Sunset from Hill House, Mount Helen. February 2024

Monday, March 18, 2024

Mostly Food (and a bit of garden)

The Sunday Lunchers gathered at Macedon yesterday. We were celebrating Irene's 70th birthday and making the most of a glorious, early autumn day.

We ate magnificent food, much of it from Chris and John's very productive garden:

John, Gillie and my hat admiring the vegetable garden.
Thanks to Irene for the photo

We had prawn cocktails, followed by Greek style lamb backstrap, enough roast potatoes to keep the navy afloat and a fabulous salad. We finished with a nectarine and sour cream cake and raspberries on the side.

It was a great lunch and a very convivial afternoon.

Next time we're meeting at my place. Not sure what to offer which will match that.

I had cheese and biscuits and a peach for supper!


I came home with a big bag of lemons from Gillie's garden


Jigsaw dogs



I mentioned a some time ago that there is a Hairy Bikers' chicken stew recipe that I made many, many times when we lived in Tupton and which I hadn't made at all (that I can remember) in Australia. I made a batch a few weeks ago, following the recipe closely, since it was a long while since I had made it. And I really didn't like it all that much. I ate all the servings so as not to be wasteful but I was puzzled by the fact that I had to make myself eat it. What was different from the delicious stew I used to make in the UK? Then I realised. The difference is the cider, which is the main flavoured liquid. I do not much like Australian cider and in the UK I used Somerset or Norfolk ciders, both of which I do like.

I made the chicken stew again this week, using white wine instead of cider. And it's lovely. I will do that again. I might try it using apple juice but I would have to buy apple juice specially and I usually have some sort of white wine in the house.


I am beginning to get the garden ready for autumn and winter. I have pulled the pumpkin, zucchini and cucumber plants, all of which had stopped producing. I have left the beans and tomatoes - they are still producing. And my silverbeet plants are extremely happy. I am now going to prepare the beds for autumn sowings, which I hope to get to around Easter. Oh - and to my surprise, my fairly new, miniature peach tree produced two peaches this year, both of which ripened and both of which were delicious.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Patio

This was the patio last Saturday:

If you remember, I said at the time
that it needed sweeping

And now I have swept it:



I would never want to get rid of the trees in the tiny council-owned "woodland" over the back fence (although a couple of saplings may need to be sacrificed for the sake of the fence - they are growing very close to it) but they do produce a LOT of leafy rubbish in my garden! I have half filled the garden rubbish bin already, and I haven't even begun to tackle the grassy bit of garden, not to mention the back walkway, which I haven't done anything with for a very long time.

When Jim was here I used the small study all the time, for working from home, online Japanese lessons, anything where I needed to be undisturbed. Even when he got sick, he still knew that if I was in there then I was doing something that he shouldn't interrupt. Now that he is not here, I don't really use it much at all. I have colonised the dining table for working, studying, messing about on the internet - pretty much everything, really.

This is the view from the dining table:




And in the evening:



You can see why I don't use the study very much. All it looks onto is the back fence. I might need to rethink its use. One day. In the fullness of time. Maybe.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Sunday and Monday of the Labour Day Weekend

I celebrated the commemoration of the 8 hour working day legislation by doing - not very much!

It was quite hot over the two days, although not especially humid so the weather was mostly quite pleasant in Ballarat. It was hot overnight, though and, despite having a fan in the bedroom, I didn't sleep very well. So I was quite sluggish during the days.

I did weed most of the grass out of the bed with the peach, lime and apple trees. A nice and easy little  garden job. I have shifted some soil around into an unused (this year, at least) garden bed out the front. I need to fix up the far end of it and let the soil settle and then I'll put some autumn sowing vegetable seeds in. I did not sweep the floors or clean the kitchen or do any of the other household and garden tasks that are usually on my Long Weekend List of Things To Do. I did do a Japanese class on Saturday morning, which was rather fun. I went and visited Stella yesterday afternoon.

But mostly, I spent two days in what might be seen as wasteful indolence. Or perhaps as a restful holiday weekend.

