Another quick visit 7 - 9 December 2018

Received a call from Gordon during the week....

And it wasn't good news

The newly installed tanks were sinking a bit...

There had apparently been a lot of rain, and the tanks were full and heavy

I guess the concrete hadn't set properly or something....

Anyway, Justin called up T to discuss, who went out to investigate, and took the tanks back down (after emptying them first), and then removed the stands

He sent a photo showing the holes full of water, but I didn't really understand it - as the ground is normally bone dry. 

Anyway, it means we have to start over again.  Arghh!

No stand this time, rather wooden boxes filled with stones.  Gordon had dropped by on the Sunday morning, and suggested using up the broken bricks and rubble.

Anyway, I didn't get to Inglewood til early Friday evening, as I had some CWA cooking duties to attend to

Made a pumpkin and fetta tart

And lemon zest shortcrust pie shells for lemon meringue pies

Dropped them off at Margaret's (was for a catering job that we had) after 4pm, and then onto Inglewood

The fence had been painted

And water timers installed - unfortunately not automatic ones

There must have been a few hot days, my Youngberries which had been looking fabulous were dried on the cane (but they still tasted nice)

But that said, I've got a couple of lemons forming on the "new" tree.  let's see if they go through to maturity

And my asparagus is still going strong  - hoorah - as it hasn't been watered for a while

And, my earwig traps are tremendously effective.  I had noticed that something was eating the rhubarb, and some of the parsley so filled a couple of small jars with some oil

This is what I caught :-

 

I emptied it out, and put some more oil in the jars, we'll see how many earwigs I'll have caught next time

Had some Melbourne left overs for dinner, and then watched The Missing on SBS on Demand

Read the Age on line on Saturday morning, watered the garden, pulled a few weeks, and close to 20 bindi eyes, and then just stayed inside and read some more as it was another scorcher (close to 40 degrees).

Had an afternoon catch-up and iced coffee with Denise

Put the orchard water system on in the later afternoon, and saw there was a leak

Invited Terry for dinner at the pub, with a G&T at the house first.

We went to the Royal, and tried something different - a chicken caesar salad - and it was pretty good.

Got home around 10.30 or so, and read some more (Crazy Rich Asians) - then lights out, but couldn't sleep. (had a coffee at the pub after dinner) 

So read some more....

Finally turned lights off again around 2.15am....and fell asleep, but woke up again at 6.30am! And couldn't get back to sleep, despite my best efforts.

Felt a bit out of sorts all day - tired, and a bit sick

Was another hot one, but also stormy.  Lots of thunder and lightening, and had also had some heavy downpours, so read inside until Carolyn C came (she had been in Castlemaine).  We had a simple lunch - dip, cheese, olives - very nice 

Went for a little walk, - and then sat out the front and chatted.

She left around 3 or so, and I left not long afterwards, and was pretty tired on the drive home.  Was thinking of pulling over to nap, but didn't end up needing to.  Had an early night though