Royal Variety & Music Night 6-10 October 2023

Was a bit complicated getting there this weekend 

I was initially going to catch the train, and then I was going to drive because Justin could have got a lift up with Alex. ( I didn't want to take 2 cars there)

Then Alex was going to leave Melbourne around 2pm on Saturday because April wanted to come (otherwise he would have come on the Friday)

So, then Justin and I were going to drive up together on Friday night and maybe stop in Kyneton for a nice dinner - which meant that I would have had to give my apologies to Damo & Nicole for the Royal Variety performance 

But then Alex and Justin decided to do some more music practice on Friday after work, so it was back to me catching the train again

Then there was plan to get me to and from Wedderburn, as Damo and Nicole were staying the night there, so Mal & Mel were organised to give me a lift back to Inglewood

What a saga.....

Anyway, yes I caught the 1.06pm VLine train to Bendigo, with a bought sandwich for lunch. Once at Bendigo, Nicole gave me excellent directions to their place - 5 minutes walk away, and she then gave me a lift to Inglewood

Once there, I looked around the garden

Quite a few of the tulips I'd planted had come up, but as per the daffodils, something was eating them

Also looks as though the jacaranda that George gave me years ago might have died (hope not, as I wanted to plant it somewhere sheltered to replace the one we had to cut down) -as it was under the veranda - and it had been hot, so was very dry 

 And checked out Justin's job with the cast iron hearth - looks very good

Then off down the street to buy some eggs from David, say hello to Denise and Steve, and to buy some nibbles for tonight in Wedderburn, and also to check what time Mal was finishing up there - Damo had said 6pm, so I asked if he could just drop in on his way back to Kingower to pick me up.  They weren't planning on driving through Inglewood to Wedderburn, they were going a back way from Kingower

Anyway, Mal actually finished work at the IGA at 5pm.  I was on the phone when I heard a quiet knock, and it was him.  We decided it made more sense if they just picked up up on the way, rather than me going into Kingower with them

And that's what they did - at 6.30pm - I was waiting out the front on the Town Hall side 

Damo was driving, with Nicole in the front, and me, Mal, and his son Nate in the back

We dropped Mal and Nate at the Wedderburn IGA where Mel was working, and Damo, Nicole and I went to their friend's place -  very nice. Had my bubbles there 

And then the 5 of us (the friends had a young daughter) went to the Mechanics institute for the "Royal Performance"  - and met Mal, Mel and their sons there

There were a couple of good skits - River Dance, and Menopause Rhapsody, and some of the cast had good voices when singing, but overall it wasn't really my thing  - I wasn't disappointed when Mel and Mal wanted to leave soon after it ended - their boys were pretty bored...

Anyway, it was good that I went, but I probably wouldn't go to the next one.

Justin was there when I got home - had driven straight to Inglewood after practising with Alex. 

Saturday, and Justin gave me a lift to Terry's at 9am to start the cooking for the Music night

I was on chopping duty at first - onion and garlic - and was told a good tip - you can get the onion smell off your hands by rubbing them on a stainless steel sink - I did so and it worked

Arlene, June & Chrissie were all there too

Chrissie and June were de-boning the lamb for the shepherds pie in the below photo

Our menu was as follows

Nibbles 

    mandolined apple slices with blue cheese/sour cream/chives and candied walnut - yum

    herbed cream cheese stuffed celery pieces

    smoked tout on crackers/baked french stick

    mini sausage rolls 

    vegetable frittata - in muffin pans

Main

    Shepherds pie encased in pastry

    Broccoli/carrots

Dessert

    Pavlova 

    Chocolate cheesecake

Was all delicious 

Terry gave us sausage rolls for lunch - and Justin came to pick me up

Saw that something was happening across the road at the Town Hall - so went and had a look - Artists Trail - saw Tenar and Louise there