The weather has changed today. It's in the mid 20s and much more humid and very cloudy. It feels as though it might rain, although there is no rain in the forecast. I have now cleaned the kitchen and swept the floors. I have done some washing and ironing. I have swept the leaves from the patio and raked the leaves from the back lawn. The garden bin is ready to go out for its fortnightly collection. And shortly I need to go and take Stella to her GP appointment, and then go and play with Hugo and give him his dinner

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Saturday, first day of a three day weekend

Today is the middle day of a long weekend in Victoria. It's the Labour Day holiday weekend, which celebrates the 8 hour working day legislation in the mid-19th century. It also marks the start of autumn and there are festivals all over the state.

This year, it is also a very hot weekend. A proper heatwave, as defined by the Bureau of Meteorology. It's the first heatwave we've had in Ballarat for this summer - and it came at the beginning of autumn! I think the Weather Dogs are confused!!!

Yesterday was forecast in this area to be an Extreme fire danger day, although the weather was actually quite pleasant in Ballarat. Yes, it was hot but it wasn't humid and the winds were light and I was wearing  light clothes, a hat, sunscreen, and insect block. There were no significant bushfires reported in our region.

The annual Begonia Festival in Ballarat went ahead. It's in the Botanical Gardens and Lake precinct, so there is plenty of shade and no real danger of bushfires. Lindsey and I went early, before it got too hot, but just to the market, which is an extended version of the usual bi-monthly market. We had to go hunting for our regular stalls, although they were all there. We didn't go to the activities in the Botanical Gardens.

Other festivals around the state have been cancelled or significantly reduced. They've even cancelled the Moomba Parade in Melbourne tomorrow, not because they are expecting fires in the centre of Melbourne but for the safety of the parade participants. It's forecast to be in the high 30s and the parade participants are mostly in costume and have to walk a long way. Doesn't sound fun to me!

The unexpected hot weather has got my vegetable beds excited:

A small pumpkin
It's supposed to be small
I deliberately grew mini pumpkins

Runner beans, oh so nearly long enough to pick

and lots of runner bean flowers.
I may get even more beans if the weather
holds

Silverbeet plants, which I have been
picking from.
And that's a miniature capsicum plant
at the back. It produces very
cute and tasty mini capsicums

Tomatoes starting to ripen

Brandy, Whiskey and I took advantage of a balmy late afternoon and early evening and sat outside on the patio. I do seem to have an unnecessary number of leaves lying about. I would go and sweep them, but it's a bit windy this morning and I think the trees would simply deliver more. I shall sweep when the wind drops a bit

That's a self-invited tomato plant in with the
parsley and thyme

A lovely evening for sitting outside 


Monday, March 04, 2024

Lunch in the Meredith pub (after a long hiatus!)

Many, many years ago Jim and I were on a boating holiday in the Norfolk Broads and found ourselves, at least twice, having lunch in pubs which, from the outside, looked very unprepossessing, suggesting that the food served would be less than ideal.  On both occasions we were wrong. The pub buildings might not have been exciting to look at but the food was delicious, freshly cooked and beautiful.

In February 2019 Lindsey, Jim and I found ourselves in Meredith, on the road to Geelong, looking for somewhere to have lunch. There are two pubs in Meredith, one obvious on the main road and one hidden,  off on a side street. We went looking for the more hidden one and once again found a pub which looked pretty ordinary but which served more than acceptable food. We went back with Stella in October that year,  had a lovely lunch - and haven't been back since. In part that was because of the covid lockdowns. Then the pub was sold. Memory hints that it might have been closed for a time. It more or less fell off our radar.

We went back yesterday. Not Jim, of course, but Lindsey, Ian, Stella and me. I had seen various reviews online which suggested it did good food. We are looking to expand our range of country lunch places. So off we went to give it a try.

It was busier than we remember it being 5 years ago. It's not noticeably prettier as a building, but the menu is very tempting, the service was cheerful and friendly and the food was delicious. It was a bit slow in coming (thank goodness Tony wasn't with us!) but was obviously freshly cooked and very tasty. We are going to have to go back. There are more things on the menu that we want to try.


