Lindsey and I went out for a little gentle shopping on Saturday. We didn't do our usual First Thing In The Morning Early shop for Christmas but we did hit the supermarket - and went out to the Tomato Farm at Yendon which was doing a small market. We had gone to the Mushroom Farm on Thursday. No need to go back.
I enjoyed the little market at Yendon. We run across the tomato farmer at the actual markets but they had a small number of producers that I haven't seen before. There was one stall selling honey, plus their own blended flavoured salts. I am not a huge fan of salt, but Freyja loves it. I got her some lemon myrtle salt and some smoked salt. I bought some black garlic salt for Ian. And some tomatoes, cucumber - and Australian native herb flavoured stuffing mix for me
Usually, I host Christmas Eve. This year, we went to Hill House. Emily and Andre are over from Canada. Stephen, of course, is here from England. We sprung Stella from the care home. It was a good evening. Ian cooked up a mighty seafood spread. Lindsey and I did not queue up to collect it. And neither did Ian. He had collected it earlier in the week!
Ross turned up and took Freyja and Simon to my place, and Stephen to the cathedral for the midnight service.
I slept in my room at Hill House.
I came down to Tani early on Christmas morning, which was a beautiful day. We had breakfast in the courtyard, then Stephen and I went to the 10:00 service, back at the cathedral. We took Jim to Hill house for Christmas lunch, where we had a light lunch of chicken, ham, left overs from Christmas Eve, salad.
Freyja, Simon and Stephen went with Ross to Our Friend Pat's house. I took Jim back to the care home and then drove to Melbourne.
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| My bed, dressed for Christmas |
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| Emily and Andre |
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| Rupert and Stephen |
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| Jim on Christmas Day |
I was staying at Freyja and Simon's house, which is about 2 km from my brother Simon's house, where the Christmas Night feast was being hosted. I decided to walk there, despite the heat. We haven't had a hot summer for several years and the spring was cold and wet. So a hot evening was unexpected, to me, at least. I briefly considered taking the car but then I would have had to go and collect it early on Boxing Day morning.
I was VERY hot when I arrived at Simon's place. Lindsey offered to pour a bottle of cold water over my head. I declined her kind offer. We had a mighty feast, lots of food, lots of people. Then Emily drove me back to Westgarth. She drove Lindsey and Stella to the flat.
I think Stephen thinks we usually spend Christmas rushing about all over the place. He, Freyja, Simon and Ross were at Hill House for the night looking after the dogs. I was at Freyja and Simon's place, looking after their cat. My cats were left to their own devices. In fact, I don't usually travel at all at Christmas. Either I stay at Hill House, where the Christmas Feast is usually held, or Wendy takes me down to my place and I wake up in my own bed on Boxing Day morning.
It was therefore disconcerting to wake up in Melbourne and then to have to make my way back to Ballarat. There was a lot more traffic than I was expecting, particularly once I got past Bacchus Marsh. There isn't usually that amount of traffic even during peak hour during the week!!
Freyja, Simon, Stephen and I went to the Ballarat Wildlife Park, where we had a picnic lunch and then wandered around on a surprisingly hot Boxing Day to look at the animals. The koalas had misting pipes overhead. The kangaroos were lounging around in the shade. The penguins were swimming in their pool.
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| I'm in my pool too! |
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| though I would eat any spare food you happen to have |
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| The coat of arms, in the shade |
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| Koalas in the mist |
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| I see no need to move, I have food on hand. |
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