Festival of Frost #2 :- 19 & 20 June 2014

Two weekends in a row, I seem to have a better social life in Inglewood than Melbourne!

Justin was also supposed to come up this weekend, but had to beg off as he had to work to do, so I came up by myself again.  At least I could leave Melbourne early - around 8am.

So, got to Inglewood around 10am, visited the gals at the Op Shop, and went and had a coffee with Denise at Enzo's.  That old charmer calls us "girls" and shouted us our coffees, and then shouted us a piece of orange cake.  There's nothing like country friendliness.

Shouted cake

Next up was catching up with Michael to borrow his scaffolding so that I could patch up the small room upstairs - that I had stripped of wallpaper a while back

He helped me put it up also.  Actually he pretty much put it up himself, I just handed him the pieces, but watched what he was doing

Michael's scaffolding

So, in the afternoon I patched the upper walls using the skim coat. Listened to music to while away the time. I figured it was a bit similar to icing a cake, as the skim coat was a bit like frosting or icing, and you want to make the surface as smooth as possible.  Hopefully my work will be up to Justin's exacting standards.....

I made a deal with myself that I would do this til just after 5pm, but did have a few down-scaffold breaks.  A late lunch, and I also measured up the front fence, for a replacement quote.

As always I was wearing coveralls which are just great for wiping dirty hands on

my skim coated hand

Had a lovely scalding hot shower afterwards - Justin and the kids can't believe how hot I have the water, with this shower it's all the way to the left, no cold at all!

Anyway, this evening was the 2nd annual Festival of Frost at Damien and Nicole's school house in Kingower.  We'd gone last year and somewhat froze, so I was determined to be well prepared this time.

I had already organised to borrow Fraser's thermals that we got him for Clunes, so including them, I had 5 layers of upper clothing, not including a scarf, hat and gloves.  But this time I didn't wear multiple jackets, as then your arms are too bulky and you can hardly bend them.  Rather, I had thinner long sleeved layers and a good fleecy vest and a warm jacket over the top.  I also wore work boots, as they have thick soles, and would take a bit for the cold to travel up them.  So that was the clothing, I also brought a bottle of wine and a bottle of soft drink, a head torch, a rain jacket, ventolin, a hair tie as it was incredibly windy), and some inside shoes in case the party was inside (it wasn't)

So, all set, I left for the party around 6.10pm.  Most of the gang were already there - David & Maile, Jill, Dawn, Terry, Chrissie & Mark etc.  And also some of Damien and Nicole's friends/family who I had met last year - Jason (brother in law) with the beautiful copper guitar, and Steven who had built his own pizza oven.

As always, I had a lovely time, it didn't matter in the slightest that I had come by myself as there were plenty of people that I knew to talk to, and I went and talked to others that I didn't know also - ie Nicole's parents, and a family friend - John who had a share in a Thai Hog deer conservation island off Port Albert in Gippsland.

Arleen renewed an invitation to dinner for Justin and myself - date to be confirmed, and we also chatted about smallgoods, as I had been reading about amateurs making capocollo (Italian pork salumi, not salami).  She said she'd made some smallgoods before, and that we should do it too.  I pounced on that invitation quickly, saying I'd love to, and that I'm back up with Helen, Mum & the kids the 2nd week of the school holidays, and perhaps we could do it one morning or afternoon.  

And of course there was the fabulous Ukulele band back again.  Last year we felt so sorry for them as it was almost literally freezing, we at least had a bonfire to go and warm ourselves by.

This year, it was set up differently.  They'd made an alcove in the garage, sectioned off with material - so that it looked like a little boxed in stage.  They were better protected from the weather, and those of us in the "audience" also had some old couches to sit under the attached carport

Bendigo Ukulele band

some blurry audience members - under the carport

other well rugged audience members 

It actually wasn't all that cold, strange as it may seem.  I mean it was cold, but not freezing, and if you were well rugged up, it was fine.  Wind was a bit wild and woolly though.  I was also thinking whether I'm a"different" person  in the country as opposed to the city. I guess in the city, I don't wander the streets in  overalls, but I think I'm also more accepting of "difficulties" in Inglewood ie the temperature in our Inglewood kitchen was apparently 10 degrees , and I didn't think it was that cold because I couldn't see my breath inside the house.  On the other hand, if it had been 10 degrees in our Melbourne house I would have  hit the roof, complaining bitterly about how cold it was, and wondering why the heater wasn't on

Anyway, the band was great - and they also appreciated my selfless de-gloving to applaud their songs, although peeling off the gloves delayed my applause somewhat.  But better to be slightly slow, than muted gloved clapping.

Unfortunately, they only did one set, but then the young boy Dylan came on with his guitar and smoky voice, accompanied by the main ukulele bloke on double bass.

     

Dylan and friend

Damien and Nicole also made some heartfelt speeches, as Nicole was celebrating a significant birthday

Damien & Nicole making speeches

I ended up leaving around 11.45, and was rather glad that I had brought my torch with me, as it was pretty dark just walking back to the car, once away from the house.  I was also glad that I had backed the ute in to park, so that I could just drive forward to leave.

I still find it very uncanny to look in the rear vision mirror and see NOTHING, just blackness

Unfortunately I woke up too early on Sunday - around 4.30am.  So I read for a little while, and then fell asleep again.

I was then stunned to see that I had slept until 8.23am - almost unprecedented, and showing that yes I can sleep in.  I made myself a celebratory egg in a basket, and dallied reading yesterday's newspaper and doing the samarai sudoku.

Soon enough I was back in my coveralls, and back up the scaffold frosting the walls and ceiling (still using the cake analogy)

Worked till about 3 (had a quick lunch in between) and then started to take the scaffolding apart, as I was sure that I could.  Did the hard bits, taking off the railings and foot boards, but couldn't work out how to undo the cross pieces, so had to call Michael in defeat to come and help me.  Turns out I wasn't paying close enough attention to when he erected the scaffolding as the cross pieces were in fact joined by a rivet - which luckily I couldn't undo or wreck.

So anyway, I know how to do it now, we carried the bits back down to the ute, and I took them back to his place

Wandered around the garden a bit more, debated with myself as to whether I should pick the orange tomatoes or let them hopefully ripen up a bit more. ended up leaving them, might do something with them when we're there in the upcoming school holidays.

Winter tomatoes

And was also surprised to see that there were still ripening strawberries

Winter strawberries