A slightly hidden, fairly typical looking country pub.
Appearances can be deceptive because the
 food was interesting and  delicious

My deconstructed souvlaki,
made with very slow cooked lamb,
was amazing.
The chips weren't bad, either


We have fallen into autumn, after a very cool summer. February did give us a handful of very hot days, including two days of extreme fire danger. But we haven't had any days over 40d in Ballarat this summer and I have only put the new air conditioner on twice, perhaps three times. We are expecting a few hot days later this week, but the weather has been definitely autumnal rather than summery.  Cool mornings, warm sunny afternoons, cool evenings. Even last Wednesday, which was hot, blustery and a bit of a fire worry in the afternoon, dawned almost cold. I am, though, having to water the garden. After rather wet months in December and January, February has been dry in my bit of the world and there is no real rain looming in the forecast.

Monday, February 26, 2024

Wind, Fire and a little bit of Rain

This was the view of the sunset from Hugo's place, when I called in on Wednesday evening to feed him, ahead of Lindsey coming home later in the evening:



And this was the view on Thursday afternoon:




The fire was 40 or 50 km away, on the other side of Beaufort. To get to us, it would have had to make its way through Ballarat, so I wasn't particularly worried. But it was (and remains) a big fire which has generated a great deal of smoke. Fortunately, though, no embers, at least not around us. 


It's still smoky, but it is drizzling lightly in Mount Helen, which is clearing the air. It will, though, take more than drizzle to put the Beaufort fire out, despite the best efforts of the firefighters.

Hugo was supremely uninterested in fires, embers or danger:



I was bringing something in from the patio in the evening. As I came back inside, something hit me and fell to the floor. I looked down - and found a small frog. I do not require small frogs in the house. The cats would find it a lot of fun, the frog would not, and it would almost certainly not end well.  I managed to catch it and put it outside:


Then I saw a small Huntsman spider on the kitchen floor. I caught it and went to put it outside, tripped over a cat and dropped it. Not surprisingly, it was reluctant to be caught again and ran under the couch. Its current whereabouts are unknown but either it will make its own way outside or it will turn up again and I will try to re-capture it.

I am hugely pleased that it was a Huntsman spider and not a grumpy frog that I managed to drop on the lounge room floor. Trying to deal with a leaping frog in the house is not my idea of an ideal evening's entertainment.


Let us consider the question of home-grown potatoes. I emptied the small potato grow bins yesterday and the contents were very disappointing. Not that the potatoes were small because they weren't particularly. I had pulled them a little early but not that much and they were a reasonable size. But there were hardly any potatoes in either bin. I have decided not to bother with the grow bins again. I have had precisely no success with them over many years of trying. I am considering whether I have enough space to try growing some in one of the garden beds, or whether not to bother. We did well for potatoes in the ground in Tupton and at Hill House, so it might be worth a go, but I don't have a lot of space here and I do well for beans,  broad beans, peas, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet corn, silverbeet. Seed potatoes aren't cheap, and buying potatoes from local farmers isn't all that expensive. I shall ponder over the autumn and winter. 

Stella added an extra element of entertainment last night by somehow setting off her emergency alert on her phone or watch at around 11:30 or so. I have no idea how she managed to do that because as far as we can tell she was asleep at the time. Lindsey managed to get through to the care home and someone went to investigate. All was well, Stella was very confused by all the unexpected activity, and those of us who had already gone to bed were now awake and alert! There are far too many people on her emergency alert list. When I go in to see her I shall reduce the list to Lindsey and me. 

Monday, February 19, 2024

Random Things

I stayed in Melbourne on Wednesday night. I was opening up on Thursday and, without a car, there was no possible way I could get from Mount Helen to Reservoir by 7:30.

It was a good evening. I had pizza from the shop below, enjoyed the sunset and dusk, had a mellow evening and was up nice and early on Thursday morning to enjoy a leisurely tram trip into work


This photo is rather blurry, sorry
But it does catch some of the vast crowd of fruit bats
heading out for their dinner



It was Hugo's 7th birthday yesterday. He is enjoying some of the unexpected advantages of being an Only Dog. New toys, that he doesn't have to share. The treats are all for him. The birthday bone was all for him. And best of all - he gets to go for walks! It's been a very long time since Rupert was able to go for a walk, and quite a long time since he could get in and out of the car. We couldn't take Hugo out and leave Rupert behind, so their social life had been confined to home and the gardens. Hugo misses his companion - but he is definitely enjoying the walks and the toys and treats

Evening stroll in the forest with Lindsey and Ian
Photo by Ian


At some point in January, Lindsey asked if the Talbot Market was still operating. As far as I was aware, it was. I checked and yes. The next one was on Sunday 18th February. We marked it on the calendar and yesterday we headed out for a visit. Lindsey asked if we had been since the covid lockdowns. I thought we had, maybe?, perhaps once?, with Jim? I checked with the blog. And yes - we had been in June 2021, but not since.

