Another thing I have been up to

is renovating a house.

Dad asked me to try my hand at sales, wine sales. I don't really know if I'll like it, or more to the point if ll be any good, but I said I would give it a year - just not sure when the year starts.... - so... if that's not scary enough for someone as scared of staying still as myself, I also decided that I really should move out of home. Dad and I get along really well, but after a year living in his spare room I have decided I need a little space. And luckily enough there is a spare house up at the winery.

This house started out life identical to Dad's house, and all the other returned servicemen's houses in the area. Standard two bedroom house. Over the years it has been added to. It is difficult to find its resemblance to Dad's. There are an extra two bedrooms, which are handy as the house has been used for storage for the past 4 years. And well another couple of rooms added on all over the place. I like what they have done with the bathroom, aside from the dodgy job resulting in tiles falling off all over the place and the full length window. It was probably ok when it was only your family working the vineyard, but still.... And yes the whole place was covered in wall paper. I will never again be able to look at wall paper without wondering what dodgy DIY job lays beneath.

I should have taken photos before I started work, but the house was also full of furniture - it was the storage house after all - and I was too impatient to wait until it was all removed before starting work. I have learnt a lot in the past few weeks. Some wall paper is very easy to remove, some is not. Some holes are easy to fill some are not. Some gap fillers are easy to sand smooth, some are not. Some surfaces are easy to paint, some should have been prepared first.

I am doing the house up on the cheap. After deciding I would do it up and move into it, I found out when Dad was having a discussion with an architect that he plans to bulldoze the house in 2 years time. So there is a lot of gap filler being. I would probably be embarrassed if anyone takes a really good look at what I have done, but if it only has to last two years......

of late

I have been a little quiet. Mainly because life has been a little quiet. There was the heatwave - which I spent trying to keep cool - and subsequent 20 degree temperature drop - which gave me a cold, before turning into a chest infection which I am still battling. I also went to the Hunter Valley with my mothers family for my grandmothers belated 80th birthday. It was a wonderful weekend, in a lovely setting, wildlife everywhere, and surrounded by family, well most of my family. My older sister is really ill and wasn't able to make it. Hopefully she will start feeling better soon.

Some of the wildlife

On the way back to the vineyard I went to the dentist in Sydney. A consult to have my last wisdom tooth removed. He decided to pull it out there and then assuring me I would be fine to drive home. I did, but I don't think I should have. At least the anesthetic lasted for the first 3 hours of the drive.... hmmm.... Thankfully this extraction was immensely less painful and much quicker than last time, two hours previously, 20 min this time. And hence the discomfort after wards has been greatly reduced. I had my first savoury meal today, corn soup, as I have been living on ice cream and sorbet since the extraction.

On that topic anyone want some corn? Or some tomatoes? Or zucchini, squash, basil, spinach? We have a VERY well stocked vegetable garden. We harvest about 5 kg of tomatoes every day. The freezer is full of tomato sauce and frozen corn. I do believe it is possible to OD on tomatoes. They are lovely tomatoes, so full of flavour, but there are only so many you are able to eat. I have also made lots of pesto. So vintage dinners will alternate between pasta with pesto and pasta with tomato sauce. It is especially difficult as there are just two of us, Xanthe is once again spending vintage at another winery.

Speaking of which I think vintage will begin for us next week. We are going to hand pick for the white wine and probably machine harvest the tempranillo. Hopefully I'll feel better by then. Might have to bite the bullet and spend another 5 hours at emergency to get some antibiotics. I was really hoping that the dentist would give me antibiotics for my wisdom tooth and that would knock out my chest infection at the same time.... pity he decided I didn't need them.

Looks a little like the moon rising

but it was actually a smoky sunset.

I'm not the only one to feel the adverse effects of this significant change in temperature.

One of the big old huntsmen in the house decided to move into my room, then it moved to my door frame, thereby stopping me from shutting the door. The following day it fell to the floor and crawled to a corner. I thought it must be dying of old age. I nearly killed it to put it out of its misery, but decided dying of old age might be better than being squashed. This morning I realised it was just cold. It is now up and about, and well, missing in my room, I don't mind huntsmen up high on the walls, but I prefer they stay out of my cupboards.

Wishes do come true

I'm considering using my electric blanket tonight.

I will have to venture outside soon, there is so much work to be done, but I think I'll wait for it to warm up a little.

Mardi Gras

I went in the Mardi Gras a few years back with my neighbour. Rene won costume of the Mardi Gras that year. There are no photos of me, but here are a few I took,

Summer

The vines are very stressed, the grapes are getting sunburnt and I can't imagine doing any work.

There was supposed to be a cool change coming through, dropping the temperature to 32. Not sure when 32 degrees became "cool"... right now I would happily give away 20 degrees. A top of 22 would be delightful.

We had an amazing storm the other night. Lightening hit all around us. As a result we wont be able to use the phone for a week. At least Boo didn't have a heart attack, I was a little worried.