Bailing and chimney plugs Sun 27 - Tues 29 Nov 2022

 Drove up on the Sunday afternoon - as I still had lots of weeding/trimming to do 

On arrival I noticed an Ethel Turner (who wrote 7 Little Australians) book perched on top of the recycle bin.  Wondered what all that was about, and brought it in 

Had a look through it - and there was a bookmark on this page

Yes, it looks a bit like our house, but on further research - the house is called Inglewood, and its in NSW.  One of our friend's/acquaintances must have left it for us.  I wonder who? (still don't know)

Monday, and yes, there was still water in the cellar that I wanted to remove- as we don't want hordes of mosquitos devouring us

So, up and down the steps - who knows how many times

Started off with the white bucket - however it had some less than ideal  holes 

So swapped across to the blue bucket - and used the white bucker as the scooper

There must have still been 100s of litres left - still oozing up from the saturated ground below

And then out for more trimming/weeding

That dog rose needed a severe trim

Yep, there's a path under all of those trimmings

Out the front, and need to mulch it 

The path without the trimmings, and the dog rose trimmed

Also ate a cherry - nice, don't seem to be too many this year, although perhaps the birds have got the rest.  Will see what's left the next time we go there.  And hopefully no fruit flies this year

More of the same again on Tuesday - ie trimming/weeding and bailing. 

Gordon came by and mowed the grass - actually looked not half bad once he'd finished

And, I'd pretty much got all of the water out of the cellar - we'll see if more has seeped in on our next visit

Whilst weeding under the big feral olive tree, someone came and knocked at the door.  It was a guy from one of those government subsidised companies ie providing free light bulbs etc - except this time it was chimney plugs - to stop warm air escaping in Winter, and also to stop all the crap coming down.  I was thrilled so got them for all 6 chimneys

He also provided some door jambs - which I had also wanted

He hit the jack pot at our place ....

 

Gardening and sore eyes Thursday 10 - Saturday 12 November 2022

Came up on Thursday evening - and there was still water in the cellar - I thought it might have seeped away - but no such luck

Took out the portacot to dry off a bit 

Basically just gardened all weekend - weeding and trimming

Found some more little self sewn roses and planted them out the front

Did the vegie garden - forgot to take the after photos ...

 

And the bed around one of the mulberries

Found a teeny birds nest out the front

And admired the roses - which are doing very well

And here's a before and after - at the front

And here is what I accomplished

Given all the rain - there were plenty of mosquitoes - so before I went out on Friday I put on both sun screen and bug roll on.  

This was fine - I was still getting arms, but not too many bites.  However when I had a shower on Friday evening - I must have got a combination of sun lotion, sweat, and bug roll on in my eyes.  This made them sting most horribly - and hurt if I had my eyes open or closed.  In fact I was so concerned that I called up Justin to google remedies - I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to do my own research.  It was excruciating, and I wondered if I'd done some permanent damage.  He said wash them out under running water for 15 - 20 minutes. So I went back in the shower - made it a bit better, and after an hour or so, it was ok, not perfect, but bearable

On Sunday when I went out to garden I didn't put any bug roll on - on my face - didn't want to go through that again ....

More floods - Wednesday 2nd - Thursday 3rd November 2022

We had been back from Tasmania for a few days, had Melbourne Cup at home, and so I decided to go to Inglewood on Wednesday - as I hadn't been there for a few weeks.

Our friend Rachel from Dunolly had been flooded on the inside - from her cellar - so I needed to see if there was any equivalent at our place

I left Melbourne around 10am, and went and had a look in the cellar as soon as I arrived

And yes, there was water - quite a lot - maybe 50cm deep or so - but luckily not into the house.  It had come in through the floor - as the ground had been saturated

Unfortunately had the old portacot and 2 x electric panel heaters in there.  Not sure if they will survive.

Luckily, the wine was fine - and the water didn't smell

I called Justin to ask about the pump, and he thought I should get some assistance with it (probably a good idea)

Anyway, left it for a bit (it wasn't going to get any worse), and I went and inspected the garden.  With all of the rain, the plants were looking lush - ie kiwi fruits, grape vines (might even get some grapes), yucca, and beautiful white iris

The weeds were also lush....

So, I put on my overalls and got weeding - out the front

Listened to the Dressmakers of Yarrandarah Prison as a talking book while I weeded, was great

 

I called up Terry on Thursday morning, and asked if he could assist with the pump.  And of course he did.

He identified the right bits - ie box and hose, connected them, and then we sat in the kitchen, had a cup of coffee, and chatted, while the water pumped out into the scullery laundry sink

Was very effective 

Greg the artist also dropped in to say hello and show me a new coloured print he'd made of the house - however he wasn't happy with the colours yet.  Looked pretty good to me.

He left, and then Terry left when the pump stopped at about 10cm or so - we saw that the water had originally been up to the 2nd step.  I considered getting an bowl or bucket and scooping out the rest, but I 'll be back soon, and I'm hoping that it will have seeped away by the time I return.

