Garden (i)

I have made a start on tidying up the back garden. In order to make it slightly less daunting, I have divided the (small!) area into (even smaller!!) pieces. First - the patio.

Before:

After:

I had intended to tackle another even smaller bit today, but it is very, very windy and is forecast to get very, very hot later. I might leave it until tomorrow, when the weather should have got its act together and improved

Early Christmas Weekend

Wendy will turn 65 on Christmas Day. Normally I would see her on her birthday but this year the Christmas plans are a bit higgledy piggledy. So we arranged for her to come up for the weekend and we would do birthday and Christmas celebrations a little bit early.

She came up on the train on Saturday morning. I met her at the station and we went to the Zoo Drive market. It was a beautiful morning and the market was busy. So too were the restaurants, barbecue facilities, children's playgrounds and other facilities around the lake.

We parked in a side street off the main road behind the market.

It was a good market. Lots of stalls, lots of fun things to look at. It wasn't the official Christmas market, which will be held on Friday evening, but it was Christmassy enough.

Then we went out to the former Mushroom farm. It was quieter than I expected it to be, although we were later than I usually am. Wendy got her giant donuts. I got some vegetables. I have cancelled my veg box deliveries. It proved to be almost impossible to change my box options from a small box once a week to a medium once a fortnight. I thought I had done but then I got: one small on Tuesday, one medium on Saturday and another medium on the following Tuesday. It was like being buried under an Everest of vegetables. With the best will in the world, I couldn't eat or process them all before they went off. I don't buy many of my vegetables in the supermarkets so I am not investing in their requirement that vegetables are perfect.

Anyway. We had an early lunch in the Pompeii Woodfired Cafe and went home for the afternoon.

I had bought a turkey crown for our Not Christmas dinner. I hadn't realised when I bought it that it was pre-roasted. I knew it had a long fridge life - best before January 4th, but it was vacuum packed and I hadn't noticed that it was already cooked until I was looking more closely at the label on Friday evening. After a bit of thought, I cut some slices from it and heated them gently in a chicken stock gravy with mushrooms and a garlic flavoured cream cheese stirred through. It was delicious. We had it with roast potatoes and lots of vegetables. 

Quite coincidentally, yesterday was the Sunday that the Talbot Market was on. Wendy had never been to Talbot and I thought it was probably the kind of market that she would very much enjoy. So we drove up yesterday morning and Wendy had a great time. I got some seedlings for the garden beds and a few other bits and pieces.  Then we went to Clunes, to Cafe 52 for brunch. I don't think Wendy had been to Clunes before. She seemed to enjoy it.  (It is very cute.)

Talbot market:

Clunes:

Cafe 52

Me and Wendy

My bacon, egg and mushrooms 
on toast

Wendy's smashed avo
with poached egg

Clunes Main Street 

And now you find me at Hugo's House. I came up late yesterday afternoon. Lindsey and Ian are in Sydney and Ross is in Melbourne. I kept waking up in the night, wondering why Hugo was whining. It was some time before I remembered that if I was in my room at one end of the house and he was in the lounge room at the far, other end, it was highly unlikely that I would hear him whining. It turned out that it was the fly screen door squeaking! 

Enjoying a balmy evening, splashing in his paddling pool

I woke up this morning and couldn't find him.
He had moved onto Lindsey's bed overnight

Early this morning,
before the very hot, very windy conditions
expected later today

A Present for the Kitchen (and other things)

Nathan the Electrician called in on Tuesday morning. Just over an hour later, he left again.

I had emptied out the cupboards under the gas stove, emptied the bench and moved the air fryers and the portable induction cooktops before he arrived. After he left, I cleaned the air fryers and the cupboard shelves and restored a bit of order.

And then the kitchen looked like this:

I am very pleased with my new induction cooktop. I am going to give one of the portable ones to Freyja and Simon, although they don't want the tray that I had sitting over the original, disused gas stove. I'm not sure what to do with it. It's made with nice wood and I don't want to throw it away. I think I might clean it properly and put it in a cupboard, along with the other portable cooktop. I'm sure I'll find a use for it eventually. 

I met Freyja for lunch on Wednesday. We went back to the Korean place. They do nice food there. She and Simon are heading off on Sunday night for a month in Europe, so I won't see her again until they get back.

