Queens birthday weekend & Pizzas, 8-10 June 2013

If I thought it was cold 2 weeks ago, it certainly seemed a lot colder this weekend.  Although once again, warm enough outside in the sun during the day.

And there must have been more rain, as the grass was a lot greener again.  Perhaps I'm being a bit optimistic to call it grass.  Sure there was some grass, but some low lying weeds had also sprung up looking like grass from a distance, and was a lovely green.  Hopefully it won't prove too much of a problem

green grass from a distance

All the family came this time, although the kids were supposed to study for exams.  They confided later that not much study was actually accomplished.

studying, or just playing on the laptop?

Once again Justin reluctantly informed me that my brick work wasn't quite up to scratch for the succulent bed.  And would I mind very much if he straightened it up a bit.  Didn't worry me, it's not as though I was trying to do a sub-standard job, it was just that I wasn't unduly concerned that it was slightly crooked, and perhaps the bricks weren't dug in deep enough.

Justin re-laying the bricks

Denise also dropped in with some gifts.  3 x new unusual succulents which she'd bought at a local market.
How lovely!

the 3 x succulents from Denise

She had also planted some more cuttings from her own garden, and I had brought some more up from Melbourne including some bromeliads which had been multiplying .  Hopefully they'll survive, we'll have to see how they do with the frost!

re-laid bricks and planted bromeliads 

So, anyway, Justin fixed up the bricks, and then decided he wanted to tweak it some more...He wasn't happy with the path continuing from the portico, didn't think it went with his overall vision of the garden layout.  So the bricks came up again, and then Justin had to get rid of the crappy mortar path that was there.  Given that he was now an expert with the fencing bar, he brought it out again to break up the path.  However it was relatively soft, and not very deep.  In fact I said to Justin that this mortar path was actually softer and easier than the dirt that we had to dig up when planting the olive trees!!

attacking the path #1

attacking the path #2

Madeleine supervised from above

rapunzel?

and it looks like Justin was fixing something up here

very interesting...

Starting the brick revision

a few weeds in that path Justin

Assessing his work

Is it good enough?

Finalising with the mulch

fianl touches

So that was a productive Saturday afternoon.

It was also a little social, as Damien and Nicole had dropped in to say hello again, and invited us up to visit them in Kingower.  We decided to take them up on their offer late afternoon, so grabbed a 6 pack of cider and drove the 10km to Kingower.

We were give the tour - inside and out.  The school house had a number of bedrooms,  a cosy kitchen with a terrific wood fire stove (which kept the room a lot warmer than our one does! I'll have to see if I can fit that bit of the stove back into the flue to see if it makes a difference).  And a great big school room with a roaring fire, a large wall blackboard, and a number of couches, not to mention the billiard table which the previous owners had left behind.

Had an enjoyable afternoon, ended up in the kitchen with drinks and nibbles, and left after 6.  Luckily no errant kangaroos.

Decided to have dinner at home, as opposed to going to the pub.  I cooked up chicken maryland pieces until they looked delicious and golden.  However looks can be deceiving...yes, they were golden on the outside, but as Fraser asked was it supposed to be this pink inside?  No it wasn't, so I whipped back the plates and put the chicken back in the electric frying pan to "bake".  Unfortunately I didn't push the adapter cord in far enough  to actually heat the frying pan. Sure the  light went on, to indicate power, but that was all.  So after waiting 20 minutes or so for our dinner, I went to check the chicken , and was disappointed and a bit embarrassed to find no heat.  So had to wait a bit longer.  Luckily we weren't starving!  and Fraser and I bonded

mother & son #1

mother & son #2

Sunday morning, and there was frost

frozen brocolli

I fired up the wood burining stove in the kitchen and amde some fejoa jam in the bread maker while I waited for the rest of the family to get up.  Turned out quite nicely sort of sweet/sour.

self titled

Fraser wanted to rug up, and so of course went over the top

who is that "man"?

