party weekend

We're still in the throes of moving - so hard -  had seedEnergy's Christmas dinner at Beechwood,  outside in the shelter shed area away from the wind - but by dessert time it was too cold so we ate Di's plum pudding upstairs in the Lookout Room where we could watch the birds and see pelicans fishing.

 

Saturday night was Daisy's boyfriend ChrisB's 21st birthday party in Mount Gambier Old Gaol and on Sunday we had our annual Bubbles and Bagels party,  the 22nd one, with good weather and just as successful as its predecessors.

 

 

All was overshadowed by finding our cat Willow,  barely able to walk and floppy. David instantly diagnosed snake bite which the vet later confirmed with a blood test so she was given antivenom and put on a drip to wash the venom through her system. Three days later she is still in hospital and we are missing her.

Let me out of here!

Dragging out the moving has been a mistake.
If there's ever a next time I'll just walk away and let the professionals do it.
Our freezer is still at Foote Street, the iron and ironing board (not that I really want them), sewing materials, half a shed of tools and STUFF and strangely my big mixing bowls have gone AWOL.
 

 

 

goodbye to the compactus

 

I had to be at Foote Street Monday morning to admit the family team who have bought the compactus: removal a bigger job than they expected, involving a trip home for a full set of tools.

 

Included in the 3-generation team was the boy who bought David's didgeridoo, dying to tell me how well he is getting on. He has been practising hard and can make a kookaburra call plus the sound of a boomerang fading away into the distance and coming back. His granny is pleased with the way his breathing has improved: he can run to the corner and back without puffing.

 

 

Josh was in charge of removing the shelves

carpe diem

Saturday was to be the big move to permanent residency at Beechwood - but nature intervened with 35' and a north wind,  perfect for fishing off our beach. So David seized the day and was rewarded with a nice catch of garfish before he had to leave for tennis. I battled on, shoe-horning my clothes into the available wardrobe space: Port Mac op shop will get the rest.

 

Today David faced the same dilemma with a twist: his clothes couldn't move in because the wardrobe was full of books but the bookcases wouldn't fit unless he cut one in half. Joe came to help with this high-tech operation: note the garden fork which was needed to pry the two pieces apart.

 

also note the freshly picked cucumbers

 

wind wind and more wind

Jennifer and Peter (my sister and her husband) came for the weekend and all plans had to be modified due to the constant 20 knot winds. The guys went fishing at Pelican Point which is the most sheltered spot on the coast: true fishermen - they froze but stuck it out and caught 12 garfish and 3 nice mullet.

They met our neighbours, Di & Rory and Angela & Joe, went for bracing beach walks and admired the tunnel house and its green harvest.

Here they are at Pebbles with David, looking - not surfing:

 

 

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.