Nimmitabel: A Work in Progress: Queens birthday weekend:- lunch with the Baron, Friday 6th

Just the three of us for the long weekend - me, Justin and Mum. We made the effort to drive up on the Friday night to make it an even longer long weekend.

One of the reasons that Mum came was that as I had previously written, we had received an unexpected invitation to lunch with Christopher & Wally, and they had also extended the invitation to Mum whom they had met when they came around to morning tea/elevenses.

As it was a long weekend, there was no way that we were going to battle the inevitable long weekend traffic which would choke the roads from at least 3-6pm. So we organised to leave Melbourne around 8pm, missed all of the traffic, and went to bed in the rather cold house when we arrived.

Saturday morning, and Mum and I went and visited our various friends. I ended up leaving Mum with Michelle, as she decided to have an impromptu haircut. Which she was very pleased with!

I came back and attacked various garden beds as the weeds were rampant!

there are some calendulas there too

Justin had to do some reading, so found himself a nice sunny spot out the front

Man at work #1, Mum reading in background

Lunch was grilled sandwiches and crudites

Saturday lunch

After lunch Mum helped out in the garden, and Justin also put down his books and took the whipper snipper to trim around the brick work so that Gordon would have a clear run when on the mower

Mum at work #1

Mum at work #2

Man at work #2

And what would a long weekend be without any drop in visitors? A number of people came and read the plaque and had a chat, one of these being Gaye from the Wedderburn Caravan Park. She was interested in having a look around the house, and said that she can see ghosts. I asked her if she saw any in the house, and she assented. She saw an old woman who liked cooking, and a young boy.....And she said that they're happy that we're looking after the house, and bringing it back to life. Well, it makes a good story....

Saturday night, and we had our somewhat traditional dinner at The Empire. Denise came too - lovely.

Home, and a roaring fire in the dining room and we watched The Other Boleyn Girl which was quite good.

Sunday, - I didn't want to get dirty doing work before we went to lunch, so I sat around and read the weekend papers - which was quite nice.

We were due at lunch at 1pm, but Gaye had invited us to have a look at the caravan park before hand, so we left around 11.45.

It took about 20 minutes to get to Wedderburn, and we easily found the caravan park. Unfortunately Gaye wasn't around, but we took a few happy snaps - there was a small hut which an 11 year old boy had built for his mother back in the day. There were also witches and ghosties dotted around the park

Justin in front of the boy's hut

full view of the hut

I think these are some ghosties

one of the witches

We were still early so went to an old gold digger's grave

old grave

And then went to the Wedderburn Tourist office which was very well set up.

photo from the web

They had a new "old" hut for the tourists out the back also

re-created old hut

And they were giving away bags of olives - I took one to cure at my lesiure

Wedderburn Olives

And then onto lunch at Christopher's.

It was fab, we were ushered into a large room with a mini grand piano. Champagne flutes and nibbles were placed on the piano, and we stood around it eating, drinking and chatting - after Justin was introduced of course, as he hadn't met either of them before.

Christopher, Wally, Justin Mum

Christopher & Wally #1

Christopher & Wally #2

There was also a mini concert with Christopher on the piano, and Wally accompanying in song.

Lunch was then served at the table. Vegetable soup, followed by Chicken stuffed with mushroom and fetta. Wines of course to match, as Christopher was a cellar master. And not only is he a cellar master, but also a Baron (old family title), and Wally had worked on the rockets at Maralinga, once again I felt exceedingly ordinary, but very pleased to be sitting and chatting with such interesting people.

Finally we finished with some deadly chartreuse and chocolates just before 5pm. We had already sussed out that Mum would drive, as she doesn't drink very much, and she had said she would. However, when push came to shove she didn't want to, as she wasn't used to the Passat. We urged her on, as we both would have been over the limit by this stage, given our 4 hour lunch!

So Mum ended up driving home - just down the Calder - nice and easy. Didn't really feel like any dinner when we got home, just had some cheese and biscuits etc, and Mum and I watched the Glenn Close film Albert Nobbs which was quite sad. Once again a roaring fire.

Mum with our picnic dinner

pre movie ads #1

pre movie ads #2

Monday, and it was the Queen's birthday public holiday. I made us up hearty bacon and eggs for breakfast.

After breakfast Justin installed the curtain pelmet in the Red room

preparing the installation

very neat

And then we all did some more work in the garden. Justin more whipper snipping. Mum weeding the paths, and me planting those fruit trees that I'd bought a while back, and yet more weeding