every garage sale needs a spruiker

And ours was David. I had no idea what a good salesman he is until seeing him in action today.  He could sell a ketchup icypole to a lady in a white dress as Christopher put it.
 

My Border Watch advertisement was carefully crafted with words like 'boomerangs', 'steel axeheads' and 'wood copper' - all of which did well - but the clear winner was 'rabbit traps' which 8 people turned up to buy. The early bird got the worm and bought all 12 of them. 'Books' did better than expected and maybe I put too many in the recycle bin last week. 'Records' was a surprise with one customer buying 57.
 

My favourite customer was the little boy who badly wanted a didgeridoo: he huffed and puffed and turned purple while elder brother laughed,  then he proudly produced this dreadful mooing noise and was hooked for life. Salesman David sprang into action and value-added a CD of how to play it  and granny paid up.

Granny also bought my compactus (sliding shelves) so that's one less thing to move to Beechwood.
 

It was a successful day, finished in time for David to go to tennis, thanks to Alison and Christopher helping to clear up. Daisy and Chris brought buns for morning tea which was much appreciated.

 

homemade elderflower cordial

Last week as Neville Bonney drove into Cape Douglas he spotted a flowering  elder tree, the Australian variety Sambucus gaudichaudiana - he admits he drives with his head sticking out the window to look at plants. So as we drove out we picked some flower heads and I made elderflower cordial based on a River Cottage recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. To my amazement,  it tastes terrific, just like the bought one and a great refresher for a hot day.

Recipe:
25 heads of elderflower, rinsed and checked for insects
Finely grated rind of 3 lemons & 1 orange
1.5 litres boiling water: pour over and leave overnight.
Next day add juice of 3 lemons & 1 orange, strain through muslin.
Add 1kg sugar and a heaped teaspoonful of citric acid (preservative),  bring to boil and simmer 2 minutes.
Cool and bottle, store in frig.
Use small amount with water or soda and lots of ice.

 

 

the garfish return

It's been a windy weekend, Saturday being taken up with Alison's garage sale (ours next weekend) and Old Farts' tennis,   so David hasn't had much fishing. Crayfishing has been hopeless: only rats for several weeks BUT Sunday was garfish day and he caught 43 big beauties.

 

Neville Bonney, plantsman and author, came for lunch on Friday and took David on a discovery tour of Douglas Point Conservation Park. Here I was thinking it was just a bare windswept headland - no - it's important for the conservation of the sandhills everlasting plant,  Ixodia, and the Rufous Bristle Bird ,  which obligingly ran across the road in front of them thus proving its continued existence.

 

Meanwhile back at the ranch I have been busy picking peas, tomatoes (get that,  they're early!), lebanese cucumbers, pattypan squash, beetroot from the tunnel house and a few bandicooted potatoes. Also we now have internet with NBN installed upstairs as a fixed wireless network. So I am back on eBay with mixed success: oddments sell better than books of which I have 550 of my personal collection to photograph and describe on ABE.

 

 

a planning meeting update

As promised the planning team for projected improvements to SA coastal communities held an update to tell us what their proposals are and to elicit our opinions.

Just as well - because they are determined to upgrade our picnic spot with bins and horrors! toilets. The Cape Douglas table is fervently against that sort of improvement as we don't want  people electing to camp there. They can come, have a look and go away again.

Their idea of making a safer walkway across the creek to get pedestrians off the road on a blind corner was unanimously voted as first priority; concealed driveway signs also good; more tree-planting; a paved road to the top of Pont Douglas and a sealed car park got the nod.
 

Angela, Joe, planner, Julie discuss the plan

crunch weekend

No going back now. We've decided to live permanently at Cape Douglas so "musical houses" will occur: Alison and Daisy will move into Foote Street and we will sell their house in Bertha Street.

Jon came down this  weekend to discuss with Alison  which of our heirlooms and  excess possessions will be his - and to fall upon the garage sale pile with cries of "I always wanted this" . Beechwood has no storage space and we like its bare white look so we have to be ruthless and reduce to minimal. But this week I will ring the cabinet maker and order a cupboard for upstairs.

Angela from next door dropped in for drinks and, mesmerised by looking at the sea, stayed quite late. She apologised next day and Joe,  her husband,  remarked: 'you'll have to get a cat door for Angela. "  She fixed our rattling flyscreen so she's very welcome.

Crayfish are still very scarce - this week's storm saw the pots dragged 400 metres away and one of Rory's lost - but we've had two feeds of strawberries from the tunnel house,  a meal of peas, two button squashes and two large beetroot.