I've been a little remiss in writing this as, as it's already past Christmas, and into the 2nd week of January. My excuse is that we held the family Christmas at our place this year, so lot's of preparation/cooking required for that, and we've just come back from a couple of weeks down at the beach in unfortunately tepid weather conditions. This didn't stop me going swimming though, although my almost broken/dislocated toe did for a day or two.
But, back to our Inglewood social whirl. I arrived in Inglewood after 10pm on the Friday night after Fraser's last cricket match for the year (they won)
I don't really like driving there at night - bit scared of errant kangaroos as I've alluded to in the past. It was a fairly uneventful drive except for a car without any back lights puttering along the Calder in the dark. Luckily I saw his head lights when he was going up a hill, otherwise I could have ploughed into him (he was doing well less than 110kph) in the left lane.
Made it, and Mum, and Helen & kids were already there. Mum had waited up for me, while H & kids were in bed.
Woke up relatively early, and watered the garden - front and back before breakfast, as it was very dry.
Pottered around the rest of the morning/ early afternoon , ie visited the usual High Street friends - op shop ladies who had put aside a lamp shade for us, in case we wanted it for the house (we passed on it)
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| Essie & the light shade |
Went to the butchers to organise my Christmas turducken. I had asked for it to be wrapped in prosciutto, and it looked fanstatic. They told me they had taken photos of it also
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| Shrink wrapped Christmas Turducken |
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| and here it is on Christmas Day |
And there was an article about them in the Bendigo paper - so they were even busier
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| Turducken newspaper article |
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| Brady at work |
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| Jim jr, Jim sr, and Pat |
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| The butcher shop |
They also had some different looking smallgoods in their display case, - turned out to be house made kranksys and cabana. Jim kindly gave me a couple of krankys and a cabana to try out, and Pat gave Michaela a couple of little Christmas biscuits/chockies for her and Xavier (she was thrilled at that)
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| Christmas spoils |
Mum of course couldn't be kept down, as she did a bit of weeding around the orchard fruit & olive trees, and put more mulch around them. - all under the watch gaze of Michaela & Xavier
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| learning from the expert |
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| the finished job |
Given that it was almost Christmas, I set up the Christmas tree that Bruce had given us a couple of years ago to make the house look nice and festive
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| Inglewood Chritmas tree |
I then set up the dining room for our Op shop afternoon tea. I had made some cup cakes in Melbourne, and had brought them up here
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| my cup cakes |
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| Tea/coffee trolley - all prepared |
The op shop ladies starting arriving around 3pm - Joan, Essie, Brenda, Val, Carla etc and they also brought some goodies - home made chocolate eclairs, lemon slice, rum balls, a bottle of bubbles etc
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| Afternoon Tea #1 |
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| Afternoon Tea #2 |
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| Afternoon Tea #3 |
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| Afternoon Tea #4 |
They also commented on the organ and asked who played. I admitted no one, as it is more for show. They then urged Val to get up and play, as she plays the organ at Church. She obliged us, and played a few tunes, saying that it had a lovely sound
When we'd finished the tea, I asked them if they'd like a tour around, which they did, so I put on my tour guide hat - and showed them inside and out.
And then just before 7pm, we tootled off to Kingower for the annual Kingower Community Christmas party.
Not many people were there when we arrived, so Helen and I helped set up the tables
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| setting up the tables |
The usual suspects were all there - and others who I hadn't met before ie David and Arlene's 2 daughters Helen & Nicole :-
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| Festive Damien & Festive Maile |
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| Lyn to the left and Jan to the right |
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| Dave with an apt t-shirt... |
We were all asked to bring a salad or an entree, and then to pay $5 for a BBQ main meal. I brought a big bowl of my famous red dip, and a big bowl of pate, as well as a large caramemlised onion tart in case there wasn't any vegetarian main food for Helen.
Mum sat down and chatted with Nicole in German - as she had lived in Switzerland for a while, so could speak German
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| spechen sie deutsch? |
Michaela was also enjoying herself - although she looks a little alone in the below photo
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| alone again? |
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| Xavier glazed by the camera |
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| Helen enjoying my tart, and the quinoa salad |
Dinner was a great success, and a social whirl. I had thought that Helen & the kids would leave early (and so we came up in 2 cars) so that she could get the kids to bed. But we all stayed til after 11pm.
After dinner - Graeme from Passing Clouds suggested some poetry recitations from the poet's corner stump (that I'd never noticed before) He got up, and started his poem, while the crowd was still chattering, but through his magnetic presence eventually reduced us to silence. All of us that is except Xavier - who sensed an opening in the attention stakes, and so started jabbering on in nonsense. This spurred Graeme on to recite louder and fruitier, which spurred Xavier on to louder nonsense. I think Helen eventually quietened Xavier down, much to Graeme's relief. David from Blanche Barkly also did a poem, without interruptions. perhaps he slipped Xavier a lolly.
And then it was out with the musical instruments. 2 guitars and a banjo mandolin. As you can see Xavier was an interested observer, and was soon bopping along to the bluesy riffs. Bobbing up and down, shaking his shoulders, and looking rather cool
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| the band #1 |
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| the band #2 |
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| the band #3 |
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| Xavier - dancing |
We also had some Christmas carols, but came hopelessly unstuck at the 12 Days of Christmas - as we couldn't remember the gifts in the right order.
All up an excellent night - and I was very pleased that Mum, Helen and the kids also enjoyed themselves. Xavier had a bit of a dummy spit upon leaving, didn't want to put his seat belt on, but we were far enough away from the action-so weren't too disruptive.
Sunday, and a morning visit from Jill McF who had some Flanders poppy seeds for me
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| morning tea with Jill #1 |
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| morning tea with Jill #2 |
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| Flanders poppy seeds |
Did a bit more work around the garden - pulled out the rest of the calendulas in the front, ripped up the old lettuces etc in the vegie garden. Unfortunately basically none of the seeds that I had sowed had come up. I really don't think that the watering system is working properly. Also picked some garlic and onions
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| calendula free front garden bed |
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| monster garlic |
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| Spring onions? |
And then in the afternoon we had the annual Inglewood Christmas party across the road at the Town Hall -with a Lions club BBQ, jumping castle, climbing wall, a visit from Santa, and lots of presents for the kids. I had been able to get Michaela & Xavier on the gift list, so their names were read out by Santa also.
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| enjoying the party |
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| big crowd |
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| here's Santa |
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| Xavier watching |
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| Xavier sitting |
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| Xavier getting ready to receive a present |
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| the spoils |
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| more spoils #1 |
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| more spoils #2 |
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| more spoils #3 |
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| Michaela's spoils #1 |
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| Michaela's spoils #2 |
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| enjoying the jumping castle #1 |
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| enjoying the jumping castle #2 |
After all of this outside excitement we trooped in for some Christmas Carol fun, and the door prizes. As per previous years there were no winners from Nimmitabel, but that didn't matter - Mum and I were enjoying the carols. Helen had taken the kids home to bed before this -as they were pretty tired and over excited.
And a lovely sunset finished off the evening
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| it was a lovely sunset, my mobile phone didn't quite capture it properly |
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