My memory vaguely suggests that the market didn't operate reliably in 2021 because of various metropolitan lockdowns and other restrictions, but I am not really sure. I do know that we got out of the habit of going. I have put it back on my calendar, and added the Clunes monthly market that we haven't ever been to but feel we should check out.

It was a beautiful day for a potter out to Talbot and a wander around the market. I couldn't buy much because there is almost no mobile signal so most of the market stalls couldn't take card payments. I, of course, had no cash. Next time I'll make sure I have cash as well as my card.






We should go more than once every two and a half years. Pre-covid we would go two or three times a year.


On another note: my runner bean plants are thriving out the front, as are the silverbeet plants, the zucchinis and the cucumbers. I have had lots of runner bean flowers, although I think that something sneaky is eating them overnight. I'll have to keep an eye on that



And - the patio fly screen door fell off its tracks the other day. I couldn't work out how to get it back on, though I could see that the bottom needed lifting, after I had inserted the top into its space. I tried to lift it, using a screwdriver, which sort of worked but not properly. So I looked at a few videos on YouTube and now it is properly on its track and running more smoothly than it has, almost for ever.

Go me!!

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Rupert

It never rains... as they say.

The good news is that Stella is on her way home.

The bad news is that we had to have Rupert put down this morning.

Lindsey rang me from work while I was eating breakfast, and contemplating having a shower and getting dressed, to say that Rupert had fallen and couldn't get up. Josh has been looking after Rupert and Hugo overnight when Lindsey and Ian are away. He had tried to get Rupert up and couldn't, and his back feet were weak and floppy. I hastily put some clothes on and Josh came down to pick me up.

Rupert was on the floor in the hallway. He didn't seem to be in distress but clearly couldn't use his back legs. His hips have been dodgy almost for ever. They have been very unreliable for around six months or so. Some of his siblings have had wobblers and/or hip dysplasia. Some of them have already had to be put down. We knew this day was coming. 

Our vet couldn't help with a home visit today but referred us to The Kindest Goodbye, who run an At Home service.

A vet came about an hour later. Rupert was quite happy on a rug, eating scoobie snacks. Hugo was also happily eating scoobie snacks, although his need wasn't as great. Josh was keeping Hugo occupied. I was sat on a stool stroking Rupert's ears. I do love Great Dane ears. They're lovely and soft. They are also very expressive. Great Danes can say a lot with their ears!

The vet was very gentle and calm. Rupert and Hugo liked her. I liked her. And Rupert's ending was equally gentle and calm, although we had to keep Hugo out the way, lest he come to an untimely end by pushing his nose in where Rupert's injection was supposed to go. I don't think anyone, including Rupert, but apart from the vet, noticed his last breath. Just sleeping peacefully.

The vet's husband came up to see if he could help us carry Rupert out to the vet's car, which he kindly did. It turns out that he has been up to Lindsey and Ian's place before to do some plumbing work, and had come up on a couple of weekends with their children to go ferreting for rabbits.  It's a very small world, if you live in Ballarat. (One of the people who works at the Mushroom Farm has also been to Lindsey and Ian's place, to fix the fridges)

Some of the first photos I took of Rupert when he first moved to Hill House:



The day he arrived
His first walk in De Soza Park, Buninyong



Slowly growing into his ears

Some of the last photos I took of him:







Some of my favourite photos of Rupert and Jim:








And my most favourite:


Well done, Rupert. You were a goofy, loving and gentle Very Good Boy


Sunday, February 11, 2024

Off to the Hospital

Phone calls at 4:30 in the morning are disconcerting enough. When they are from your 90 year old mother's aged care facility they are Very Disconcerting Indeed!

They had called an ambulance and were sending her to hospital. Her blood pressure was very low. She had been extremely fatigued and was getting increasingly confused. Her leg was very swollen and painful. Off to hospital for her.

