Two More Markets and Another Pub

It was a busy weekend. It was also a very pleasant weekend, weather-wise.

Lindsey and I made it to the Lake market this time. We even managed to get a parking spot quite close to the entrance. We were lucky with that. The market was very busy and there weren't many free parking spots. I think the bloke in the car behind us was a bit disappointed that we noticed the spot and got in first!

Tim's Toasties weren't there, but Bruce's Buns were. We have encountered them once before, when the market was alongside the lake and the weather was wet and cold. They do crusty rolls with spit roasted meat. Lindsey and I shared a beef and gravy roll. I also topped up my supplies of flavoured oils, tomatoes, eggs and tiny mushrooms.  I bought a couple of locally made things to take with me to Japan. The market was bustling and everyone seemed happy.

I finally got around to cutting the grass out the front, and to weeding the garden bed around the rose bush. I am planning to top up the soil and to throw some mixed salad seeds in and see what happens.

Yesterday found Lindsey and me taking the 9:20 train to Melbourne. We had tickets to the Finders Keepers market at the Exhibition Buildings in Carlton. It's Seniors' Festival month in Victoria and public transport is free across the state for people with a Senior's Travel card from yesterday until next Sunday. So our train and tram rides cost nothing and we had a gentle, restful trip on the train in both directions.

The Makers' Market was very busy and had lots of fun things to look at. I bought another couple of things to take to Japan, and a small vase for Freyja. Lindsey bought things for Japan, Canada and Sydney. Then we met Freyja and Simon and walked across to Lygon Street and had lunch in a pub, that I hadn't previously noticed, which serves American Diner style food. When I say we had lunch in the pub - the weather was warm enough for us to sit outside, so we did. I may not have the loaded chips again. They were very delicious but it was a big serving and I didn't really need chips with bacon and American style melted cheese AND gravy, along with two pieces of chicken. Next time (and I hope there will be a next time) I will have chicken with ordinary chips and gravy.

Busy and bustling in the Exhibition Building

The Exhibition Building in the sunshine

Me, also in the sunshine

Freyja and Simon on the bus,
on their way to meet us 

I didn't get a photo of Lindsey, but she was definitely there.

In other news, the new dishwasher arrived on Thursday, was installed and is now up and running. I am having to learn how to stack it - the baskets are slightly different.

I have also bought an induction cooktop for the kitchen and two solar lights for the hallway. The electrician will come to install them when I get back from Japan.

And very, very early on Friday morning, before dawn, while I was making my first cup of tea, I heard Brandy making his "I am definitely not happy about this" noises. I went to investigate, expecting to find the grey cat which often appears in the garden or on the fence. That is not what I found. I found this:

It's a brush tailed possum, which most fortunately was in a tree in the back neighbour's garden. It's quite a bit bigger than the little ring tailed possums we more often see around here. I am VERY pleased that it was not in my backyard. I'm not sure how I would have got it out. The back fence doesn't have a gate so the only way out is through the house. I do not think Brandy would be happy if there was a possum in the house. I don't think the possum would be happy either. Possums can't climb the metal fences, although I suppose I could put things along the fence that they could use to help get out. Happily, the need didn't arise and it was well and truly gone by the time I got home from work.

It's cold, gloomy and windy again today. I don't think I'll be sitting outside to have my lunch!

A Market and a Pub

We went to the Bridge Mall/Street market on Saturday morning. The weather was clement. The parking was better than it had been at the lake, the last time we tried to go there. But the market was still very crowded. There isn't as much room for people to spread out.

There was a 30 minute wait for a Tim's Toastie!

There was a queue for the sausage sizzle!

I very foolishly bought some runner bean, tomato and zucchini seedlings. This was foolish only because it is much too early to plant them out in the garden, and in two weeks I am heading off to Japan for three weeks. It should be ok to plant them out by the time I get back, but in the meantime I am relying on my house sitters to water them. Finger crossed!  Also, it was a bit extravagant - I have plenty of seeds for all these plants. I may sow them as well, when I get back.

We went out to Bunnings, where there wasn't a long queue at the sausage sizzle.