Some of Greg's art was there too - ie our house

Also had a peek in the old projector room - with a great view of the stage

 Also a great view from the balcony - over to our house - Alex took the below photo - couldn't quite manoeuvre around the palm fronds - pity

The boys had another practice in the dining room

And I sat myself in the hammock and read - very comfy

Back to Kingower for 6pm - had to wait a little while for Terry to come 

We sat at the front left hand table - with Maile and David, and then got another chair for Steve and Denise to join us - to make it 7

Chrissie, Arlene, Nicole and I served up the food - and it was very well received  

Music started at 8pm with Justin, Alex , David & Mark

Then a few solo spots - David, Mark and Dermott (didn't get a photo of Dermott this time)

    

Was another lovely night 

Got home and I went to bed, Justin and Alex stayed up for a little while 

Sunday, and Justin left early-ish - as he had work he wanted to do back in Melbourne

Alex and I stayed longer - I wanted to pull out those African Flag flowers - as they have taken over the front garden bed

 

Alex was putting them in the wheelbarrow for me  and then in Gordon's trailer

I cleared out most of them

We we had a late lunch in the rotunda - and admired the magpies who were very friendly - lots of new young birds

Mural Artist - site visit 8-10 Sep 2023

Arrived around 5pm on Friday, and planted my poppies/parsley/mint etc which were surplus to needs from my Melbourne garden.

The weather was sunny, but cold, I'd been told that it had been a miserable day there, and only improved in the late afternoon 

More flower blossoms had also emerged ie a lovely hyacinth, iris, peach blossoms, and a coloured freesia

It was also the first time that I had seen blossoms on the quince and the pear

Saturday, and I waited around for Hans in the morning, as I had planned to show him the Town Hall.  He didn't show up, so I was a bit miffed, so changed into my overalls and started sanding down (wire brush on drill)  the cast iron surround in the kitchen in preparation for putting on the stove blacking

before photos

Quasi action shot

  And after photo - there is a difference believe me....

Anyway, I was listening to my talking book - Stanley Tucci reading his book Taste while doing this, and I thought I heard someone talking. Took off my headphones, and yes, someone was talking, - calling out hello, It was Hans, and by this stage it was  around 11.30.

I'd told him that my house was opposite from the Town Hall, but he didn't think it was this one, so had been around to all the neighbour's houses to find me - and was finally told that yes, it was my house. So here he was

He presented me with a bottle of his family bubbles (and then another one afterwards!) - how nice was that?

 

 As he was interested, I showed him around the house, and then we went across the road to the Town Hall 

The reason that I was showing him around the Town Hall was that he is funding the upcoming production of Martha (which will be there next February) - and he was interested to see what it was like

He loved the Town Hall also - so hopefully this will be the first of many productions that he brings to town.

He left after the Town Hall, and I had some lunch, and then went to visit Terry for an afternoon coffee, and also to finally give him his share of the 2023 batch of olive oil

I did some gardening when I got back, and then had a lovely hot bath before dinner.

Sunday, and I set the dining room table (wasn't a nice enough day for the rotunda) for lunch for Shawn (mural artist) and his girlfriend Sara.

They arrived just after 12, and I showed them around the house 

Then we sat down to lunch - once of my famous olive tarts and some accompanying salad.  They brought some lovely bread and a bottle of wine.

Shawn had noticed my sloe gins etc on the sideboard, and was intrigued.  I gave them both  a teeny taste of a few of them (and then a bit more), and they were very complimentary

Anyway, we finished lunch and were still sitting around talking, I heard a knock at the door, and it was Terry who had come to reimburse me for his portion of the olive oil production. I told him not to worry about it, and invited him in for a drink

Was all very pleasant

I guess Terry left around 3.30, and Shawn and Sara around 4pm

I did the dishes and had already packed up, so left around 4.30 

 

