More mulch, free firewood, and a brass door-knob October 18 & 19 2014

Generosity, thoughtfulness, hard work - all that and more this weekend.

First off, Mick from Bridgewater had absolutely come good on his offer to bring us up some mulch, and had deposited a great load for us to distribute throughout the garden

Mick's mulch

 And then our charming weekend guests from Buniyong - Leslie & Chris had brought us up a load of seasoned firewood, some plants and some eggs from their chooks

Chris & Leslie - with load of firewood

And, there was another present waiting for me by the back door.  Graham, who had been on my National Trust "house tour" last week had dropped by and left me a solid brass door knob to replace the reproduction one that we had put on the front door.

Solid brass door knob

I was just thrilled by all of this thoughtfulness and generosity.

And, our guests were hard workers also - Chris unloaded the firewood while Lesley and I planted the new plants and Justin got the whipper snipper out and attacked the rampant weeds around the yuccas.

And that's what prompted our last and hardest job -  spreading all of that new mulch around the yuccas to stop the weeds from regrowing there.  I also put some around the fruit trees. And did some much needed watering once the mulch was down.

Chris busy shoveling

We stopped for a picnic type lunch in the shade, and then worked through til almost 6 - basically until we had used up all of the mulch!

this where the mulch was

the mulched yuccas

Some well deserved gins and tonics and snacks on the veranda afterwards, and then a relatively late dinner at the Empire.  I spied some of my favourite wood choppers there having a meal.  At first I couldn't place them, they looked familiar, but were out of context.  Anyway, being a wood chopper devotee, I plucked up the courage and went up to a couple of them and told them how I admired their chopping skills.  They seemed to appreciate my groupie gushing.

Went to the Bridgewater Wool Wine and Wheat Festival on Sunday morning.  It was smaller than the Rheola Show, and unfortunately no wood choppers, but there were plenty of other things to see :- mechanical riding bull, sheep races, sheaf tossing etc,

mechanical bull

pre selection of racing sheep

sheep race #1

sheep race #2

sheep race #3

sheaf tossing

 There was also food and drink - Justin and I had a roast lamb roll - very nice.  And I also bought some olives

roast lamb roll

Had a chat with Peter from Water Wheel Winery,  admired the golden trophies, and assorted animals

Trophies

miniature pig

Anglo Nubian Goats

 Lastly sat down to watch the speed sheep shearing.  The wood choppers still get my vote as the best country entertainment.  I mean the sheep shearing was good, but it wasn't as exciting as a good wood chop

waiting for the speed sheep shearing

speed sheep shearing

Dropped in at Jill & Mick's place down the road

shady oasis

Back home, and one of my new roses had bloomed (was a closed bud in the morning) and more watering

one of my roses

Justin with watering can #1

Justin with watering can #2