Father & son

 We had some of Justin's friends for lunch.  Susie and Bianca from Geelong, and Susie's boyfriend and parents.  We had Jim's famous pork - and once again it worked a treat in the bbq.  I said you just couldn't go wrong with it, which perhaps wasn't giving Justin enough credit as BBQ meister regulating the temperature etc.

delicious pork and Madeleine photo bombing

So we had the pork and smashed potatoes with garlic and chilli (from the garden) .  Actually I had meant to make roast potatoes in the BBQ but I had put them in a cast iron pot with lid, and they seemed to steam not bake.  I was complimented on the potatoes, so 'fessed up saying they were a fortuitous mistake.  We also had a salad with lettuce from the garden, brocolli from the garden, and pumpkin from the shop.  Finished up with a pear tart.  I had tried to bake it in the wood fired oven, it had warmed up a bit and maybe even cooked a bit, but there just wasn't enough heat, so finished off (or perhaps started it) in the bbq.  Worked out well.

So, lunch was very pleasant, and we had a wander around town afterwards.  They left around 5pm, and after having a bit of a sit down and reading the paper, we went off to the pub for a late-ish dinner.

Monday morning and more frost, this time accompanied by fog.  Justin took some terrific photos as per below

The fog finally cleared to another sunny blue day.  I decided to make pizza for lunch.  Once again employed my trusty bread maker, as it was just too cold to hope for dough to rise in our frigid kitchen.   I was a little sceptical that the dough would work.  Firstly I had doubled the quantity, and secondly the recipe didn't have any sugar to activate the yeast.  I wasn't sure if this was an oversight, or intentional.  Either way, I followed the recipe, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it worked.

Chopped up some pizza ingredients and took a unfortunately blurry photo

Assembled a couple of pizzas

And of course had to fire up the pizza oven.  Given that this was the 1st time we'd tried it, we were a little unsure.  The temperature got to 400 degrees and more, and initally there was quite a bit of smoke.

But it settled down, and worked a treat

We swapped the pizzas position from top to bottom and vice versa.  and were rewarded with delicious crispy based pizzas.  I was so impressed

The eating was very good too

Child free and succulent garden May 25 & 26 2013

School hockey duties over, and Justin and I escaped to Inglewood, footloose and child free.

And yes, the weather is definitely colder, it was warm enough in the afternoon with the sun out, but certainly not balmy like two weeks ago with Mum for the Mother's day weekend.  Saturday night and Sunday early morning were COLD!

I've already seen what I assume is frost damage on some of the plants, I've mollycoddled the citrus trees after last Winter, so I hope they'll be OK this Winter.

The olive trees are looking very good after all of the TLC we heaped on them last time, and the strawberries are still ripening

luscious strawberries

And, given that there was a bit of rain on the Sunday of that Mother's Day weekend, the grass is finally starting to grow again, and there is even some green showing through!

Green green grass of Inglewood

As is our habit, we went and visited Steve and Denise after we had a late lunch.  And then back to potter around a bit.  Watering of course, and I chatted to Steve who was on the roof of his place fixing leaks.  It was quite amusing calling out to him over the lane

Steve action man on the roof (me chatting to him from the "orchard"

We also carefully checked the work of Orgin Energy, as they had replaced our old electricity meter with a new smart meter. It seems alright.  Justin had been concerned that it would be an eyesore, but it's no worse than the previous old one.

new smart meter below old switch board

Given that Justin was starting a new trial on Monday, he needed to do some pre-work.  It's a little ironic that he's set himself up a good study, but prefers to spread out his books on the bed!

The bed desk

Around 4pm I decided it was down tools for me, and time to get social again.  Thought we'd drive up to Kingower and see if Damien and Nicole were home given that they've tried dropping in on us twice and missed us both times.

Unfortunately, no one was there, so this time we left a note

Damien & Nicole's place 

Drove back home without any kangaroo misadventures, and assembled a modest tasting and drinks platter around 5pm which we planned to have under the portico at the front, as it was nice, sunny and relatively warm.  Well lo and behold, Damien and Nicole dropped in - as they were on the way to their place, and were most surprised that we had already been there and left them a note an hour before hand.  We asked them to join us, pulled up a couple more chairs and had an enjoyable time chatting, eating and drinking  until 7 or so - by which stage it was well and truly dark, and I had brought the lanterns out. We also gave them a   tour of the house and garden as they were interested to see what it was like, what we had done, and what still had to be done.  After they left, J and I toddled off to the pub for a shared parma for dinner ( we didn't need one each), and then back home to a roaring fire in our bedroom and a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad.