We went to The Source, and to the supermarket.

Then we went home.

During the course of the day I did a Japanese lesson, a yoga session, a Japanese vocabulary session. I made a vegetable stock with left over veg from the previous fortnight, a large bowl of ratatouille and a (mostly) green salad. The vegetables from the stock-making went into a bowl, mixed with some chicken for Hugo. I swept the floors, washed some clothes and tidied the kitchen. I remembered to change those clocks which wouldn't automatically change themselves. I went to bed early (although it wasn't very early if you went by the clocks which I had manually changed).

Brandy and Whiskey were a bit surprised by all this activity:

Sunday was a lot less busy than Saturday had been. I joined Lindsey and Ian at The Wallace for lunch, where I had the lamb roast rather than the pork, which I had had two weeks before. I might try something else next time I go. If I am there on a Sunday, which is when I usually go, I pretty much always have the roast and there are other tasty looking things on the menu.

Hugo once again got a box of leftovers, to add to his chicken and vegetable box.

I didn't really do much else on Sunday, apart from a few household tasks. I did do a yoga session and a vocabulary session and I did a little ironing in the morning. Otherwise, it was quite a lazy day.

Spring is tantalising us.

The insects and spiders are beginning to emerge. I've found a couple of small spiders in the house; flies are starting to come in when the sun is shining; there are a few butterflies beginning to appear:

The lavenders, rosemary, apple trees and daisies are flowering and there are a few more tulip flowers in the backyard. There are a few snow peas ready to pick and it won't be long before the green peas are ready (probably while I'm away 😔) I've had another small picking of asparagus and there are still silverbeet and sprouting broccoli to harvest.

It is, however, still mostly cold in Mount Helen. Even when it is sunny, and the sun does now have some warmth, the wind is cold. And it has been frosty, or almost frosty on several mornings in the past week or so.

Dishwasher

It crossed my mind yesterday that I still hadn't heard from the Good Guys about the dishwasher. I wasn't expecting them necessarily to have someone available to come out during the past week, but I thought they might have rung to arrange a time.

At around 9:50 yesterday morning, I called the Ballarat branch to see what was going on. They had no idea that I was waiting for a phone call and didn't know that my dishwasher wasn't working. They asked me to call the company that organises repairs and replacements for them.

So I did.

They had no idea that I was waiting for a call, or that my dishwasher wasn't working. But I have both a text message and an email saying that my dishwasher wasn't working, that I had been approved for a replacement and that the Ballarat branch would call me to arrange an assessment of my dishwasher before organising the replacement. I also have a reference number.

No record of the reference number. Call the Good Guys' Warranty people.

So I did.

They also had no idea, despite the fact that I had spoken to them last Monday and they had generated the text message and the email. Off they went to investigate.

By now it was coming up to 10:50 and I had been on hold with various people for most of that hour. Also, I had a Japanese lesson booked for 11. I was getting quite anxious about making it to the lesson.

Eventually, the woman came back on the line, said she had spoken with the Ballarat branch and I should go in in person to select my replacement dishwasher. It all seemed a bit odd, but I didn't have time to argue.

It was just as well I managed to get to the Japanese lesson. I was the only student and we spent most of the 50 minutes discussing my forthcoming trip to Japan. We didn't cover much of the lesson content but it was a really good conversation class.

I had lunch (a chicken and leek tangle pie, since you ask), tidied up a few things and then went into town, to the Good Guys.

Who had no idea what was going on or why I had been told to go into the store - although one of the staff members was the person I had spoken to on the first of my phone calls in the morning and remembered me. 

They made long and complicated efforts to try and work out what was happening, why I had been told to go in, why no one had generated a refund voucher or an assessment visit and, most importantly, why my case had been effectively closed on the previous Monday. Eventually they called the manager, who also made long and complicated efforts to try and sort it all out. Eventually he said: "I tell you what; let's just organise a replacement.  Your dishwasher shouldn't be behaving like that after less than 11 months. Even if we do fix it, it sounds as though it will just do it again in a couple of months. Do you want an exact replacement, or do you want to upgrade?" I decided to upgrade to a different brand. I, of course, paid the difference in price, except that he reduced it by $100.

