Birthday weekend 12 Nov - 14 Nov 2021

Well, it was my birthday weekend - so I was going to be spoiled....

Firstly, I wanted to leave on Friday night - so we did so, and had a left over dinner of home made Korean sausage rolls, with kimchi sauce and greens

Feeling decadent, we had a negroni and dinner in bed on trays - watching a rather strange movie called Catfight

In the morning Justin brought me breakfast in bed - avocado on toast, coffee, and birthday bubbles.  I didn't want a big breakast, as Susan and Mark were coming for lunch.

And then it was present time - Justin gave me a lovely necklace that he had bought from Joels

And then brought in a poster tube - but it wasn't a poster, but a portrait of me that Justin had had commissioned from an artist in America

I was flabbergasted.  It was from a photo taken at Queenscliff a few years ago.  We had ridden our bikes on the rail trail  from Drysdale, so my hair was scrappy and in a pony tail.  It was also blonder .  Anyway, I think it's quite fun

So we lazed around and read the digital Age.  Justin also picked some garlic from the garden to prepare the slow cooked lamb

The slow cooker wasn't big enough, so Justin put it in a very low oven 

Cam our builder came around 10.30 to do some further measuring up of the kitchen etc - and I also showed him the wood from Jan & Peter that we might use as a benchtop

Damo and Nicole also dropped in, so we showed them around too, and we also went and checked out the house opposite from the IGA as one of our Melbourne neighbours had asked us to check it out

The roses were lovely

And the house itself was pretty good too

 

Susan and Mark arrived around 1pm - and we showed them our improvements

Susan's reaction to the dining room was fabulous - she was very effusive in her compliments - saying that William Morris would be pleased, this wallpaper was made for a house like this, and that she also loved the dark trim

We thought that Restoration Australia would have loved her response, because although we were pleased, we had chosen the wallpaper, and seen photos, so somewhat knew what to expect.

Susan had also brought some lovely lunch ingredients - smoked salmon, cheeses, olives, dip and bread etc.  We ate out in the rotunda - and of course more birthday bubbles.  

I guess lunch went on til 4 or so, and given that we were in holiday mode, we all went for a late afternoon nap - which made dinner  a bit later.

Got up and Justin and Susan went to the kitchen to prepare the dinner,

 while Mark serenaded me with beautiful violin arias

Then some pre dinner champagne and a few nibbles

 

Dinner was slow cooked lamb, roasted asparagus with pecorino sour dough crumb and roast potatoes. and then apple crumble with cream/icecream - delicious

It was quite cool, so we had the heater on - which once again warmed us very nicely

Was a great night - and Justin got his guitar out and played and sang also

Had a slow start in the morning, and decided to have a slap bang breakfast - with no need for lunch

We had bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, mushrooms, toast, tomato juice, coffee and more bubbles (it was my birthday weekend after all)

I thought we could put the food on the dumb waiter and serve ourselves.  Worked  out well

We also had a game of Pictionary - which was a lot of fun

I also remembered to take photos of my towering roses, healthy kiwi fruit, flowering yucca, and abundant grape vines  that I had forgotten to photograph last time