Cup Day weekend November 1-3 2014

A rather social weekend....

But first I went and got my haircut from Michelle, followed by a late lunch and then lots of watering the garden while Justin unloaded the firewood that we'd brought up. (another gift from friend's of Karen's who wanted to tidy up their garden prior to selling the house)

lots of wood for next Winter

The plants that Leslie had brought had all pretty much turned up their toes and dried up, more's the pity.  One lambs ear and a euphorbia might have survived, but we'll have to see if they defy dessication.

We invited Jamie N & family, and Michael, Michelle, and Genevieve over for drinks and nibbles at 5pm.  I'd wanted to go up to the veranda as per usual, but it was a bit hot, and rather windy, so we ended up in the dining room.

What good guests, we invited them, yet both lots brought their own drinks and nibbles, so we shared all round.

Michael also brought his guitar, so he and Justin played a few tunes

slightly blurry guitar playing #1

slightly blurry guitar playing #2

one of our takeaway pub pizzas

Around 8.30pm I thought we might want some "proper"food.  We figured that Gee Gees would be closed and kept our fingers crossed that the pub's kitchen would still be open.  I got Enzo on the phone, and he very kindly offered to deliver the 2 x pizzas and even threw in a couple of garlic breads, and a complimentary bottle of red.  You can't get any better than that!

Sunday, and we had work to do - took Mick up on his offer of more mulch, and drove down to Bridgewater in the ute with gloves and shovels.  Little did we know that Mick had a little tractor with a scooper so that we didn't have to shovel up the mulch.  He told us how he also had a tip truck, so it hadn't been all that much bother when he'd brought us the mulch the first time.

Mick, his tractor and a huge pile of mulch

loading up the ute

me - watching proceedings

 

loading up from another angle

Back at our place, it was a more manual unloading

Justin unloading #1

Justin unloading #2

Justin unloading #3

Justin unloading #4

Justin unloading #5

our new pile

 
We ended up getting 2 x loads, even contemplated a third, as Mick had said we could have as much as we wanted.

We also went on a bit of an adventure, Michael had told me that there was a large lake out past the trotting track, past the Botanic Gardens, and that it had a sandy bottom, and was lovely and clear.  However it was apparently produced from the nearby goldmine, so probably had all sorts of nasty stuff in the tailings.

We set out in the ute, over what turned out to be a very potholed road/track.  We found it eventually, after calling Michael only once for further instructions.  And it was quite clear with grape-like "seaweed" in it.  It also seemed quite deep, much deeper that the reservoir down the road.  We made sure that we didn't touch anything with our hands - just in case.....

the tailings lake

the tailings lake spit

Me on the tailings lake spit

Me on the tailings lake spit #2

Me on the tailings lake spit #3

Up from the lake there were the remains of some old brick and stone buildings, and also some mine shafts.

some old ruin

Justin inspecting old ruin

some mine equipment

stone ruins

who know what

flowering gum

There were also quite a few disused mine shafts.  One in particular STANK when I moved a little downwind of it.  It had old packing boxes in it, so I couldn't tell what was making it stink, but it was really terrible.  So bad in fact that I debated with Justin whether we should tell the police - what if there was a body down there?  Justin argued that it would probably be a dead animal or something other than a body, and thought we would just look like stupid paranoid gits if we made a statement - so we didn't (yet)

one of the mines

On the way back, we stumbled upon a stumpy tailed lizard enjoying himself in the sun

stumpy tailed lizard #1

stumpy tailed lizard #2 - with my foot as a size comparison

Justin then got stuck into the whipper-snippering, followed by cleaning up that lovely old brass door knob which had been given to me

whipper-snipper king

applying nasty paint stripper #1

Applying nasty paint stripper #2

I went around to the garage sale that we'd had a sneak preview of a couple of weeks ago with Chris and Leslie, as I wanted to buy some succulents.  I  ended up buying 11 at $1 each - bargain.  Let's hope they survive.

various succulents bought from the garage sale

 And I also made up the pizzas in preparation for Jill and Mick coming around for dinner  - social occasion #2

2 x salami pizzas and 2 x Thai chicken chilli pizzas

  Jill and Mick arrived around 6.30, and we started with nibbles outside under the hoop pine

pre dinner nibbles

Justin cooked up the pizzas to perfection, and we moved into the dining room for a lovely dinner - including a salad made up of lettuce, rocket, chives, parsley from the garden (with added tomatoes and olives not from the garden). All in all a very pleasant evening.

More watering on Sunday morning and then we drove into St Arnauds to go and visit Justin's cousin Becky

Justin in the St Arnaud's Botanic Gardens

Wide shot of the St Arnaud's Botanic Gardens 

Becky lived another 1/2 hour out of St Arnaud, down the straightest flattest road.  It really was an exercise for a perspective sketch!  On the way back we went by a different road and came upon a cross road (without Robert Johnson). I took 4 x photos looking in all 4 directions

out my passenger window

straight out the front - over the bonnet of the ute

out the driver's window

through the back window - over the tarp

And at Becky's it was pretty isolated too.  Unfortunately I didn't take any of her house.  As she'd made it rather nice there with a good garden, and lots of fenced off areas for the horses.

looking to the left

the road back to town from Becky's

Anyway, we arrived at Becky's and she wasn't home, although there was a very friendly nudging pet sheep - which didn't know the meaning of personal space.  He certainly got up close and personal with me, and as you can see, needed shearing

Shaun the sheep #1

Shaun the sheep #2

Luckily Becky arrived just as we were leaving, so we went back in and had a cup of coffee and a catchup

out the back of Becky's place - me with Shaun the sheep wanting some of my coffee?

The dogs were attentive also

very cute

We stayed an hour or so, and then headed back to St Arnauds.  It was during this drive that Justin realised that he was driving at 100 kilometres per hour with the handbrake still on.  This was not a good thing, in fact, we agreed it was rather bad.  Once we got back to St Arnauds, we found a garage and they put the ute up on a hoist to have a look at it

up she goes

Basically, the handbrake was now stuck on permanently, so the mechanic disengaged it, and warned us not to pull it on again until it was fixed.  And when Justin offered to pay, the very charming mechanic waved him off and said "this was the country now, and not to worry about it".  How was that?  We were chuffed.  So, back to Inglewood, and took a passing  photo of the old Logan pub on the way

Logan Pub