When I got home I discovered that three of the side panels of the hexagonal bed that Tony's rose bush lives in had been displaced and were lying on the grass. I can't think what had happened to them. My door camera doesn't show anyone walking past, nor does it show any animal movement. I know it doesn't actually show the rose bed, but in order for most people or creatures to get to the bed they would have to go past the front door. One of life's little oddities, I guess. I've restored the sides (with difficulty, it must be said - they didn't want to go back!), topped up the bed with some extra soil, trimmed some straggly bits off the rose bush and thrown in a handful of mixed flower seeds.

I have bought a new cover for the couch I sit on to watch TV. I started to put it on and Brandy decided to help me

Then he got bored with helping and went outside to chase skinks and butterflies and I managed to finish putting the cover on. It was like trying to change the doona cover with a cat helping 😂

It's a bit big, but the next size down would have
been too small.
It will do

Birthday Weekend

It was my birthday on Saturday and it was definitely a celebratory weekend, full of feasting, partying and merriment.

There has been a cafe just around the corner from my place pretty much for ever. I am told that once upon a long time ago it was a milk bar, but it's been a cafe for the 8 years that I have been in Mount Helen. It recently changed hands and is no longer a country cafe with American 1950's/60s diner vibes but has  transformed into a modern wood fired calzone cafe, with a wood fired oven built by the owners who also make their own sour dough bread and pizza dough.

I met Freyja, Simon and Lindsey there on Saturday for a birthday breakfast. Lindsey and I shared a bacon, egg and cheese "toastie". Simon had a four cheese toastie. I don't think they do vegan food options so Freyja had to be content with an oat milk latte. My toastie was delicious and the hot chocolate was excellent. And pleasingly it was very busy. We had wondered how the new place would do - the previous cafe was well supported by a local group of bikies who were there in force every Saturday morning. There were no bikies there last weekend but I don't think we need to worry!

Lindsey and I then headed to Melbourne for the work Christmas party, once again at The Skinny Dog in Kew. We went there last year and really enjoyed it. Lindsey and I also enjoyed getting onto the tram at the stop outside the flat and getting off it again right outside The Skinny Dog. It was a good afternoon. Lots of people came, some brought their children. We had wine and beer and soft drinks and later in the afternoon we could have cocktails to use up the bar tab. (I didn't have a cocktail as such; I had been drinking Bucks Fizz, mixing Prosecco and orange juice, and I stuck with that.) We had delicious munchy things, bowls of hot chips (the children almost inhaled the chips) lots of fun.

Bucks Fizz hides a multitude of sins 😆

Lindsey and I had thought about going out for dinner but decided that we weren't all that hungry so bought chicken and salad from the IGA and settled into the flat for the evening.

And then met Freyja and Simon on Sunday morning for another birthday weekend breakfast, this time at Kissaten in Alphington, where they serve a fusion of Japanese and Australian food

A Japanese infused Smashed Avo on toast,  bacon on the side.
The avocado was smashed with peas, edamame, mint and 
a nori dukkah

Freyja's deconstructed Shiso onigiri
She had it with tofu on the side

Then Freyja and Simon went about the rest of their Sunday and Lindsey and I came home. We had thought we might go to a Christmas Makers' Market at the Mining Exchange in Ballarat but could not find a parking space anywhere even remotely near so went to the supermarket and the Source scoop shop instead. 

And then we went to our respective homes.

Before I went to Melbourne I had made a start on weeding and clearing the patio. I had not got around to picking up the grass and I haven't swept all the leaves and dust and stuff up. I thought yesterday afternoon that I could go out and at least pick up the grass

I might do that today instead.

(Where was Ian through all this feasting and merriment, I hear you ask. He's in Japan making merry for a week with Austin, Kaori and Tatsuki so wasn't available for merry making in Melbourne.)

Drama!

For mysterious reasons,  later on Tuesday afternoon, I decided that the cats' water bowls needed cleaning. I took them into the laundry to wash them properly. I decided not to refill them at the laundry sink but to take them back into the dining room and fill them in place. The cats were peacefully eating their wet food.

I had obviously spilled some water on the dining room floor when I picked up the bowls, because as I walked to put the bowls down I skidded on something and skied across the dining room tiles, eventually crashing to the ground. I dropped the (ceramic) water bowls which smashed into many pieces. The cats ran away.

I sat back up and considered things. I can get up at Austin's place from the futon mattress I sleep on. I moved myself into the position I am in when I want to get up in Austin's spare bedroom - and impaled my hand on a piece of broken ceramic.