I was in the store for just over an hour and had three people trying to sort it all out. I think I got the discount because at no point did I get cross and even remained cheerful and friendly. After all, it wasn't their fault.

I went and had afternoon tea with Hugo before going home.

The new dishwasher is due on Thursday of next week. In the meantime, the existing dishwasher had been gurgling and beeping and not washing dishes for two weeks, right up until yesterday morning when I tested it before making the first phone call. I decided yesterday evening to stack dishes in it, out of the way while I prepared food for the next few days and then later to hand wash them in batches, I absentmindedly pressed the on button, caught myself and went to turn it off again before it started gurgling and beeping - and off it merrily went, wash, wash washing away.

Too late though. The replacement machine has been arranged and this was the third or maybe even fourth time that the existing machine had done this. (I haven't told it yet that I have effectively sacked it - don't want it to go on strike again before the new one arrives!)

I did not get the front grass cut!

Saturday and Sunday

We tried to go to the Lakeside market on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful morning- and I think everyone else in Ballarat thought the same thing. There was not a parking space to be had anywhere near the market, not alone the lakeside road, not in the side streets, not up on Gillies Street, which usually has plenty of parking. Looking across into the market, it looked VERY busy.

We had completely forgotten that this was the middle weekend of the school holidays, plus a long weekend, and Ballarat had lots of visitors for the weekend. Sovereign Hill was also very busy when we drove past it.

So we gave up on the market and went to Wilson's instead. Plus OfficeWorks, Dan Murphy's, Lincraft.

I needed Lincraft because, when I was clearing out my wool supplies, I accidentally gave away every one of my crochet hooks. I do need one - I use it to hook woolly thread on my jumpers back to the inside, and for other hooky purposes. I have also lost my wool needle. I didn't give it away but I can't find it anywhere. I recently bought a new winter jumper which I like a lot. I do not like the polo neck and will, eventually, in the fullness of time, when I can be bothered, cut it back to a crew neck. I'll need a wool needle (and maybe even a crochet hook) to stitch the new length onto the neckline. I am now the proud possessor of a crochet hook and TWO wool needles, for the princely sum of $5.50.

The sun might have been shining on Saturday morning, but the wind was cold, so I was wearing a sleeveless jacket. When I got home, I put it on the dining table while I put the shopping away. When I came back with my lunch, this is what I saw:

And a few minutes later this:

Reminder: put things away, not down!

I am quite pleased with how the back, um, "lawn" looks after I cut it on Friday afternoon. I had intended to do the front on Saturday afternoon but by the time I had had lunch and got organised the wind had picked up and was very strong. I am, as you are aware, surrounded by lots of trees, some of them quite substantial. I didn't want to risk being hit by a flying branch, so stayed inside and did useful things there instead.

I had thought I might have time yesterday morning but when I woke up I wondered if I had been relocated to Derbyshire in November. It was cold, raining, windy and foggy. I did not venture out into the garden!

It was a very wet and foggy drive out to Daylesford, where the Sunday Lunchers were meeting at Gillie's house.  We were all there, although Flora the Dog had stayed in Geelong alas. It was a good afternoon - the sun even came out for a bit. We had what was really a Greek inspired menu: mezze to start, followed by an eggplant bake with salad and new potatoes and finishing with  figs and walnuts in syrup. I am a bit wary of eating tree nuts unless they have been cooked (and even then I am cautious). There are some that I always react to and others, including walnuts, that I sometimes react to.  I didn't want to risk it and Gillie graciously offered blueberries instead.

It was very busy in Daylesford but fortunately Gillie lives on the outskirts, on a road that visitors would have no reason to go to, and would anyway find it hard to locate. The birds can find her lovely garden and there were lots for us to look at.

It rained on the way home.

It's another lovely morning. I am quite busy today but if the weather holds, I may get the front grass cut. It's a bit early, though. It's only just after 7:00 and people may still be in bed. Anyway, I am not dressed for gardening. Pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers are not appropriate for grass cutting or weeding!

