Melbourne neighbours, their dog, and a kangaroo tail - Queens birthday weekend 9-12 June 2017

A big weekend with some first time visitors who are our neighbours in Melbourne.

They left for Inglewood around 3pm on the Friday, unfortunately not early enough to miss the Queens Birthday holiday traffic.

They left early in order to arrive in daylight, and also to get the literal home fires burning.  We thought it a brilliant idea.

So yes, we arrived around 10pm, and not only were the home fires burning in the dining room, but Val the self professed fire lover had a fire going in both our bedroom and theirs. Just lovely and cosy. Had a drink.and then bed.

Next morning I was up reasonably early, and so was George, so we took Dylan (the dog) on a walk.  Was a lovely clear blue morning - cold but not freezing - no frost.  We had been warning them about how cold it was (based on our experience from the previous weekend) - but it wasn't anywhere near as cold as then,

 Anyway, went for a nice walk through the scrub, past the Eucy "ruins" to the White road and round past Potters Hill.  Dylan was in 7th heaven with all of the new and exciting country smells to explore.  Took some photos of him - with very long shadows cast by myself and George - showing how early it was in the morning

Back to the house, and a late modest breakfast outside - just toast and coffee.  The plan is a big breakfast tomorrow 

Spied this green parrot in the palm on the way to the shops (you have to look closely to see it in the trunk )  Also went to the Butchers to get some of their fabulous pork for dinner tonight

After this we decided to pull down the old wood shed, as it had been falling down by itself a little - nails pulling out of the house wall etc

George and Val kindly helped us - although of course they were under no obligation to do so, Being first time visitors after all.

But first we had to move all of the wood and other bits and pieces out of the shed.  This naturally took a lot longer than anticipated....(I had initially thought that it would only take about 1/2 hour to pull it down, hadn't thought about moving the stuff also)

Rediscovered some bags of goat manure that David had given me a few years ago, must be well and truly rotted down by now, so I went and spread it around the garden also

George unfortunately kept hitting his head on the rafters  and also banging the supports with long bits of wood when he was taking them out.  Gave Val and me a bit of a fright at times, as it all could have come crashing down on his head (and ours).  Luckily it didn't, but we gave him a hard hat for safety...

Stopped for lunch on the veranda - sandwiches and ends of wine bottles (like last week)

And then back to the shed, Val and I took up directors chairs on the south lawn,watched, drank bubbles, and cheered on Justin and George

And finally, it was down - with just me standing, and a small pile of firewood to be burned at a later date.  Certainly looks different now.  I would still like to bring the back veranda around the side (to make it a U shape) , block the end up, and have the laundry and and another toilet and shower there.  But there is no hurry for this.  Especially as I successfully bid on an old galvanised shed on Ebay which we will put in the far corner of the garden - and put the bikes, scaffolding ladders etc in)



Saw a nice big butterfly outside the dining room

Had Val's lovely cheese on the veranda with wine before dinner, and then down to the dining room for the fab Inglewood pork - George and Val very impressed with the pork.  As per her new habit, Val had set the fire in the dining room, and we had a roaring fire while we ate

We then adjourned to the music room for the musicians amongst us (not me) to sing and play.  George had brought up his guitar and Val her saxophone.  Luckily Dylan didn't howl.  And yes, Val had set another fire for up here

 .

 Sunday morning, and another early morning walk with George and Dylan,  This time to the reservoir.  was another lovely morning, still and blue.  Unfortunately I had forgotten that Dylan doesn't like to be on his leash for any extended period of time, and he is a very strong and heavy dog, so trying to keep him in check was a little difficult.  We had to walk through the residential streets for a km or so until we reached the reservoir.  Once there he was let off leash, and was very excited.  Walked around the reservoir, and it was lovely so still, with the trees perfectly reflected in the water - until Dylan ran in chasing a stick , and caused a rippling effect

Was impressed by  an abundant pomegranate tree on the walk back

On on return Justin and I rustled up a big breakfast.  Bacon, eggs, hash browns, sausages, (had forgotten the breakfast pork sausages at home, so when I went to the butchers yesterday and asked if they had any small sausages, they just shortened and re-tied some large ones for me - and hey presto, breakfast sausages), tomato and red bubbles.  Delicious, and plenty to tide us over til dinner, no lunch required.

After our leisurely lunch I took Val, George and Dylan up to Melville Caves to have a look around.  Had clouded over slightly by this stage, but was still great.  Very crowded though, more crowded than I've actually ever see it, and lots of noisy kids.  Despite this had a good wander around, and they would both like to come back another time when there are no crowds.