I hauled myself to my feet. Sorted out my hand (extra large bandaids!) cleared up the ceramic pieces, dried the floor, found the cats.

Fortunately, I have another couple of water bowls and put them out.

Order restored.

I got out of bed on Wednesday morning and could hardly move. My shoulder was very grumpy.  My back hurt. My knees hurt. I decided not to go in to work. I probably could have managed once I got to work but the thought of siting in the car and driving for two hours to get there was not appealing. Plus, I would have to get back later in the day!

I pottered around gently, making sure to get up and walk slowly up and down the hallway every half hour or so, to stop myself seizing up completely.

It was a lovely day and the cats were happy, pottering in and out of the back courtyard, and the front garden.

Mid afternoon, something came in through the cat door in the fly screen from the back patio. It was a sparrow! It was, not surprisingly, unhappy to find itself trapped inside a house, although it could, of course, have just gone back out the way it came in. But no. It flung itself at the closed windows, at the ceiling, at the walls. I opened the patio door as widely as it would go. I opened the front windows in the lounge room, which do not have fly screens. I tried to encourage the sparrow to go out.

It hid behind the TV.

Then Brandy noticed it!!!

I moved Brandy out the way, pulled the television table forward, encouraged the sparrow to go out through the adjacent window by poking it gently with a broom handle.

Eventually it flew out through the window and perched on the front fence. I put the television table back in position and put the broom away.

My back and shoulder were definitely not happy with all this activity!

Before all this excitement, on Tuesday I had picked up some sticks from the little tiny woodland behind my side fence. I was going to make a Christmas wreath with them but in the end stuck two of them in a vase with some sand to keep them upright. I thought they looked quite pretty once they got some Christmas decorations

I had ordered from the internet what I thought was a Christmas gnome door decoration. And it was a Christmas gnome door decoration. But what I had assumed was a 3D, toy style decoration turned out to be a wall hanging style decoration. It was too big for my front door - it would have covered the digital lock and the door handle and I couldn't work out how to fix it to the door without it blowing off and disappearing off into the forest, or wetlands or into someone's garden.

I've put it up behind the Christmas twigs:

Now that I've got used to it, I quite like it. But it definitely wasn't what I was expecting!

The calendar for the rest of December is jam packed with activities, events and stuff. I shall fortify myself with coffee before heading properly into it.

Ballarat

I met my friend Pat for lunch yesterday. I don't think I've actually seen her since Stella and I went to her place for a Good Friday lunch earlier in the year. We play Scrabble online and have text message conversations but haven't met in person.Time flies!

We were going to meet at The Rusty Spud but it's closed on Mondays, so we repaired to The Robin Hood next door. It's a pub that I drive past frequently but haven't paid any attention to. Certainly I haven't been inside. It's enormous! At least, the dining area is. I think it must be primarily an eating pub. And the food isn't bad. Pat had the Apprentice's dish of the week - a chicken sweet and sour; it really is the apprentice's meal. Apparently he gets to choose a dish each week which he then makes and it's sold on the specials list. I played it safe and had a chicken parma - not too big and the chips were properly made.

Pat was looking very good. She'll be 90 in a couple of weeks and you really wouldn't know, if you didn't know. I do know. Lindsey and I are hoping to go to her birthday party. In the meantime, it was a good catch up

While I was in town, I wandered into the Bridge Mall. It's still a mall for now, although they have very nearly finished the transfer back into a road. It will only be a single lane and there will still be lots of space for pedestrians. I called in because I had seen references online to the bridge being reinforced. There isn't a bridge in the Bridge Mall, although there should be, given its name. And it turns out that there is a bridge. You just can't see it. Or not normally. It has been revealed, temporarily, so it can be reinforced to allow trucks to pass over it. The trickle of water is the Yarrowee River, which is usually more robust, and is certainly more river like in places where it is allowed to behave like a creek and not a drain.

You could wish they would
leave it exposed, with a visible bridge over it

Christmas has arrived in Ballarat,
although I didn't go to look at the
decorations on Sturt Street

To Melbourne for A(nother) Market

Lindsey and I went to the Big Design Christmas market at the Exhibition Building on Saturday.

The weather forecast was abysmal! We might have considered going on Sunday instead, except that we had arranged to meet Freyja and Simon and they weren't available on Sunday. Lindsey had plans for Sunday, which could perhaps have been moved to Saturday. But we decided that we weren't going to be outside all that much and we would go on Saturday as planned.