As I said earlier, Sunday early morning was cold.  Cold enough to have frost on the car when I went to get the newspaper around 7am.

After thawing out, helped by my fire in the wood stove in the kitchen we both went into the garden todo some work. Justin wanted to finish off painting the back veranda, but then he noticed that the bricks over the kitchen window seemed to be bulging out more, so he had to fix them first

Propping up the bricks 

Once this was done to his satisfaction he started painting

painting at last

As to me, I wanted to do my succulent bed outside the dining room, next to the jacaranda.

Before shot

First step was to outline the area with bricks

outlined with bricks 

Then I dug up /loosened the soil

dug up soil

Added horse manure, and dug that in

horse manure

 The impetus for this succulent bed was this huge rather old beauty which I would love to be able to move there, but am unsure if I could do so successfully

it's a monster!

I did manage to move a few bits, and had been propagating other varieties too, so planted them all,  covered them with mulch, watered them and hoped for the best.  At the moment it looks rather sparse, but I'm constantly on the lookout for new and unusual succulents that I can include.  Clare, my sister in law was able to give me a bag full of cuttings which I hope will strike when we're there next.

Mothers Day Weekend May 11 & 12 2013

Had another lovely weekend here with Mum again - this time celebrating Mother's Day.

We arrived around 11am, and went for a wander and chat around town, and then back home for lunch.


Saw a notice saying that there was going to be a "Glamour Ball" at the Town Hall for the local football and netball teams.  We hoped it wouldn't be too raucous.  I peeked in and took an unfortunately blurry  photo of the set up.  It wasn't too noisy, so we were able to sleep just fine.

Town hall gussied up for the ball

Unfortunately while we were out, or in the back garden, Damien and Nicole (from Kingover) dropped over and left a note.  So this is the 2nd time that we've missed them.  Maybe we should try and drop in on them next time?

Given that last time we'd planted the olives, this time I wanted to put bricks around them, and of course do some much needed watering.  Mum helped with that too.  Didn't do a whole lot more though, as this weekend was for Mum, so we did what she wanted to do.

Bricks around the olives, and Mum watering 

Mum also enjoyed herself reading up on the veranda

on the veranda #1

on the veranda #2

The weather was unseasonably warm, about 25 degrees and sunny, just lovely, however it was quite cold in the house, especially the kitchen.

That said, we had a comforting roaring fire in the dining room on Saturday night.  The fire had been expertly set by Justin when Jan and Peter came up a month or 2 ago  - so it caught very quickly.

roaring fire

And of course, given that it was just Mum and me, we played many games of scrabble.  I blitzed in the first game with a massive score of 517.  I'd never even broken 400 before, so I was very pleased.  Of course having all the high scoring letters and a 7 letter word helped.  I won the 2nd game too, but this one was much closer

scrabble with Mum

And finally on Mother's Day, I "let" Mum win one.  Well actually, she won fair and square.  My excuse was that I had shocking letters.

And so, Mother's Day, we started off with some delicious bread that I had made in the bread maker - a sort of made up concoction :- potato, onion, rosemary and chilli.   It was heavier than normal, I suppose because of the potato.  Very nice though.  And we started late, Mum normally gets up around 7.30, but because it was so quiet, she rose at 8.45.  It didn't worry me, I was snuggled up reading in bed, and so finished the last book in the Stig Larsen Millennium triology. Mum was astonished that it was so late, she initially misread her watch, thinking it was 7.45, not 8.45.

Steve and Denise had mentioned yesterday that the RSL was putting on a Devonshire morning tea, so I went off to investigate.

