the look of.  Mad, Justin and I enjoyed this back in Melbourne.  I had only cooked artichoke once before, and wasn't that impressed with it.  I liked it this way though, perhaps I was a bit biased after growing it...I also wondered how anyone would have ever experimented enough to eat one of these huge thistles, like olives which are incredibly bitter off the tree, and only palatable after being heavily brined

unwrapped baked artichoke - with recipe photo on laptop in background

me - enjoying it