Last Weekend in December

Wendy came up on the train on Saturday morning. Lindsey and I met her and went out to the Lakeside market.

It was a beautiful day and, although there were fewer stalls than usual, there were lots of people there and there was a happy buzz. Then we made our way out to the Smythes Creek Farmgate Shop. A last visit for Lindsey and Wendy. They are closing this afternoon and hoping to relocate to Delacombe once they get all the paperwork and red tape sorted out. I may get there today for a final last visit. I need to do a bit of shopping today which I could do at the Delacombe shops, quite close to the Farmgate shop.

Wendy and I went out to the Ballarat Vintage Market for a spot of lunch and a potter around and then I took advantage of a pleasant afternoon to do a spot of tidying in the garden. I really do need to sort my poor gardens out. I have bought some cottage-y seedlings to plant. Need to organise places to put them!

We went up to Hugo's house on Sunday for a family lunch. Matt, Belinda and Sage had come from Warragul. Emily, Andre, Nate and Cate were there. We had a mighty feast . Ian's family came up later in the afternoon, although Wendy and I had gone by then. Lindsey and Ian had organised a rolling lunch to accommodate everyone coming at various times during the afternoon.

Wendy headed back to Melbourne and I came back to my place, where I didn't do any of the planned gardening, tidying or organising. I might have watched TV and messed about on the internet instead

I did do a little tidying and organising yesterday. I was also very brave and used my step stool to hammer some hooks along the front verandah so I could hang some solar lights. Nothing would induce me to climb an actual ladder but my step stool is only one stair step up and I could reach the edge of the verandah without stretching. I was also VERY careful!

It's a beautiful morning today. No Japanese class - the school is taking a week off for the New Year Holiday in Japan. A leisurely start to the day for me.

So. The sun is shining. The wind is still. We are on the cusp of the new year. All is good.

(So far, at least - the day is yet young 😆)

Christmas

Christmas came early to Hill House this year, with the unexpected arrival from Canada of Emily, Andre, Nate and Cate on Friday afternoon.

It wasn't really a surprise arrival. We knew they were coming. But it was unexpected. Flights were very expensive and they couldn't really justify spending thousands of dollars to come just for a couple of weeks. So we weren't expecting them. But Emily kept an eye on the flight websites and found a good deal, which she pounced on. And three or so weeks later, here they all were

On many Christmas Eves, I host an evening meal at my place. It wasn't convenient for Emily and Andre to come to me (10 month old babies tend to go to bed even earlier than I do), so I took food up to Hill House and cooked there. I bough another pre-cooked turkey crown and made another turkey in a mushroom cream  sauce, with roast potatoes and lots of green veg, followed by summer fruit, ginger biscuits and lemon yoyos.

Christmas morning:

Lindsey, Ian and I went to Daylesford for Christmas lunch, at the Lake House. Ian had booked a holiday house just two doors away from the Lake House, so no one would have to drive after lunch.

Lunch was a tasting menu of delicious morsels. I had my very own, nut-free menu, more or less the same as the general Christmas lunch menu

My white Christmas:

Lunchtime view:

And lunch:

Starter morsels

Marron tails:

Cherry and duck parfaits with brioche:

Ian and I had the snapper for our main:

Lindsey had the turkey:

Lindsey had the Christmas pudding, which I couldn't have

Ian and I had the mango and passionfruit pavlova:

No mince pie for me

They made me a chocolate ganache instead

And the wine flowed alongside all the tasty morsels

Emily, Andre and the babies also came to Daylesford, although they didn't stay in our very cute AirBnB. They rented a different one, just around the corner. It was a glorious evening and we all ate dinner outside in the garden of our AirBnB. You might think we wouldn't have needed dinner, after such a fancy lunch. But Emily and Andre hadn't been to The Lake House and were hungry, and the lunch plates were small and well spaced so there was room for fillet steak and salad and other delicious things in the evening. 