I then went back to weeding out the front - and I also planted the grape vine that I bought - which does have edible seedless grapes (I'm not sure what the other ones are - as I'd pinched some cuttings from the back lane) 

And I also tried pulled the electric cords from the heaters out the the remaining water in the cellar

 And put the portacot on the steps to try and dry out

 

Luckily I had gumboots to do all this

I also took a photo of the downstairs green room ceiling - as Ron had sent us photos of what he'd done - but it's different seeing it in person.  Looked great, especially as he kept the gum leaf border.  However the curve of the cornice now looks a bit shabby by comparison, and needs to be fixed up at some stage.

I started getting peckish around 1.30, so thought I'd try out the new takeaway (old GGs) - had a burger with the lot, and it was pretty good.  Didn't take too long either

And then more weeding and more Dressmakers of  Yarrandarah

Wanted to get the left hand side of the front of the fence done - nearly did so, however a bloke stopped in his car to say hello, and talk about the house.  He's John from Wedderburn,  - and has an old (collectors) renault.  Didn't mean that much to me, but Justin was impressed when I told him.  Anyway, we chatted for a while, which put me behind, and it was already after 5pm, so I stopped without having quite finished - oh well - more to do next time!

But I was pretty pleased with my efforts - and filled up Gordon's trailer

More wallpaper and Kingower Music Night 7-9 October

Left for Inglewood on Friday night, and as it wasn't a long weekend - the traffic was ok

But there was a LOT of water around - it wasn't raining, but it certainly had been - when we passed Bul Bul Creek just before Inglewood it was almost "lake like" - and it's normally dry

We were looking forward to getting there and having a look at Ron's wallpapering and paint work.  We had finally got him back to finish off wallpapering the dining room, and then also the ceiling in the hallway, given that Vic had stripped the wallpaper there (without our permission, made me a bit mad as I had really liked that wallpaper and had wanted to keep it)

Anyway, Justin and I then had to try and find a replacement wallpaper and border - literally took months.  Justin found this great American website with traditional Victorian wallpapers and borders, but the borders he liked were too wide in my opinion - 30 - 40cm, and I wanted a width of 15cm or less. Anyway this negotiation took some time.,...and we finally agreed 

Ron sent us some photos of his progress

He painted the quad in the dining room, (we were going to have the terracotta colour, but he recommended the mustard colour) and also put the rest of the wallpaper  up in the dining room

Alex came up early on the Friday again - and took some further photos of Ron at work

 

Ron also re-painted the cornice in the hallway, as with the new beautiful wallpaper, we wanted it to look good  

And Alex hunted down a smell in his room - dead mouse under the bed

Anyway, as I said, we arrived on Friday night, and had our now traditional toasted sandwich with Alex for dinner with a glass of wine.

Saturday morning, and not much of a sleep in, as I was due at Terry's at 9am to help with the cooking for the Music night

Started with a good coffee first though

Terry was making the green curry, while Arleen, Chrissy and I prepared the fish cakes, fish cake sauce, and toppings for the crostini

I was tickled pink by what turned out to be an antique olive pitter - and it worked very well.  He also had a modern one- but that didn't work properly if the olive pips were large 

Justin and Alex came over for lunch - Terry's famous sausage rolls, and then we went back home.

I weeded and trimmed the garden, was horrified by how many snails I found in the wheelbarrow

 But thrilled by a gorgeous deep purple iris 

While weeding I found some puny self seeded rocket plants - so put them in the vegie garden.  With luck they'll survive (with all this rain)

I was also surprised at how close a little blackbird was coming to me while I was weeding. It doesn't look that close in the photo, but it was very close

While I was doing this - the boys were practising upstairs (Chris had arrived)

 

Off to Kingower around 6pm - Alex kindly drove - making 2 x trips 

Not that many people there this time - only about 20 - but it was a good night, and the food was good. Didn't take too long to organise this time either, because rather than a dessert we had a cheese platter

And once again I was tickled pink - as Terry had reserved a table for us (not that there was any need to do so)

The boys set up

We had our delicious dinner

And then there was the music - the usual suspects. Justin, Chris, Alex & Penny, David and Mark, and Dermott

There was even a bit of dancing at times 

Stayed til around midnight, and then stayed up a bit at home, so bed around 1am.

 
Had organised that breakfast would be at 9.30 - bacon, eggs, tomatoes, avocado etc. 

We ate in the dining room, and it was delicious

The others left before lunch, and I went up to Kingower to find some morel mushrooms with Terry

Sadly, we couldn't find any.  Terry thought that it was maybe too late in the season, 

There were lots of small wild flowers though

Although when I mentioned it yesterday Arleen seemed to think we'd find some  (as it had been a wet Spring so far).  Oh well, no mushrooms - so we went to find some asparagus instead - and were successful there - yay

We also passed by the old Kingower Hotel - and as it was open for inspection - had a bit of a look around. Some old dollies caught my eye

  

Then dropped Terry off, and back to the house.

Took photos of the back, side walls and garden room for the engineer to see if we actually needed the tie rods

He unfortunately said yes, we still do need them (had hoped that with the underpinning that we wouldn't need it anymore)

Got Justin to take a photo of Bul Bul Creek on the way back to Melbourne - but a lot of the water had dissipated - there was still a lot, but no where near what it had been (its normally a dry creek bed)