The plan was also to go to a few wineries after this

Kangerdaar was 1st on the list as the closest to Melville's Caves, tasted a few varieties, and George and Val bought a few ( I didn't, still had some from last time).

Just before we arrived at Blanche Barkly we stopped for a kangaroo leg - literally... Had spied the roadkill on the way up, and stopped to get a leg for Dylan on the way back - very environmentally sound

And then onto Blanche Barkly, lovely and toasty warm in the tasting room,  Pot belly stove was very efficient.  Arleen was there and she gave us various tastings too.  I bought a bottle of the Johann, and she very generously gave us 2 cleanskin bottles to taste and compare back at home, as I had said that I would buy a dozen of the cleanskins also. One was $10, and the other was $7, once home we preferred the $10 one.  Arleen said she'd drop the dozen off the next morning - how's that for good service


Dropped in quickly at the house to see if Justin wanted to come with us to Bridgewater, he was happy at home - so didn't.

Dropped off the stinky kangaroo leg

Stopped at the Bridgewater Pub and sat outside in the sun - lovely.  And then a walk along the river path and beyond to the circuit.  Once again Dylan was in his element snuffling around and jumping into the river to retrieve sticks.  Was very pretty there

and then onto the final winery of the afternoon - Waterwheel.  Peter was there, and vaguely recognised me, or rather knew that I had the house.  He was a great raconteur, regaling us with all sorts of amusing stories.  Another lady came in and asked if they were still open - as it was after 4pm.  He then told a little story ending with the punchline, did you come through the door, or a window.  Given that she had come in through a door, it meant that the winery was open.  This woman was visiting friends in the area and had been sent out to get wines.  She was a laugh also, some other people came in a bit later - not as amusing.  We would have stayed at least an hour - Justin missed out.

Back home and gave Dylan the leg

And then a little more wine and cheese on the veranda, I had planned to make pizzas, but given the lateness of our return decided against it.  Was another glorious evening

and we went to the pub for dinner instead.  Justin and I sharing an Outback parma - was all good.

Back to the house again and more music and frivolity

Monday, and it was the Queen's birthday, and dull and overcast.  Didn't feel like going for a walk, although George did with Dylan.  Late start, inside breakfast, and the neighbours left soon afterwards

Justin and I pottered around a bit, got pasties for lunch.  It was funny, at one of the wineries, we were told that they were the worst pasties ever, and at another winery, we were told that they were the best ever.  So, we had to decide for ourselves.

I bought the meat varieties, and they were pretty good  - I believe that the "worst" comment was in relation to the vegetarian variants.

Olives, cupboards and an icicle : Friday 2 June - Sunday 4 June 2017

Another Sydney trip, and another pickup from the airport - this time from Justin

Has a bit of drama at Sydney airport however, as my return flight was mistakenly made as 5pm on 2nd  July, but was supposed to be 2 June.

Nothing that money couldn't fix, $275 to be precise which I thought a bit steep, just about the cost of a one way ticket.  It was made up of admin fee, airport fee and difference in price between the tickets.  I wondered if they would credit if my current fare had been less than the new fare

No matter, made it back to Tullamarine by 6.50, and my case was the 2nd one out of the carousel. Perfect!

Initially we thought that we might stop at Kyneton for dinner as per Alex and I a few weeks ago, however Justin preferred to just get to the house, and have a late dinner there and relax, rather than stop in Kyneton and then have another 1 hour to go.  I was easy, didn't mind, as I knew I had some food in the freezer that could be warmed up

So, got to the house around 9pm, and it was freezing inside - well, under 10 degrees .

Got some falafel balls out of the freezer, and a couple of bread rolls.  Heated them up in the oven, Had a glass of red, and watched Suits upstairs with the little blow heater on

I was falling asleep by the 2nd one (had had a couple of big days in Sydney) so to bed with very welcome hot water bottles

Woke up 7ish and went outside to turn on the hot water - and yes there was plenty of frost -with the grass crackling underfoot.



Then back to my warm bed, and read the The Age online for a while.

We finally got up around 8.30 and had breakfast outside in the brilliant sunshine, cold but lovely. Had some warming porridge and coffee.  Gordon dropped in at the end as he had emptied the trailer of my garden cuttings/weeds and was returning it nice and empty ready to be refilled.
Unfortunately we were still in our dressing gowns and pjs, in the privacy of our back garden, but it didn't matter

Had a warming shower after breakfast, and then went down the shops to say hello to all, and to also buy some meat from the butcher, and some eggs from David - some for me and some for Anne from CWA - as she loves real free range eggs.

