Easter

We have had a lovely Easter weekend.

Jim and I drove to Mount Martha on Good Friday to collect Stella.  We had a good run down.  The traffic heading from Melbourne to Ballarat, however, was amazing.  I don't remember having seen that amount of traffic heading towards Ballarat, even on Fridays at going home time. I think some them probably were heading to Ballarat - there were lots of people around over the weekend. Some of them were probably heading to Stawell for the Stawell Gift weekend and some to the Grampians. And I suppose some of them may have been heading to Adelaide and to points in between.  Wherever they were going, I was happy to see that they were not all heading my way.  It is true that there were lots of people heading to the Mornington Peninsula, but they all went along the Peninsula Freeway.  My satnav plus the overhead signs had warned me of congestion on the Peninsula freeway.  And I could see people queuing to get onto it.  I went through Frankston and avoided the queues!

Everyone had apparently got to where they were going when we brought Stella back.  Nice empty roads everywhere.

We joined Lindsey, Ian and Stella at Hill House for dinner on Friday evening.  Ian prepared salmon for us all. Jim drove us home.

On Saturday we joined Lindsey, Ian and Stella at Websters for lunch.  It was a glorious autumnal day

View from the lunch table

I drove back to Hill House, taking Stella with us, While Lindsey and Ian hit the shops for supplies for the Easter Feast.  We went for  a circumnavigation of the lake on the way.  The lake was beautiful and sparkly. Lindsey, Ian and Stella joined us at our place for dinner on Saturday evening. I made deconstructed steak sandwiches.

I had offered Jim the opportunity to drive home after our lunch at Websters.  He said no, it was my turn.  This was true, but it might have been a bit short sighted on his part.  This meant that it was *his* turn to drive home after the Easter Feast, which was at Hill House.  This meant that it wasn't my turn :-D  And there was an abundance of rather nice wine to be sampled.

I had bought vegan offerings for Ian to play with, and made a platter of vegetables to take to lunch

Hidden under the snow peas and broad beans are
green beans, broccolini, sliced carrots and sliced
brussels sprouts

Ian made a five hour lamb dish, seafood paella and a vegan friendly paella. There were roast potatoes and salads and an amazing gravy.  There were 15 people and six dogs in attendance. It was all very exuberant and very tasty.  And Jim got to drive home :-D  (He was alright - we have lots of wine at our place too)

Hugo in his bath

Puppy Leroy saying hello

Frannie, Stella and Suzie at lunch.
Thanks to Wendy for the photo

The weather has turned from beautiful, sunny and warm (possibly rather warmer than you would expect in mid-April!) to overcast and cool. No rain, though.  We could do with some rain.  Lindsey has taken Stella back to Mount Martha and I have been preparing food for the week ahead.  I have to start tomorrow at 07:30. Tempting though it is to stay here tonight and to leave at 05:30, I suspect I would regret this decision in the cold darkness of Tuesday morning.  I'll go down later this afternoon. Then I don't need to leave for work until 06:50 which is much more civilised. I have organised dinner for Jim for tonight and tomorrow night. Then I'll be back on Wednesday evening and here on Thursday.  I don't work on Thursdays but this coming Thursday is ANZAC Day and is another public holiday.