We took the train down. I was gazing idly out the window and watching grazing sheep emerging briefly from the fog, trees looming and disappearing, mountains glowering through the clouds and mist. It was not unlike taking a train through the middle of England at the end of November! Strangely disconcerting, given that we were heading through Victoria at the start of summer, not Derbyshire at the start of winter.

Lindsey's photo, through
the train window

Fortunately, it wasn't raining too badly when we arrived in Melbourne and took the tram to the Exhibition Building.

I enjoyed the Design Market. There was more there that interested me and caught my eye than in the Finders' Market in October, and much more than in the previous Big Design market we went to. It was very crowded in the centre of the building, but not too bad around the edges. There was plenty of seating, in addition to the tables in the dining areas

We stayed for about an hour and a half, then wandered to the John Curtin pub in Lygon Street where we met Freyja and Simon for lunch. On this occasion we did not eat outside! I remembered not to order the loaded fries just for me, although we did order the vegan loaded fries, which we could all share - and very nice they were too. 

Then Lindsey and I came back to Ballarat.

A good day.

We went out to Wendouree yesterday morning so Lindsey could have a hair cut and we could do some shopping. I needed cat supplies and a few bits nd pieces. I did not need vegetables. I have changed the veg delivery from once a week to once a fortnight and it would only let me have a delivery on Saturday, a mere four days after the delivery on Tuesday. I am busy processing vegetables so as not to waste too much.

Brandy, helping me to put my summer night shirts away:

Starting to prepare for Christmas:

A rather large echidna, having its dinner in the Federation University forest on Tuesday, early evening. Fortunately, it wasn't on the road and was supremely uninterested in me watching it from the car. Much too busy concentrating on the tasty morsels it had discovered

Markets, Lunch and Wandering about

I went to Costco on my way home from work on Wednesday and activated my new membership. I have to say that the people in the Costco in Gifu were more mindful of other people than some of the people  in the Epping store, who seemed to be blissfully unaware of the other shoppers!

It was quite hot on Saturday but Lindsey and I went out to the Farmers' Market by the lake anyway. The area around the market has lots of tree cover and is quite shady. Anyway, I wanted some flavoured oils from the Olive Oil Man and some eggs. Tim's Toasties wasn't there but the Kazan Central Asian Kitchen was and Lindsey and I shared a rather nice chicken shish for breakfast.

Sunday morning was cold and wet and very gloomy. It was also the day of the Ballarat Springfest, also at the lake. Lindsey and I went after lunch, when the weather had cleared and even warmed up slightly. We normally go to things like that in the mornings and it was interesting going just after lunch. It wasn't quite as crowded, for a start off and you could see more as you were wandering around. It covers quite a lot of ground, about a third of the way around the lake, plus up into some of the surrounding gardens. I think by the time we got back to where we had left the car we probably had walked the equivalent of the distance around the lake. I had certainly totted up a good number of steps!

I must remember not to wear anything like this next time I go to a festival/market at the lake. A number of people admired it but one little old lady seemed to be quite determined to have it. She wanted to turn it into some sort of crafty artefact and didn't seem remotely concerned that if she took it off me I would be left wandering around in just my bra!

The lake is a good spot for a market festival. It's a lovely backdrop to the stalls and merriment

Lindsey waiting for one of Tim's Toasties

Freyja was in town yesterday so I met her, along with Julia, Travis and Henry, for lunch at The Boatshed, once again back out at the lake. It's a while since I was last at The Boatshed. I think the last time I was there might have been in February on Stella's 90th birthday. It was the first time in a long time that I had been there without Stella! We sat out in the annex so Henry, who is only four and a half, could be reasonably exuberant. There was no one else in the annex so we didn't need to make him sit quietly. In fact, he is quite a well behaved child but even the best behaved of children don't want to sit still and silent for any length of time, even if there are chips, nuggets and a small box of cherries available.

I haven't had one of their pizzas before.
It was very tasty, and nice and light
for lunch

I can't think of any reason to go back out to the lake today, alas. I should perhaps do some useful things in the house. I really could do to tidy up bits of the garden. I need to sort out the fridge and use up the vegetables - there's another box coming sometime today. And I need to go to the library to collect a book that's waiting for me.  Apart from that, there are no plans :D