The RSL was open, and set up with tables and chairs, but no one was around.  I went in and called out, and a bloke came out.  I told him I'd heard that the RSL was putting on a morning tea, and asked whether that was so.  (It reminded me of about 6 months ago when I invited myself to the Kingower end of year Christmas dinner film night).  Anyway, this was open to anyone, for a gold coin donation, so he told me to come back in 1/2 an hour and bring my Mum.

Mum didn't initially want to come, as we'd had a late breakfast already, and the main event for the weekend was the special Mother's Day lunch at the Empire.  But I convinced her that how could she pass up proper country scones, and we could always just only have half a scone each.

Well, we came back around 10.40, and were the only ones there.  Thank goodness we came.  The same bloke was there with apron on.  Turned out he was a local policeman, and had made the scones using of course flour, cream and lemonade.  They were delicious!! Light and high

many scones for us

my 1st scone and cup of tea

Mum enjoying her scone

Robert, the local Lions president was there too, and his wife Colleen came a bit later too. As did a few other people, so we at least had a full table.  But I'm sure that there were some leftover scones.

Ended up having a chat with most of the people there, which is always enjoyable.  Introduced myself to Mick (the policeman) and said that we would join the RSL to support it.  He'll drop the paperwork off at the house.

So after 2 scones each, and a couple of cups of tea, we waddled back home to fill in time before our big lunch.

And a big lunch it was.  The Empire was full, and Mum and I decided on the lamb as opposed to beef option.  A glass of champagne was included in the price, so I went up to the bar to get them.  Enzo being his usual generous self made me take a bottle as opposed to 2 glasses.  Luckily we weren't driving off immediately after lunch.

So, we somehow managed to eat our lamb and vegies, polish off the champagne, and finish off with a pudding with custard.  This time we really did waddle home.  And it was raining!  Or at least spitting when we left, it had been overcast and windy, and the weather bureau had forecast rain for the evening, so we were surprised that it was raining.  That put paid to doing any more work outside, so we sat in the dining room and read the papers.  Very relaxing.   We were pleased that it was raining also, it became a bit heavier, and was good solid rain great for the garden and the farmers.

"Concrete" soil and 9 olive trees

Lovely Autumn weather, still warm enough for t-shirts, but getting cooler at night, and certainly in the mornings.

Justin, Fraser and I were here this time.  Mad had gone to a school camp on the Gippsland Lakes.

The first thing that I saw when we arrived was a small plastic container with dried dill in it and a note. Damien and Nicole had dropped in presumably after I'd left  3 weeks ago.  We'd chatted with them at the Babette's Feast dinner and they said they had dill growing madly at their place, and would bring us some.  Pity we missed them.  The dill was unfortuately a "gonna" I said it was dried, but really it was just plain dead, and a yellowy white colour.

What wasn't dead (surprisngly) were the globe artichokes that I had transplanted out the front.  Both of them had survived.  And there had hardly been any rain.  Steve said 2ml in the last 3 weeks

Sprouting artichoke

The jerusalem artichoke that David had given me wasn't so lucky.  The plant seeemd dead, although I'm hoping that the tubers will sprout new plants in the Spring.

The broccoli is looking vey healthy, And I even cut a few heads to take home.  So were the chilli plants and strawberries

broccoli in my vegie patch

Justin was feeling a little tired, so I suggested reading a book in the hammock.  That was quite well received.

engrossed in Donna Tart's "Little Friend"

pretending not to realise I'm taking a photo

Given our roaring success of yabby catching last time, Fraser and I tried our luck again.   This time we aimed to go prepared.  We had gum boots, chairs, bait, string, gloves, a bucket, and a  knife.  On the short drive to the reservoir we came across a large goanna basking dangerously in the middle of the road.

the kamakaze blue tongue and Fraser's foot for scale

We tried to move it to safety, but it was rather difficult, especially seeing that neither of us actually wanted to pick it up and risk being bitten.  We tried to nudge it along with some bark, but that was largely ineffectual.  It did move a bit, and passing cars gave us all a wide berth, while probaly wondering what we were doing in the middle of the road.