Today

... is a public holiday in Victoria. This is what I have done:

• Got up early
  
  
• Attended a 50 minute online Japanese lesson
  
  
• Washed the dishes from last night (I still don't have a working dishwasher)
  
  
• Solved the daily puzzles
  
  
• Did a load of washing, which I bravely hung outside
  
  
• Ten minutes of Japanese vocab practice
  
  
• 15 minutes of chair yoga
  
  
• Went to the Smythes Creek Farmgate shop with Lindsey
  
  
• Went to Bunnings to look at garden gates, also with Lindsey
  
  
• Went to the IGA and the local butcher, ditto with Lindsey
  
  
• Had lunch
  
  
• Weeded the asparagus bed, which I should have done in the autumn and which was seriously overgrown. I found six spears of new asparagus. They are now in the kitchen. Fingers crossed for more.
  
  
• Cut the grass in the backyard, but not along the back of the house
  
  
• Brought the (dry!) washing in and put it away
  
  
• Pulled the kale from the front yard, which was going to seed

 

I also did the usual daily jobs such as making the bed, having a shower, getting dressed and so on. I have yet to organise dinner for me, although I have fed the cats.

I am exhausted!!!!!!!!!

Weekend

Wendy came up for the weekend. She arrived on the train on Saturday at around 9:45.

I picked her up and we went out to the Collectibles Market out on the highway and had hot chocolate and chips with gravy for brunch. 

We went out to Smythes Creek to the farmgate shop.

We had barramundi and more chips for dinner.

We watched several snippets of various Jurassic Park films.

The weather was, um - inclement

The weather was better on Sunday.

We went out to Wallace and met Freyja and Simon at the pub for lunch. I oh-so-nearly booked under a false name, just in case they had banned me. If you remember I had made a booking for around 20 people for Saturday lunch the day that Stella died and, of course, we had to cancel. It wasn't me who rang to cancel the booking but it was definitely me who had made it. Fortunately, they didn't seem to make the connection and my booking was accepted. Mind you, it was only for four people. They might have been more suspicious if I had tried another booking for another large party.

Waiting for lunch

I very much enjoyed my pork roast and Wendy enjoyed her vegan Sunday roast, which comes with all the same stuff as the meaty roasts, but with falafel on top instead of meat. Freyja had the lentil cottage pie, which I think she enjoyed while Simon had a vegetable parmigiana which I think he was a little disappointed with. He was expecting actual vegetables under the parma topping and he got a vegetable and mashed potato patty instead.

Falafel over Sunday veg

Roast pork and apple, with Sunday veg

No photos of the vegan options. I completely forgot.

I was very happy, while gazing at the various bottles of gin waiting my turn to order drinks, to discover that they have the Gordon's alcohol free gin. I was driving and had intended to have a lemon, lime and bitters - until I saw the driver-friendly gin. A gin and tonic for me, please.

Hugo was pleased to see me when I called in on my way home. I had a plastic box filled with delicious left overs for him!

My dishwasher is broken 😭 I've only had it since November 😭 It's coming up with an F30 error, which I think is the flood sensors coming into play, making the machine stop 😭

It's done it three times now, in the past couple of months. On the other occasions I have been able to bail it out, leave it to dry and then  convince it to work again. Not this time. I have emptied it and left it to dry but it still flashes the F30 error code and beeps. Incessantly!

 I rang the Good Guys and someone is going to arrange a time to come out and have a look at it. It's still under warranty so it should be repaired or replaced. But in the meantime, I am reduced to handwashing the dishes. Fortunately, there haven't been many dishes to hand wash. At least, not all together.

The weather is (almost) sunny and (almost) warm today.  (Almost) spring-like, you might think. I think it is toying with us. The forecast is for more winter-like weather by the end of the week. Fortunately,  I have plenty of fuel for the fire.

Whiskey, helping to make the bed

Brandy, keeping my chair warm

My Garden is Lying to Me

This is what the garden says is happening:

 

But this is what is really happening:

Whiskey is lying on an electric blanket.
I thought it was mine but ...

