Alex's last night

And the French chef in him was finally coaxed out. Alex cooked a lovely chicken dish from the Basque region of France followed by this delicious
upside down apple tart, which was just beautiful. Alex has been with us for almost three weeks and it will be very sad to see him go. But go he must - he has the rest of Australia to see before September. We are heading to Brisbane this morning - and so Alex will come with us and spend a few days in the city before heading northwards. We managed to get him a ticket to see Jesus Christ Superstar with us tonight (together with Glen) so we shall have a merry old time in Brisbane tonight. All the best for the rest of your trip, Alex!

Bathroom finally finished

OK, a few before and after shots. This was what our bathroom used to look like..

And this is what it looks like now. Bathrooms are difficult to take half-way decent pics of but hopefully you get the idea. Walk-in shower, with this huge (yet water-conservative shower head that hangs over you)....
louvred windows forming one long length down the side of the vainity
and of course we had to celebrate end of the renovation with a glass of Chillen strawberry sparkling wine. Alex will be able to enjoy one shower before he leaves us today. We also have a new skylight that is clear so you can see the blue sky above you. Very happy with it all and it was worth the wait.

Creek bank cleared

Looking from McGuinness Road down along Julia's Little Creek. All of the lantana has now been cleared. We'll mass plant with local species once we move into spring. Too risky to plant little things out now with frosts. Shane spent a couple of days pushing back the frontier that our Helpers Antonie and Louis had created a few weeks ago. Looks wonderful. Bit by bit we are removing weeds and replanting with natives.

Bathroom still a work in progress

We had hoped that the bathroom would have been completed by now but with a little bit of luck, a willing plumber and some sunshine (so we can have the new skylight installed) it should be completed by the end of the week. These are a few pics I took this morning. This is the walk-in shower
Vanity basin
And we have a mirror running the full length of one of the walls (we previously had a full-length mirror here as well but that one cracked when it was removed from the wall). Steve is painting the final coat of paint above the tiles.

Australian mint bush

We have several native mint bushes (Prostanthera sp) growing in our big bush garden and I just adore them. I was never a fan of this group of plants previously but I think they are wonderful. They have a beautiful tangy mint smell (much lighter and tangier than an ordinary mint plant you might grow as a herb) and a vase of cut mint bush in the loo provides a lovely fresh aussie bush fragrence. This bunch is still lush over a week since it was cut. I wonder if I could make a living growing mint bush commercially?

And we ate a lot

This was the first Queen's Long Weekend in about 13 or 14 years where we haven't spent it with our friends in the Blue Mountains. So it was rather different. And we seemed to eat quite a bit. Well a lot really. This is the creamy yet tart lemon tart from Mavis' Kitchen that we enjoyed on Saturday.
A wonderful artisan-style loaf we bought at the Blue Knob markets baked by a local guy. I really want to learn how to bake this bread.
Sunday night's dinner: slow cooked leg of lamb, baked potato, pumpkin, carrot, choko, onion and broccolini
And then this morning (Monday) we had eggs benedict. It's wet and cold here so what else is there to do than cook and eat. Steve made a delicious flourless chocolate and orange cake last night as well.

We've had a patch of really unseasonally cold weather up here. Last Thursday only reached 14 degrees which is very unusual. We were bracing ourselves for flooding as well, but the rain that was predicted didn't eventuate - we've only had about 35mm over the past few days, but we have had the slow combustion heater going, which has made the downstairs part of the house rather cosy.

Happy Birthday, your highness

We spent the Saturday of the Queen's Birthday long weekend showing Alex around the region. First stop was Nimbin, then on to the funky Blue Knob markets before lunch at Mavis' Kitchen (where else). The table in the foreground is covered with yummy food from the local region.
We had a great lunch - Alex opted for the burger, Steve had beef wellington and I had Bangalow pork. All delicious.
And, yes, some guests arrived in a helicopter. This is getting to be commonplace at Mavis'.
It was a bloody cold day and was even colder when we called in at Brunswick Heads for a little while. It was cold but calm, no wind, so it wasn't too bad.
Steve and Alex just before going for a swim....

Busted waterpipe...bugger

Just what you don't want to discover when you get home from a lovely afternoon walking the Barr Mountain track in the Border Ranges National Park. A burst water pipe. Alex came rushing inside alarmed at all the water that had ponded in the chookery and he'd followed it up the slope to where a plant had been recently planted by our last Helpers. Well, they'd put the plant in the ground...at exactly the spot I had shown them. Which, it turns out, was right smack bang over the pipe that carries water from the bore pump to the top watertank, which we use for garden hoses, toilet and washing machine. Not good. I dug out the soil to reveal the problem.
Steve found some proper waterpipe fixing tapes and
managed to seal the leak at least so we could put enough water in the tank to toilet in. Our builder, Michael, who, we hope, will be signing off on the bathroom this week, will be here tomorrow and he said he'll replace the section of pipe. This is good news indeed.

The Ladies for Lunch

This is no lady, however, but Alex, our HelpXer, and yes, again, he's French. Here he is hard at work cutting up one of our home-grown pumpkins in readiness for the pots of pumpkin soup he and I made on Friday afternoon in readiness for the annual lunch with the ladies with whom Steve works. This is now a tradition - and lots of fun.
A nice flower arrangement using flowers all cut from our gardens as a centrepiece for the table
and here are the ladies, about to enjoy their lunch. Lots of fun, lots of laughs, just a really fun time.
And of course they all loved Alex's charm, wit and boyish good looks. Maryville 2011....bring on Maryville 2012!