Party season

December 26. 2014

Boxing day, and we have all eaten our selves to a stand still! We had fabulous glazed ham and vegetables at Bo’s restaurant and then yesterday we visited Wayne’s in-laws at Rye for Xmas day. We decided to go on the toll road to save time but it was so full of cars that the traffic was very slow moving. Luckily we had left in plenty of time so we were not too late. The house is perched on a ridge with panoramic sea views and is tastefully done up in a relaxed seaside way.

I was very impressed with the table set up that was mostly white and natural colours with a dash of glowing turquoise. The food was pretty impressive too. I seem to have a slight virus and tried hard not to show I felt crook, luckily Edd did the driving and fed the animals when we got home because I collapsed. I am glad that we were able to meet all the family and start to get to know them. Everyone is very excited about the baby that is on the way. It is an amazing thing to think we could have another grandchild by this time next year.

This afternoon I am trying to send off the rest of the Xmas cards and letters. It is very hard with out the support of my old computer where I had everything organized. I do enjoy the letters from my friends that arrive this time of year so I have to make the effort to keep the tradition going.

Tomorrow it is Edd’s birthday and I am trying to organize the kids for some sort of occasion. After that we have just to get through New Years Eve and then we will have survived another party season! Then it will be back to farm work as we get the hay in and organize the sheep to be shorn. Our usual shearer cannot come this year so we will have to find someone else. We also have Zulu the alpaca to deal with. That might be interesting!

Our vegetables are growing fast. Today I cooked our first capsicum for lunch and I picked the first tomatoes. The blue berries are also ripe and the black cockatoo’s have started on the apples, even though they are still small and green. The goats are in full milk and we are eating and giving away lots of cheese. As they say, it is summer time and the living is easy.

mid summer feast

December 22. 2014

We are in recovery mode after our big solstice party last night. It was a very hot summer evening so we set up tables in the ruins and ate out feast al fresco. What a feast it was too. Beth made her usual fantastic Xmas Puddings and brandy butter. Alvyn cooked a sweet potato dish and roasted grapes, Graeme brought a fantastic salad and I cooked turkeys, broccoli and potatoes. Everyone brought a dish of some kind so there were mountains of glorious food and wine. Margret’s Pavlova looked so good that photos were taken of it.

This year we missed Josh and Robyn who are in Cairns, and Wayne and Danielle who had a prior engagement. Danielle did send us big jars of home made treats for the tables that made the kids eyes pop. Alvyn brought his sons over at lunchtime and they got the sailing boat out onto the dam. I was very surprised that they could actually sail it round because I had imagined the dam would be too small to sail on. I think the wind was just right so they could move easily and not too fast. The boys remembered how to turn too, which helped.

After the sailing everyone under 40 got into the pool to cool off. With eating outdoors it did not matter how wet anyone got. Arj slunk off at one point and shot a rabbit. He prepared it and I marinated it so that he could cook it on one of the 44-gallon drum cookers. Pip came back from work and joined the frolicking in the pool and it seemed that we were a seething mass of happy relaxed young people all romping like kids.

I think the young kids will have memories from this that will last all their lives. It is so pleasing to see them having fun in good old-fashioned ways and interacting with adults so naturally.  It is a lot of work organizing a feast for 25 people but I am sure it is worth the effort. I am lucky too, in that I have a daughter like Bo, who puts in such a huge effort with me.

Today there is lots of washing to do but Al and family helped move the furniture back at the end of the night. Bo is hosting another Xmas party in her restaurant tonight so we will join her there. I think it is fair to say that the Xmas festivities are now in full swing.

A cat arrives and the brewery birthday

My attempt at a winter scene

  the climbers

Birthday in the brewery

December 9. 2014

The weather changed from hot and dry to cool and wet. This helped us a lot, especially as we had not cut hay yet. (Others have not been so lucky and we see several paddocks full of cut damp hay as we drive each day to Yarra Glen.) The new trees and the vegetables leapt into growth action and I had a weeks break from watering.  It is starting to warm up again now, so the respite is over. When the sun shines it has a strange bite to it that feels stingy on the skin.