Anyway, got to the reservoir, found some sticks, attached the bait to the string and realised that we had forgotten the net.  We cast out anyway.  I pulled mine in after a couple of minutes, felt a bit of a tug, and actually saw a couple of nippers attached to the meat.  I called out excitedly to Fraser that I had 2, but then they let go...Fraser didn't believe me, said that was my "lying voice".  Ah, that's my curse for frequently telling tall tales, well, at least I knew I was telling the truth, and rushed off home to get the net.  Saw the goanna both ways, and luckily not squashed!

Returned to Fraser and he said he'd seen one too, but sadly those were the last and only yabbies we saw for this expedition.  The wind had increased, and there were small muddy waves/ripples on the reservoir now, making it very hard to see where the lump of bait was when we were pulling it in.  I'm sure that we had a couple more on the string at times, as I had felt a definite lightening of the load, but no luck.  That time we did much better without the net.  Oh well,  this season is practically finished as the butcher boys said that yabbies are available any month with a "r' in it..It's the tail end of April now, and there officially wouldn't be any more until September (but you never know).

Our yabby reservoir

Given our lack of luck, I decided to circumavigate the reservoir by foot. Not surprisingly, it wasn't very big and shrinking due to evaporation, so it didn't take that long.

Fraser decided to meet me at the end by trying to walk across a narrow finger of water.  However, even with gum boots, it looked like he might get wet, so he wisely retreated.

the crossing begins

thinking about turning around

When we returned I gave some selected trees and plants in the front garden a good soaking,as they were looking rather dry.

I also spied a coloured ball near the Storm Lane fence and was very surprised to find the missing easter egg, unfortunately a little the worse for wear.  And not so edible anymore

Fraser with the missing egg

Steve and Denise came around for drinks and nibbles after they closed up in the afternoon, and we then went on down to the pub for dinner.  Outback parma as usual.

You may think that Sunday is traditionally the day of rest, but not for us.  It was olive planting time. But first we had to dig the holes, and it was hard, very hard....

According to the garden plan, the olive trees  are supposed to be planted 2 metres from the fence, and at intervals of 3 metres.  Thus we calculated 9 trees.  We started with shovels, but they almost bounced off the soil, it was that hard.  We then had to up the ante, and Justin got out the heavy guns, or rather the fencing bar, that we'd bought when J and Mark were fixing up the front concrete path.

fencing bar photo from the internet

So, Justin, being his normal perfectionist self, measured out from the fence for each hole and then started off with a cross shape for the hole by ramming the fencing bar into this concrete like dirt, and then trying to pry little clumps of it out.  The loose dirt was then removed with the shovel.  It was a long and tiring process, particularly given that the fencing pole was very heavy

starting off a hole

now he's getting somewhere

We found that it was good to work as a team.  Justin would ram, and I would remove the dirt.  But we also swapped at times.  And we even managed to coax/coerce Fraser from inside to do some manual labour.  Once he got going, he was a gun, and worked quite hard, unfortunately without gloves at times, so he got blisters

Fraser being camera shy

After a few hours, we certainly deserved some lunch (and a beer) so went to the Blue Eucy Cafe (where we'd had the "big breakfast" a few weeks ago).  Cathy makes the pies there, so we sampled them.  They were rather good, but we were sadly beerless as the cafe isn't licensed.

Finished up the holes and planting after lunch, and Fraser and I went pomegranate scrumping (oh yes we knew a place) 

look at our new olive grove (can it be a grove if it's only a line?)

Our olive line from another angle

Last year with Alex's help I was able to lift Fraser up on my shoulders to pick those delectable pomegranates out of arms reach

photo from last year

look at those pomegranates just out of reach....(this year)

However this year, either I had gotten weaker (possible), tireder, (likely - after the ramming/digging) or Fraser had gotten heavier (likely - as he's grown).  Anyway, I squatted down, he sat on my shoulders, and I couldn't budge.  Plan B was that I gave him a leg up via my joined hands.  That worked at least, but was a little precarious.  Luckily no falls.  And we scored ourselves a nice bag of pomegranates

pomegranate spoils