For the first time in a long time went to Inglewood on Saturday morning - because we went out for dinner to celebrate Madeleine's birthday on Friday night - and then Ross (Rileigh's Dad) and I went with Mad and Hughie to the football to see GWS vs the Hawks (Hughie had a couple of spare tickets)
So, a very good night was had by all - and we arrived in Inglewood around 11.30am on Saturday
Was a lovely blue sky sunny day - bit chilly, but warm in the sun.
I set up a table outside for lunch
And also did a quick tour of the garden
The medlars are now overripe and oozed some liquid when I squeezed one - you can see the liquid gathered in a drop poised to fall at the base of the fruit
And the daphnes and hellebores are also close to flowering - didn't take photos of these
Three of the tear drop beds have been cut too far back in my opinion - and the couch grass is all still there - so not that happy about that. Not sure that some of the plants cut so far back will survive. Will advise Shane not to cut back the last one (the daphne / hellebore /gardenia bed doesn't need cutting back)
Hmm, its now a couple of weeks later - I've been slack again
Anyway, the others - Chris & Jo, and Fraser, Rileigh & Ross arrived for lunch. In fact Jo brought the lunch - a delicious ploughmans lunch - cheeses, bread, pickles, charcuterie, dips etc - yum
And of course the guitars came out after the lunch was finished
Once again, I didn't really feel like cooking dinner - thought we would just go to the pub - we had also wanted Ross to try a typical pub parma
Jo and I walked up to the pub to check that it was open/make a booking - as the metal gate had seemed closed when we drove into Inglewood this morning
And it was closed....
There was no sign, but it didn't look good
Dropped in on Steve and Denise on the way back, and they said it was closed....so no pub parma
So Plan B was to cook (didn't really want to get takeaway). I had planned a simple roast - but ended up going overboard...
Given that we were now going to be home for dinner - I thought an open fire in the dining room would be nice.
Both Fraser and Ross split some wood for us
Some more guitar playing before dinner
And as to the food, Jo and I made 2 x pork loin roasts, a whole roast cauliflower, crunchy roast potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts with bacon, and roasted onions. A green salad on the side, and a pear crumble with icecream.
It was a feast - so much for not cooking
Didn't stay up too late
Agreed to a late breakfast - 9.30am
But got up before hand to have a coffee, also saw that it was quite frosty - as per the roof of Justin's car
I made us bacon and eggs which we ate in the dining room
And then I bravely started on the dishes (actually a lot of dishes had already been done last night. These were pans that were soaking and the breakfast dishes
We all did my circuit walk afterwards
Even though it was around 11am - we saw some large kangaroos bounding in front of us. Chris was pretty impressed with how large they were (no photos)
Saw some largish ant/termite mounds
Fraser was King of the castle
Jo, Chris and Justin walking ahead
Fraser, Ross, and Rileigh bringing up the rear
And just Ross and Rileigh
Once again it was a beautiful blue sky day
Fraser and co left after the walk
Justin took a stylish shot - cleverly highlighting the "fake" cobwebs
I went and picked more olives - this time for dry salting. The last tree still had heaps of olives
Chris came outside and played guitar
And then Justin joined him
Jo did crocheted a blanket in the dining room
And despite the bacon and egg breakfast - we had a late lunch - leftovers from yesterday's lunch and dinner really
I got a rather dusty bottle of wine from the cellar - which I washed
Chris and Jo left after lunch and I did a little bit of weeding
Tried to get rid of this sour-sop at the front - forgot to take an after photo