Indigo and her friends make use of the pool to keep cool but I have not been tempted in yet. Basically the house is such a nice temperature that I tend to head indoors if outdoors is uncomfortable. I have cleaned out the sunroom, set up Xmas decorations and repotted all the plants that had grown. Next I need to tackle the gardens by the ruins and the potted succulents down there. They have not been sorted for years so look very neglected.

We have been putting our effort into growing vegetables. Edd has built more raised beds and they fill up quickly so that there never seems enough growing space. At least we get plenty to eat and excess to sell. We have used up all the lemons and there are no limes ripe yet so we are bartering cheese for lemons.

At the weekend we all went to Beth’s restaurant where they had an open party to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the brewery. They cooked meat pies and ice cream all containing beer. I do not usually eat ice cream but curiosity forced me to try beer ice cream and it was surprisingly good. The meat pies were pretty flash too. Beth’s youngest child and a friend occupied themselves by practicing rock climbing on the front of the building. I am not sure of the birthday cake had beer in it but it tasted pretty good.

Al’s eldest son and a school friend came to stay on the farm after the party. They brought bacon in Yarra Glen with the idea that they would shoot rabbits to make a hot pot. We have so many rabbits that you would think it would be difficult to miss but this time they escaped. I have been adopted by a cat and I had to warn the boys not to shoot it. We do not usually keep cats because they kill the native animals and birds but this cat arrives each night and asks for milk at milking time. We had rather too many mice in the shed so I am accepting it for the present. It is a rather battered tabby cat with wounds on its’ neck but it tries hard to act gratefully.

94 years old and a tropical snow scene

December 1st. 2014

It is dry and hot again so I am back to watering vegetables and trees. The loquats are covered with fruit and neither I, nor the parrots, have made much impact yet. We are starting to get strawberries and raspberries but they disappear very quickly. The mulberries never did get any fruit. The frost hit them just at the wrong stage and they did not attempt a second try.

My mum in the UK had her 94^th  birthday. I still phone her every day but we sent flowers to mark the occasion as well. My nephew sent a lovely picture that I will share here. Mum is not enjoying this stage of her life but we still find things to laugh about most days. She tells me that she sleeps a lot now, which we both think is a good thing.

Back in Australia my eldest grandson has now done his school leaving exams and is working and partying whilst he waits for the results. He is hoping to save enough money to buy a ticket to Europe but has not earned enough yet. Eddy went over to look at the broken car and the damage may not be as bad as Arj first thought.

The big tragedy is that my computer is on the blink. It has been marvelous for 6 years but recently it has been struggling to manage all the new forms of data and it is probably not powerful enough to take the latest up grades. I am working on the little laptop Josh leant us but I have no way of dealing with my photos. The answer is to buy a new computer so we are saving towards that. Mean while things are a little bit harder than usual. We use a computer a lot because it is a long drive to get to anywhere and shopping, bills and everything else is much quicker on line.

The goats are still in full milk mode and I am busy most days making cheese. The sheep and Zulu Warrior, the alpaca need shearing and then there is the dreadful business of getting the hay in. Edd usually organizes the hay and shearing so I am busy getting everything ready for Xmas. I have done all the shopping except the food in two trips. The first one took me right into central Melbourne where I had to get cheesecloth. I stopped in at Ikea on the way back and they have achieved the impossible and made shopping one stage harder. You now cannot get your car parking ticket verified at the check out but have to take your receipt to a machine outside where there is a second queue.

The idea is to put your ticket in the top and scan your receipt at the bottom. Sadly this is difficult because of the light paper on the receipt but as everyone in the queue is trying to get out everyone helped each other. This was not the end of it. Once in the car some people ahead of me had failed on the ticket business and got stuck behind the barrier until a girl could arrive to rescue them. The whole business took ages. Luckily my shopping trip last week with Bo was much easier. For a start she drove and we stayed well clear of the city.