I also took a photo over the back fence for her to show her how free range the chickens actually were - very!

 

Back to the house, and some gardening for me, while Justin started making up some of the cupboard doors





And here were the almost finished result - of 3 - still another 9 to go?

 

Lunch was yummy toastie sandwiches in the George Foreman press and eaten up on the veranda

Maile called up later in the afternoon to remind us that it was the 1st weekend in the month, and therefore a get together on the Village Green at 6pm.

I finished up gardening around 4.30pm - was getting pretty cold in the shadows out of the sun.  I had planned to have a hot bath to warm up.  And so I did.  The bathtub itself is pretty crappy, but we have lots of instant electric hot water, so I luxuriated in it for about an hour, replenishing the hot water as necessary.  Was lovely, and I felt able to store the heat in preparation for our Village Green visit

Once again a small group, surprisingly no Terry, (he was in Melbourne), but David, Arleen & June, Damo, Nicole & Jerry (who we hadn't seen for ages) and Maile & David.  Stayed about an hour.

Dinner was either originally going to be the pub, or home made, however given the bath situation, we decided it was going to be the pub, and this was certainly confirmed when we decided to go to the Village Green.  However on returning from the Village Green we changed course slightly, and thought we'd get a takeaway pizza from the Roadhouse - as that should be quicker than the pub.

The pizza was ok - had a lot of cheese, and we ate it while watching a movie

Frost again on Sunday morning, in fact so cold that there was an icicle on the excess downpipe of the back water tank


Breakfast again outside, as it was another lovely sunny day.  I had porridge again, Justin had toast.





Lots of birds hopping around in the trees, I tried to capture them in photos, but they were too quick, I was too noisy on the gravel path etc. I thought the sun shining through the palm fronds and dates looked nice, so took a photo of that instead.



Went up and visited Damo and Nicole to see their Surf Club

Very impressive, was in their old corrugated iron shed which they had done up.  One side the shed , but the other half the club.  They'd put flooring in, and on the club side had put in a bar, stools, surfing knick knacks, high table and high chairs etc.  Was great, - inspired Justin to crack on with his Yacht Club.  They also showed us their vegie gardens also impressive, and we ended up having a morning tea by the surf club - by the outside stove which was cranked up and very warm





Back to the house for lunch, up on the veranda again with another George Foreman Toastie and the ends of a couple of bottles of wine



After lunch I did a bit more gardening and harvested our olives, making a bag of large olives and a separate bag of smaller olives



We also decided that it was time to pull down the wood shed, as it is starting to get dangerous - the nails pulling out of the wall, and the bearers breaking etc
We'll do that next weekend - the Queens birthday



Justin also fixed up the veranda handles of the inside sash window door, one had come off ages ago, and so there were none left.  Justin had bought some better replacements







And afterwards he relaxed with some music

First cold snap of the year 6 & 7 May 2017

Had a bit of a circuitous route on the way to Inglewood this weekend.

Inherited/re-housed a bit more furniture, and also took some other very heavy pieces to Alex and Sarah's

We ended up taking some veranda chairs and table, and Mongolian low chest of drawers to Inglewood





Got to Inglewood after 1pm, so unpacked and had some lunch up on the veranda on the new furniture.  The table worked really well, because as Justin had pointed out, it has 3 legs, so doesn't wobble around on the slightly sloping veranda floor




Was a lovely sunny day, and reasonably warm in the sun, but cold out of it

And, it was a lot greener than just a week ago.

I did a bit of gardening, but also had some work to do, so did that in the dining room.  I was very pleased to have my work internet dongle.  however it was freezing in the dining room, had a coffee to warm me up


Put the Mongolian drawers in the Red room, with the Screen behind it, not sure about that though



Maile and David dropped in to tell us that it was the 1st weekend of the month, and to remind us to come up to the Village Green

Justin had been looking forward to just a quiet night at home, however I persuaded him to come, and we had a very nice time.  Got there around 6pm, and there weren't many people - Terry, Maile & David, Arleen & David, Anne & Phillip and one of their friend's.  Mark & Chrissie came a little later.

I had certainly dressed warmly for it, thermal underwear and a number of jumpers/jackets and even a hat. I was warm enough, and there was also a fire in a brazier which warmed our hands.  Had some wine, and some little snacks

Stayed til 7.30 or so, and then home to dinner.  I had prepared some bolognese earlier and had it warming in the oven at a low temperature to meld the flavours even more.  Was pretty good if I do say so myself.