Salami making with Mad, Hughie & Terry 24 - 28 August 2023

Had a nice walk with Chris Mc in the morning - along the bike path to the end of the footbridge past St Kevins. And then drove up to Inglewood on Thursday afternoon - with a lot of pork and a bit of beef

I'd called the Inglewood butcher shop the other day, and asked about buying some pork fat, they said they didn't sell it, but did sell "pork sides" for smallgoods making

I bought some of that - it was a 3kg? (can't remember exactly how heavy) frozen pack - that I needed to defrost before tomorrow afternoon - took ages

I called Terry and told him that Madeleine and Hughie would arrive around lunchtime (at the earliest on) Friday. I also asked him if he could have a look at the jarrah wood that we were planning to use for the island benchtop.

He was coming into Inglewood on Friday morning, so I suggested that he stop in for a coffee and a look at the wood.

The rest of Thursday was pretty uneventful/can't really remember what I did....

Friday, and pottered around a bit, went and visited Denise for a chat, and then back to the house to have a coffee with Terry.  Also showed him the jarrah.  Given that the pieces weren't long enough - he didn't think it appropriate for the bench top - so Ludwig the cabinet maker will have to source the wood for us. 

Madeleine and Hughie arrived close to 1pm, and we pretty much drove straight to Terry's for lunch - before the smallgoods making

We had a delicious spanakopita with a green salad, and I brought two bottles of wine, one to have with lunch, and the other for flavouring our smallgoods

Once we'd finished lunch it was down to business

Firstly cutting the fat off the meat, and putting in separate bowls 

Then putting it through the mincer, measuring the right proportions of fat to meat, and adding in our flavourings ie salt pepper, garlic, red wine, chilli etc 

We each  had a large bowl - I was doing the salami mixture approx 3kg, and Madeleine did one type of fresh sausage approx 2kg, and Hughie another approx 2kg.  Terry was working on his own on the island bench  

And then it came time to put the mixtures into the sausage machine.  Was a little bit tricky this time, as the skins tore a bit. We made the sausages first  

And then I realised that we didn't bring anything to put them in.....

Terry lent us one plastic container, and then Madeleine and I drove back to Inglewood to get some more tupperware, and some plastic fruit bags from the supermarket.

By the time we got back, Terry and Hughie had pretty much done all of the salami - and they had run out of salami skins - so we had quite a bit of meat left over.  (Ended up making some sausage rolls back in Melbourne, and froze the rest)

Anyway, we had another glass of wine each - finishing off my smallgoods ingredient wine, and left around 6pm

Didn't really feel like going to the pub, so Madeleine and I went to the takeaway, and got some dinner there - which we ate back at the house

Had a reasonably early night, as Madeleine had an 11am medical appointment on Saturday.  Pity they couldn't stay longer

Anyway, they left around 8.30 or so, and I got stuck into the garden

Wanted to weed/tidy up the public garden beds out the front

Did the one on the left first

Before

After - yes there is a difference

It took me pretty much all day (from 10am or so) to do that side

Was a nice sunny day, so I was getting warm, but it cooled down after the sun went down, so I had a lovely hot bath

Did the right hand side on Sunday - and that took pretty much all day also

A number of people walked by and enquired about the house - so I chatted with them for a while.  Was a good distraction from the weeding

And Shane came by also - he had made some initial blue outlines in the garden ie a round garden bed near the rotunda, proposed paths etc - but we had to discuss further

I also decided to stay another day - as the paths were very overgrown

Once again - first the left hand side

And then the right hand side - forgot to take an after picture of this.  I didn't really weed the paths, as they will be replaced anyway by Shane

I basically filled Gordon's trailer - and forgot to take a photo of that too

I did some planting - ie the buddleia that Rachel gave me

  and some rogue plums that keep coming up in the vegie garden

The grape hyacinths were coming into bloom

And I spied two sad daffodils that I had planted recently - sad because something has nibbled away at the petals

Lastly, I hung the salamis up in the cellar - am looking forward to sampling them