We have had hail storms and freezing rain storms. We haven't had snow in Mount Helen but there was snow on Mount Buninyong and it tried hard here (could only manage the hail, though). I don't think the thermometer reached double figures on Saturday. I did not go to the market!

I am certain that my garden mojo has gone to Bali or Fiji to soak up some heat. I can see exactly what needs to be done but the impetus is not there when the temperature is a mere 5℃ outside, rising, if we are lucky, to perhaps 12 or 13. I have ordered more supplies for the fire, which are due sometime later this morning. I have made vegetable soup and some meaty stews. I have put my winter jumpers back on.

I would be quite pleased if the weather were to warm up just a little bit.

I was pottering around on the internet yesterday afternoon and came across the surprising (to me, at least) news that at the end of last year the Air Balloon pub at Birdlip near Gloucester (UK) had been demolished to enable the widening of the road and the improvement of what had been, it is true, a difficult roundabout. I don't suppose I would have been likely to have visited the Air Balloon again, but Jim and I used to stop there for lunch, from time to time, when we were going from Tupton to Salisbury. And Jim is the only person that I know who would have been remotely interested in the news. I was saddened by the loss of the pub, and a bit wistful about not having anyone to share the news with. (I did tell Jim, but he didn't respond.  Brandy and Whiskey weren't all that interested either 😂.) The Highwayman, down the road heading towards Cirencester is, apparently, still there. We used to call in there, from time to time, as well. The food was more interesting at The Highwayman but the hours at the Air Balloon were more convenient.

We didn't stop in either of them the last time we were in England, early in 2020, just before covid properly hit, although we almost certainly drove past them. According to the blog, we had not very nice food  for lunch in the motorway services. The blog doesn't say why we did this - I assume that the timing wasn't right for lunch in the Air Balloon.

Market Day

Some time ago, the Ballarat Council decided to rejig the Bridge Street Mall and convert it back to a roadway. Only one lane, heading out of Ballarat City centre.

This provoked considerable discussion amongst the nay-sayers and whiners who inhabit the Ballarat Facebook groups. What a ridiculous decision it had been to turn it into a pedestrian mall in the first place. How ridiculous it is to convert it back. How ridiculous the plans and designs were. How ridiculous the (almost) finished product is.

They illustrate this with photos of Bridge Street from the 1950s and 60s, waxing lyrical about how vibrant and active it was. How many thriving businesses there were. How many people used it. I look at these photos and all I see is lots of cars and other vehicles. It doesn't look particularly vibrant to me, though I will allow that I wasn't there to observe it in the 1950s or 60s. Or at any time really, until the 90s when the pedestrian mall was long in place.

During the re-making of the road, the Bridge Mall market has been much reduced in size and pushed out of the way of the roadworks. Lindsey and I didn't go very often; only if we had another reason to be in town on market day. There wasn't enough of interest for it to be worth making the trip into town just for the market.

Now, however, the roadworks are almost complete. The Moaners and Groaners are complaining on Facebook how horrible it looks, how it will never work, how the children will get run over (there is a play area to one side, which is fenced off from the single lane road); waste of money; stupid council; will have to be closed on market days; mumble, mutter, whine, whinge.

On Saturday the market moved back to what had been the pedestrian mall and there were lots more stalls in play. So Lindsey and I went to have a look. It was busy and bustling. The sun was shining. Everyone seemed happy. The stalls were attracting lots of attention. The shops along the street were also busy.

The Bridge Street market is on the first Saturday of the month. They did try having it also on the third Saturday but that was suspended once the roadworks began. I wonder if they'll try again.

Apart from that, things have been trundling along. I've been at work. I've done a bit of shopping. I've done a bit of tidying. The wind has continued to blow, although mercifully not as strongly as before. Spring taunts us by pushing the temperature up to the high teens and then dropping it back down to very low double figures. My tiny peach tree still has bright pink blossom and, although small, looks cheerful. The apple trees are beginning to wake up. The peas are flowering. The broad beans are struggling a bit. I don't think they've been getting enough light and they are quite weedy. It is true they are underneath some trees over the back fence, and I think that, combined with what was quite a dull winter (in terms of light), has left them a bit sun deprived. Maybe they'll strengthen up now that Spring is (more or less) Sprung.

