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.