Holidays and Gardens

Holidays are the perfect time for spending as much, or as little, time in the garden as one wants.  We were really lucky to have some gorgeous sunny days that were just warm enough to make gardening pleasurable.  So we finally pruned that hedge.  It looks way better.  I really like pruning this hedge. It's really easy to get straight because I can just rest the shears on the hedge to get the line. We've a hedge out the front which is a mix of grevilleas and other plants. It's seriously hard to get straight.  We've decided a wobbly hedge looks just fine. 

The Grevillea hedge

Our good friends C and P visited for the day from Perth.  While they were here they helped us pick some chestnuts and olives.  Overall we managed to pick just over 5 kilos of olives.  They are a mix of varieties. The only one I'm sure about is the kalamata.  There is also a very round black olive and a small black olive.   

They're currently sitting in brine.  I used a recipe our brother-in-law C gave me.  He said it was given to him by an old Italian man.  Basically you add enough salt to water to make a fresh egg float.  Then leave the olives in the brine until they don't taste bitter anymore.  These have been in the brine for about four weeks now.  I tasted one this morning.  It was still a teeny bit bitter.  And very, very salty (no surprises there right!).  So I think I'll give them another few days before giving them a thorough wash and bottling them. 

We've also spent time mowing the lawn and pulling kikuyu out of the agapanthus. R finally got to try out his new ride on so the lawn only took about ten minutes to mow instead of the hour it would normally take with a push along.   Pulling the kikuyu out took about an hour all up.  A good part of that time was spent pulling out wisteria.   We thought we had that under control because we've been pruning it very regularly where it grows over the pergola, to make sure it doesn't take over the verandah.  Turns out it had been stealthily heading towards the verandah under the cover of the agapanthus.  Sneaky wisteria.

The sneaky Wisteria. 

I love a freshly mown lawn (even if it is covered with leaves almost as soon as it's done). And I love the smell of newly mown lawns.  Sigh. 

Before a mow

After a mow

We also spent a very pleasant couple of hours collecting wood with B and C for our wood fire.  There is a wood collecting area a few minutes from our house.  Between us we managed to fill our ute and C's in a couple of hours. It was a beautiful warm day and the bush is thick and glorious.  This was definitely a highlight of our hols. Helped along by coming home to a coffee and fresh baked fruit bun.  Yum. 

Sadly our holidays are now at an end.  I still can't figure out why holidays go really quickly and work goes really slowly.  We did manage to do quite a few other things while we were on hols (including putting in a bunch of new natives) and I'll try and do some more posts over the coming weeks.  Until then, take care and stay safe. 
 

Dragons

We stumbled across this playground when were taking a walk during our lunch break one day.  Isn't he a great dragon!

He is settled in a park next door to Office Works in Bunbury if you want to check him out. 

Glenarty Road

We're on holidays.  Yay.  And what better way to start a holiday than to go somewhere that serves fabulous food in a great setting.  We chose Glenarty Road in Karridale, which is a farm to table restaurant. As in literally. The restaurant is on the farm and nearly everything you eat and drink is either directly from the farm or from neighbouring properties. Which means everything is seasonal and at it's absolute best.  

It is a bit of a hike from ours to Glenarty (an hour and a half) but well worth the trip.  The food was amazing.  For starters we had a wee sourdough muffin topped with something super delicious out of the garden (I can't quite remember what the topping was).  It was served with their Kinfolk Cuvee which was very decent as far as bubbles go (I'm not a massive bubbles fan).

Next was the garden plate. On the plate is lovely fresh cows curd, topped with fennel which has been marinated in the whey left over from making the curd, a bunch of fresh herbs and salad greens and some pomegranate seeds for a bit of crunch.  Delicious. I was in foodie heaven at this point and we'd barely started.  This course was served with the Wildings Vermentino which was okay.   A bit light on flavour for our palate but not a bad wine. 

Next came sour dough bread (not as good as R's it has to be said) with whipped butter.  

The bread was served with a platter of cold meats, all from animals grown on the farm, and two devilled eggs.  The waitress said, it's before her time but she understands that devilled eggs were popular in the 70s.  That made us feel our age for sure!!  Anyway, the platter doesn't look exciting but every mouth full was just sublime.  The salami was so soft it barely required chewing.  And all of the meats were packed full of flavour.  The platter was served with the Kinfolk Chardonnay which was underwhelming (we much preferred the food to the wine it has to be said). 

The final savour course was slow roasted lamb (yum!) served with pumpkin which came with a macadamia pesto spiced with harissa and topped with some more of that yummo marinated fennel. There were also roasted potatoes which came with crispy basil and.....I can't quite remember the "and" but it was very delicious.  The wine was Pinot Noir which is not my favourite style but a very decent Pinot Noir as far as Pinot Noir's go. 

Dessert was poached pear clafoutis. Oh but this was so delicious.  The pear was beautifully tender and delicately flavoured.  The pudding was light and fluffy and not too sweet.  All helped along by a dollop of proper cream and highlighted with some flowers.   Washed down with a Kerfuffle Archers Drop this was a truly delicious dessert.

We finished the meal off with a nice strong coffee.  Which we enjoyed in one of their seats under the vines outside.  All in all it was a truly fabulous way to start off our holidays.  It's not the cheapest meal out for sure but quality wise, it's one of the best we've had for ages.  

Gosh, looking at the pictures makes me want to go back there again.  Maybe in Winter to see what the new season brings.