This turned up during the week:

I like Mingle spice mixes and am looking forward to trying some of the ones that you don't find in the supermarkets. I might have to share some of them, though. It was a very full box and I don't think I can use it all before the mixes are a long way past their Best Before date.

Weather

It has been faintly irritating, over the past few days, listening to people on the radio and TV talking about how many parts of Australia have been unseasonably warm, even hot. I have not been hot, or even warm. In Ballarat it has been decidedly on the cool side. I have been listening to these reports of heat and warmth while snuggled under the heated couch throw, fire lit, wearing thick winter jumpers. I agree that 40° is rather too hot, especially at the tail end of winter, but something slightly warmer than the 9° that is the forecast high in Ballarat today would be nice.

It would be even nicer if the strong, strong winds would die down a bit. It has been unbelievably windy over the past two or three days. I am lucky that I have electricity. So many places in Victoria do not. I am also lucky that none of the local trees have blown onto my house, or any other houses immediately round me. The worst I have is twigs, some small branches and a bit of bark. Oh - and the "greenhouse" has blown over. Not a big problem - there were no plants in it and I was thinking of moving it anyway.

There are twigs and small branches everywhere

Brandy is not enjoying the wind, or the disruption

I wondered what this was when I first glimpsed it
It's quite a large piece of bark that
wasn't in the front yard when I locked up last night

It is still very windy this morning but at least the sun has come out. I would be tempted out into the garden were it not for the wind and the fact that it's about 5° outside. I may settle for tidying up inside, rather than out.

I brought the daffodils, tulips and jonquils in before the storms arrived. There weren't a lot, but I figured they would be safer in a vase in the lounge room rather than taking their chances under the fruit trees.

Sunny and cheerful

I couldn't bring the peach blossom in, or not if I want any chance of peaches. I am happy to report it is still on the tree. It's a very small tree and protected by the fence, but I am pleased and a bit surprised anyway. I had two peaches last season and they were delicious.

Apart from the wind, it was a fairly quiet weekend. It was cold and drizzly or cold and rainy. And windy. So there wasn't much incentive to go outside. Or even out, although I did go shopping with Lindsey later yesterday morning. Apart from that, nothing exciting to report.

Some of us are enjoying the electric chair throws:

It was another dark and stormy night

It was Freyja's birthday last weekend but it wasn't convenient to get together to celebrate, so we had her Birthday Lunch yesterday at my place. Lindsey came too, but not Ian. He's currently in Switzerland so not really handy for Sunday Lunch.

Lindsey brought home made seed crackers and various dips. I made roast potatoes (of course) and a vegetable and bean pot pie. I made the pastry topping in the way I usually make shortcrust pastry, except that I used vegan olive spread and oat milk in place of butter and cows' milk. I rather like my vegan pastry - it is very soft and fluffy.

Sunday Lunch in Mount Helen, photos by Freyja:

The BoM had been warning for several days of severe weather across the state on Sunday afternoon, so Freyja and Simon left shortly after lunch, hoping to be ahead of the wind and the rain. It arrived here late in the afternoon and lasted into the evening. It wasn't as bad as it might have been - the wind wasn't as strong as Friday night's. But there was a considerable amount of rain, a hefty dose of hail and lots of thunder and lightning. Lindsey had so much hail bouncing off her front windows that she couldn't hear the thunder. I didn't have quite as much rain and hail, and could definitely hear the thunder. Freyja and Simon got home ahead of the rain, just. They have magnificent views of approaching storms from their lounge room windows.

It is much calmer today, although it is still cold and rainy. But gentle, gardeners' rain rather than stormy rain.

I am very pleased with my three bedrooms. They are looking rather nice - at the moment, while they are still neat and tidy!

Main bedroom
(which is my room)

Guest (second) bedroom

Spare (third) bedroom