Boxing Day to NYE 2025

Well, I'm over a month late is writing this ....my excuse being that I have wafted gloriously from holiday to holiday

ie Inglewood = Boxing Day to New Years Eve, followed by sailing in Tassie from New Years Day to  9th January, then a week in Vietnam staying with Alex, then 4 days boogy boarding in Ocean Grove...

So, back to Boxing Day, we were still cleaning/tidying up from Christmas, as we held it at our place

Luckily, we don't really have to pack much to go to Inglewood.   I did want to take the Christmas leftovers though 

Madeleine had given me a fun Christmas present which I proudly displayed by the back door

Fraser and Rileigh came for a couple of days also - which was nice. And Helen came too

Rileigh had brought a 1000 piece jig saw which kept them very busy

And yes, they ended up finishing it

The also relaxed a bit outside

As did I

I also made some turkey stock with the carcasses

And Fraser helped me dig a hole to plant my new juniper bush

We all enjoyed the green grass - although it was getting too long.  I had wanted to play  croquet on it - but it was too long for that

Justin did some more painting/epoxying of the canoe - I had hoped to be able to go out in it - but Justin wants to give it more coats - maybe next time?

I found the badminton set for Fraser and Rileigh to play

Helen, Justin and I played boule (Fraser and Rileigh had left by this stage).  Helen was the champion at this game

There were some close calls - so we had to measure the distance with the official string

The strawberries and plums were ripening - and i picked a whole lot of plums.

And some cosmos have self seeded - I'm hoping that they will survive to flower

However the front watering system wasn't working properly - a lot of dry areas.  Let's hope that Shane can fix it - and the dry plants will survive

Christmas celebration in Kingower 19-21 December 2025

 Arrived on Friday night - it was a hot day - 40 degrees in Inglewood and windy

Got out of the car and immediately smelled smoke - thought it was from Charlton as we'd heard on the news that there were grassfires up there

However we were wrong - we found out on Saturday (from Denise) that someone from the Royal (now King Charles 3rd) was burning rubbish out the back - very stupid thing to do in this weather.  However the fire brigade were onto it quickly - and got it under control in no time

Had a quick dinner - and I persuaded Justin to see a Christmas movie - "Christmess" - an Australian one - that was a bit different 

Saturday - given that it was just us - breakfast in bed, and then to the shop to buy some supplies.  Saw Denise on the way back (and she told us about the fire) 

Had a look in the garden - grass needs a cut again.  There are also some brown patches - which I'm not too pleased about

Went to Terry's after lunch to help set up the Village Green for the Christmas dinner that night

First set up the tables - there were going to be 6 of them 

 And then put the chairs around them

Decided not to put the tables cloths/plates /glasses there - as although it was quite still when we started the wind whipped up a bit later

Next up we set up the lights

Got tall star pickets and rammed them into the ground with a nifty pole rammer device

Finished up around 3 or so - and back to the house - Alex and Jane arrived soon afterwards  - they had had lunch in Guildford at Curtis' cafe

Made my Chang's noodle salad to take to Kingower - and we went back up around 6.45pm

Another lovely night

The lights looked good also

I guess we left around 11pm or so

Sunday, and we'd said we'd get up for breakfast at 9am - so that gave me plenty of time to do my puzzles

Alex and Jane had brought some lovely sour dough and fruit breads - so we had them for breakfast

And then it started raining, and then pouring ....

It was expected.  Thursday through Saturday was late 30s early 40s in temperature.  Sunday was still warm - 27 - but a bit humid and wet

No gardening today - no watering required either.  I had pulled up some "weed" passionfruit from home, and planted them here - we'll see if they survive - they were looking a bit bedraggled  

I'm assuming that they haven't ....