Playing on a sprinkler mat

Boxing Day morning:

We all met at the Frangos Hotel for breakfast and then made our way back to Ballarat. It was an excellent Christmas.

New friend for Christmas

It was hot and windy across Victoria on Boxing Day and the fire danger was very high. There is a very large bush fire burning in the Grampians. Fortunately for us, Ballarat and its environs escaped a fire and a cool change has come through. Even more fortunately, the strong, gusty wind has dropped and all is calm again. I didn't mind the heat so much. I didn't like the wind though. Lots of things got blown around although mercifully none of the trees around my place blew over and no large branches fell. Just lots of sticks and leaves

Party Time

I went to Melbourne on Saturday afternoon to my friend Pat's 90th birthday party, at a croquet club near Deer Park

At my Japanese class on Saturday morning the teacher asked me (in Japanese) if I was going to the market.  Not this weekend, I replied. I am going to my friend's 90th birthday party. The teacher queried this, in Japanese - *90th* birthday? and then in English - 90th?  Yes, yes. 90th birthday.

The party was Alice in Wonderland themed. I wore this t-shirt

 Pat was dressed as the Queen  Herself

There were lots of people there

I didn't know many of them, although I did know the people who had been at Pat's place for lunch on Good Friday. And, of course, I knew Ross

Then I went to Ghost's place for the rest of the weekend

Sunday morning was glorious. I thought I might go to the Alphington Sunday Market. Alas, there wasn't a parking space to be had anywhere even close to the market. It looked to be very crowded. I gave up on that idea and went to Kissaten for brunch instead. It was quite busy there too but at least I could get a parking spot, and a table.

They said there would be a bit of a wait for my eggs, bacon and mushrooms on toast, but it was only about 15 minutes and I was quite happy with my coffee and my (online) book

I might have had an iced coffee for dessert.

Then I went for a potter in Clifton Hill and back to Ghost's place for the rest of the day.

I called in to work on my way home yesterday and found it difficult to get a parking spot there too. I don't think I've ever seen the Summerhill car park quite that full, or chaotic. On the other hand, the drive back to Ballarat was remarkably quiet. I think everyone must have been in the shopping centres instead of on the freeways and highways.

I went out into the front yard when it got light this morning. No sign of any koalas. I also wasn't sure how it got in. The child gate was propped across the porch entrance. It wouldn't have been difficult for a koala to knock it over but I doubt it would have thoughtfully put it back up again. However, koalas can jump and the curry plants and lavender along the front fence have been squashed. I have no idea, though, why it thought it was a good idea to come into the front yard in the first place. Brandy is very unsettled this morning so I do wonder if it is still around here somewhere. There are plenty of gum trees it could be lurking in.

Koala

 I'll do a proper entry in the morning to tell you about the weekend, which I enjoyed very much.

But just for now ...

I went to bed, as usual, around 9:30. I was woken up about half an hour ago by a banging sound and the cats, mostly Brandy, yelling loudly and angrily.

I thought I should investigate, so got up and came down into the lounge room, where the noises were happening.

I had to look several times to make sure I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing.

But yes. There was a koala, bashing on the lounge window. The cats were yelling back, especially Brandy.

I emphatically did not want a koala to break the window. I did not want it getting into the house. You may think that koalas are small and cute, but they are not small. Nor are they cute when they are pissed off!

I closed the blinds and took the cats into my bedroom and shut them in. The banging on the window continued for a bit and then stopped. The cats calmed down. The koala appears to have gone away.

I know that there are koalas in the University forest, although I haven't seen any since I moved back to Mount Helen. People put on social media when they see them, and there are "be aware of koalas" notices around local roads. I have very occasionally heard them, closer to Hill House than to my place, but I have not seen them. I was absolutely not expecting to find one in my front yard!

Although - this might explain what happened to my garden bed a week or so ago. You may remember that the hexagonal edgings had been dislodged and I couldn't think what had caused it. I didn't think a possum could have done it. But a koala most certainly could, had it been minded.

I do not require this amount of wildlife excitement at this time of night!

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