Had a picnic dinner in front of Jarhead the movie upstairs.  Thought about a fire, as it was pretty cold, but we had a small blow heater and rugs.

Sunday, and a slow start, reading the  paper online.

I suggested that we put up that William Morris tapestry that Justin had bought some time ago.  Justin had thought it would be tricky, and we'd need dyna bolts etc, however it was pretty light, so we could just use a normal picture hook

Justin had to cut the pieces of dowel down to size first



 


And then it was ready for hanging








Next off we thought we'd wash the ute, as it was filthy!  Had some sort of mould?? on it , or else it was persistent dirt.  It was actually nice to put my hands in the bucket of hot water to warm them up.

I don't think we've ever had it that clean!



Had some nice hot pies for lunch, and I did some more work (not thrilled about working on the weekend, but it had to be done, I had a training presentation on Monday,and my client had wanted me to change a whole lot of things from my self deluded final version on Thursday)


The mushrooms/toadstools had also grown quite a bit

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And I noticed that a solitary asparagus fern had resurrected itself in the vegie patch.  They had been going pretty well last year, but then the heat must have fried them, and they disappeared

Alex and me April 28 - 30 2017

I was in Sydney on the Friday for some meetings and presentations, so arrived back in Melbourne around 6.30pm

Alex had kindly offered to pick me up from Tullamarine airport - and then to go onto Inglewood.

The food at Tullamarine didn't inspire us for dinner, so we thought we'd wait until Kyneton.

Stumbled across The Source in Piper Street. Was a fabulous restaurant (used to be Annie Smithers bistrot)

photo from the internet

photo from the internet

I started with a Campari and Hepburn Springs (local) lemonade, and Alex had a beer.

Then duck (Milawa Free Range Duck - Hay brined & roasted duck breast, croquettes of confit leg, onion soubise, cherry, fig, lentils & quinoa, duck jus)  for me, steak ( Aged Sutton Grange beef Pommes anna, carrot puree, roast heirloom carrots, chablis mustard, shiraz jus) for Alex, and some hand cut , chips with tomato salt to share,

Were also given some little amuse bouche after the  yummy bread and butter, ie a roast capsicum and tomato saucer of soup, and a passionfruit sliver of jelly after the cheese and biscuits :-Cloud 9 Triple velvet, A camembert style triple cream cheese, made here in the Macedon Ranges. Small batches of this mild flavoured, beautifully luscious cows’ milk cheese are handmade on the local farm) 

Got these florid descriptions from their menu on their website.

Food, service and atmosphere were great (was relatively expensive though) - and my dear brother -in law shouted me.  In fact he proceeded to do so all weekend, I just got the drinks for dinner on Saturday night at the Pub,

Finished up around 9.30 or so, so got to Inglewood around 10.30, just unpacked and went to bed.  wasn't too cold in the house which I was relieved about.

Got up around 7am in case Alex wanted to go for  walk, however he slept in a bit and got up 8ish so we had some breakfast (inside, was grey and overcast, not cold though)

Had my haircut/coloured at 9am, and came back after 11am.  Didn't want to get dirty, so just stayed in my regular clothes and hunted for bindis.

Everything was a lot greener, and it was definitely Autumn, leaves becoming yellow and falling.  Not too cold though, even worked up a sweat with some of the more vigorous gardening.

/
Bakery for lunch - where we saw an article in the paper about a man who wanted to trade a German Castle ( Schochwitz Castle) for a Melbourne apartment.  Or it was for sale for $750k euros, which seems pretty reasonable to me - as it is fully renovated!

photo from the internet

photo from the internet

Did some gardening after lunch, weeded out the front.


Olives looking good

And strange fungi in the garden

Also a large dead cicada/moth?

Alex bought some dips and biscuits, and we had them up on the veranda before dinner

Dinner at the pub - of course an Outback



Back to the house and we watched Warhorse - which Alex didn't think very much of - too sentimental




The footy club were having a ball across the road at the Town Hall, a little raucous after 12, but not too bad

Saw Andrew N the next day cleaning up - ie picking up empty bottles and cans

They had also just put up this new bust of Edwin Tivey looking across at our (his old) house



Went for a nice walk  - usual circuit in the scrub, and then more weeding out the front.

Was feeling a little cold, so had soup and toast outside for lunch - was not bad (not great either)

And more weeding after lunch