Now I am working on the house. I have tidied up the indoor garden and put up the Xmas tree along side the plants. Next I decorated everything in silver and white to create a snow effect. I am not sure what my tropical plants make of this. But they have benefitted from the attention.

A big scare

November 19 11 2014

We have had a great weekend with friends from NSW who stayed with us whilst they ran an art workshop. They brought wet weather with them so I got a rest from endless watering and could enjoy in depth conversations about everything. I find visitors are very important because I get to re evaluate what I am doing with my life.

I had a bit of a fright one evening. I was walking past Edd’s work shed to take stuff to the dairy when there was a sudden flash of light. I had a momentary thought that it might be a gun shot aimed my way but that thought was washed away by an enormous clash of thunder that blew me right over! Strangely there had been no storm action before this and nothing but rain, coming later, followed. I had the distinct impression that something was targeting me!

Now our friends have gone the dry has returned and I am back to watering. The grass has gone green again, though, so it did do some good. Today we ate the first zucchini, and we are still getting masses of lovely crisp snow peas. The loquats are also now edible if the parrots don’t get there first.

I have started to get organised for Xmas. Beth wants a natural colour scheme with neutrals and wood. OK. I started with a look at material to make table clothes. I assume that we can use white plates from Al’s wedding, as mine are either green or turquoise, definitely not right for the theme. It seemed awfully dull to me to put white plates on a white cloth, risky too with young kids and wine. The slightly patterned fabric was horribly expensive for any thing nice but finally I found an affordable fabric that was quite dark and definitely not about to show any unwanted stains.

Now I have a start to work with and I can go white candles and it will even take the pewter and silver coloured gear. I resisted the temptation to order fuchsia or bright orange table napkins; the fuchsia was particularly hard to resist. Chocolate will probably get more use in the long run. Now I can collect the rest of the decorations. I have some good ideas for the crackers. I hope that I have got the turkeys on order and we are trying to get adults to swap consumables, preferably home made, as gifts. At least I have made a start.

worrying dryness

Tuscan Feast

Edd finally finished making Indi's sandles

November 10 2014

The rain did not last long and the week has seen the ground dry to dust in many places. It has been hot too; so all the new trees and the vegetables have needed watering. The stone pine seeds have germinated giving us enough trees to complete the plantation but with the weather like this they might be best waiting in their pots for autumn. It is all a bit of a worry. We have not seen the land dry up at this time since the 2009 fires went through. The bush has grown back around us and the risk of fires is once again an issue.

We have started to prepare for the fire season by clearing up all the long grass and rubbish by the buildings. The sheep have grazed down most of the fire reserve so we have moved them into the old hay paddock to clear up there. I have mowed the stone pine plantation area, which looks very neat and organised. Now we need to check our pumps and hoses are in good order.

Even with all the farm work we have had time for fun. On Saturday Al and Pip invited us to their home for a Tuscan feast with other family members. The food was fantastic and amazingly everyone fitted into the kitchen /office to eat. Bo was working in her Restaurant and Indi was caring for her kids. She brought them over to see everyone and have a swim in the river. Then she took them to the heritage festival in Healesville. Here they had the time of their lives because one of Indi’s friends was in charge of a steam roller and let the kids drive it through the town blowing it’s whistle. The police turned a blind eye to the fact that little Silvy was steering a huge vehicle down the town main street!

Indi has had quite a week too. She floated the horses to Healesville and rode from Badger Weir across the mountain to Toolangi. She told us that at one point her dog got over heated so she carried him across the front of her saddle! Those horses would do anything for Indi.

Bo’s husband is in China at a beer expo so she has had a very busy week and I have not seen her. It is a busy time of year but we are all on the count down to Xmas when things start to slow down. The hay will be ready to cut early this year so we are starting to plan where we will get it from. We will also need to get the sheep shorn because if this dryness continues some will need to be sold when the grass is gone.