New Year's Eve

Freyja contacted me a couple of days ago, to ask if I fancied going to Harry's Hepburn for lunch today. I certainly did!

We asked Stella if she fancied joining us. She did!

We didn't invite Jim. I thought Harry's might be too small and crowded for his comfort. I took him back a lemon meringue tart instead.

It was a beautiful day for a drive out to Hepburn Springs, which is not far from Daylesford and takes about 45 minutes from Mount Clear. We went past the Swiss Mountain Hotel in Blampied, which we have taken Stella to a few times. You can see a ring of small non-active volcanoes as you drive across the plain, and then we drove through a sunlit forest. And, Greatest Blessing of All - found a parking spot just across the road from Harry's in Hepburn Springs.

Gathered for lunch (I was there too!):

And here is my lunch:

There is a piece of steak somewhere under all that
and some cheese-loaded chips under the steak!!

I took Stella back to her place, then visited Jim, with his lemon meringue pie and some pear juice to go on the side. He seemed quite happy - especially when he saw the pie!

Then I went to the supermarket to get supplies for tomorrow. We are gathering at my place for lunch, to see in 2023. It's supposed to be in the mid-30s tomorrow so I am thinking cold food rather than the proper Sunday roast that I might otherwise have done. Although there will, of course, be hot roast potatoes. I think there might be a coup in my kitchen if there were no hot roast potatoes at a celebratory feast!

I will not be staying up to see out 2022. I think lunch at Harry's was a sufficient acknowledgement of its passing. I will greet the New Year as the day dawns in the morning, with the tuneful warbling of the magpies and, if I'm lucky, the laughter of kookaburras.