And in hospital Stella remains. Her blood count was rock bottom, her blood pressure was almost non-existent. Her readings were so low that they prompted her GP to call me just after 8:30 to see what on earth had happened. Stella herself had just assumed she had overdone it at her 90th birthday celebrations and that she should slow down a bit. If that had been the cause, though, she should have been much better. It wasn't that raucous a weekend! It turns out that she had had a very slow internal bleed - which almost certainly accounts for all the odd symptoms she's had since Christmas. 

She spent pretty much all of Friday in the Ballarat Base ED, before being moved into a ward.She's had four units of blood and they're trying to stabilise all her odd readings. She won't come out until tomorrow or Tuesday. However, once Stella goes into a hospital they always seem very reluctant to let her out again, so who knows when she will finally escape.

I stayed at home on Friday, just in case.  Ian and I went to see her on Friday late afternoon and took her phone and some pyjamas in for her. Wendy came up yesterday morning and she, Lindsey and I went to visit. Wendy is heading home again this morning but Lindsey and I will call in this afternoon. We'll see how she goes.


A much better colour.
She had been an alabaster white on Thursday


It would be very useful if I could have my car back. Life is nice and quiet travelling on the buses but it is very inconvenient not having a vehicle if I need to get to the hospital or to Rupert and Hugo's place. Not to mention getting to work!

Wednesday, February 07, 2024

Ziggy has broken down

I was coming back from Stella's place on Monday afternoon, intending to drop home for a bit and then to go up to Rupert and Hugo's place for an hour or so.

As I was passing the Damascus School, my car made a strange noise and a warning symbol came up on the dashboard. A picture of an engine and "Check System", plus a little picture of a skidding car. Ziggy has never done anything like that before. I drove home very carefully, contacted the overnight dog sitter to say I couldn't feed the dogs, checked the oil and water and left the car to it. I did notice that there was a slight smell of petrol inside the car, but not outside, and that the car had made a few odd noises after the warning sign had come on.

After my Japanese class at 8:00 on Tuesday morning I rang My Car in Delacombe and told them what had happened. Bring it in, they said. We'll run some diagnostic tests and see what's going on. I asked if it was both safe and wise to drive the 9km to Delacombe. They didn't know. It could be nothing, it might be something, there was a slight chance it was something catastrophic.

I decided to give it a go. It's only 9km.

This was a bad plan. I was going up the hill where Stella lives, had in fact just gone past her place, when the car started making lots of strange noises, the petrol smell became stronger, the car announced that it was Not At All Happy.

I pulled into a side street and called the Roadside Assistance people. I have a choice of Roadside Assistance. I am properly insured with AAMI, but I have 12 months assistance with My Car when I have a full service done with them. I had only had the car fully serviced three or so weeks ago. I might still have gone with AAMI, but I was going to My Car anyway so I called them, and they turned up about an hour later. (I think it would have been the same people no matter which Assistance Service I called!)

In fact, I was quite happy where I was. It was a lovely morning. I had a book, my iPad and full signal. I had a forest to my right to look at. I did some Japanese practice. All was well (apart from the car).

The tow truck turned up and took Ziggy and me to Delcombe. The My Car people said they would run the diagnostic tests and it would take about an hour. So I went and had bacon and eggs on toast while I waited.

It turns out that the car needs a new exhaust manifold gasket (which was the source of the weird noises, the petrol fumes and the alarm symbols). It also needs new spark plugs and an ignition coil. And very sorry and all that, but we are unusually busy so we won't be able to fix it until the 20th, unless we have a cancellation.

I couldn't see any point in taking it anywhere else, so left it where it was and took a bus back into the city and then a bus back out to my place.

Let us be grateful that the car decided to misbehave when I was less than 2km from home and that it decided not to go any further when I had the option to pull into a side street. It would have been much worse if I had been going at 110 on the freeway. As it was, I had quite a peaceful day. Just lots of waiting around for tow trucks, mechanics and buses.

I did rather miss the car this morning, though. It is VERY time consuming getting to work by public transport, and then back again. If Lindsey had been coming to Ballarat this evening I would probably have gone, because then I could have cadged a lift back with her this evening. But she's heading in the opposite direction tonight and I really didn't want to do a total of 7 or 8  hours on buses, trains and trams, plus all the waiting around.

I quite enjoyed taking the bus into Mount Clear to visit Stella this afternoon. It's quite nice having someone else conveying you there and back, plus you get little walks in the mixture.