We didn’t have anything special planned for the week, so we got to enjoy being at Lou’s place and Margaret’s place. It was nice to “be home,” hang out, do a little work around the property with Lou and with Margaret, and just generally relax and have fun.
On Monday, Margaret, Clare and Daniel came for dinner and they all surprised Christine and me with a Happy Anniversary (a day early) celebration with a lovely pavlova. February 14, 2023 we are 42 years together and it was so very nice for our anniversary to be recognized.
After dinner, we enjoyed playing UNO, which was great fun. We hadn’t known about UNO until Eve turned us on to the card game when we last visited her in December. Come to find out, the whole Caruana clan grew up playing UNO. It was one of Bice’s (Lou’s mother) favorite games.
Tuesday we helped with some yard work. Christine has gotten into clipping and pruning Lou’s rose bushes and other shrubbery. Lou loves roses and he has several rose bushes around his property. I swept the verandahs and driveway after Lou mowed and weed whacked. Lou keeps busy every day feeding and caring for his birds, watering the garden, and mowing. The weather has been quite hot this week, in the 90s daily, so we have to be careful not to do too much in the hot sun.
Wednesday was shopping in Mudgee. Margaret, with two ladies in tow, picked us up for the drive to Mudgee. We were meeting Clare there as she was delivering two young goats to a buyer, and also had some lab work scheduled. One of the kids was one of the triplets that our namesake goat Christine had a couple of months ago. We met the buyer in the carpark of the lovely old Mudgee train station.
When we returned home, Lou and I moved Wally into his new home, a much larger cage that had housed 3 other ringnecks in the garage. Lou moved those three ringnecks into the aviary cage with Oliver, Olivia, and Angel. Wally was in a smaller cage that limited his ability to flap his wings and fly a bit, so a larger cage was necessary. Lou was a little nervous about both bird moves because not long ago he lost a bird that escaped while Lou was trying to move him. So at least with Wally, we planned carefully for the move. Wally was a little nervous about leaving his cage, but the enticement of some peanuts in Lou’s hand in his new home finally lured him. Once in the new cage, Wally seemed quite happy and he spent the rest of the day exploring his new home. Lou has been spending time sitting by his cage and talking to him. Banjo isn’t too keen on that and keeps coming over to Lou for attention. We all like seeing the new cage out on the side verandah. It’s an elegant-looking cage and we can see Wally while we sit at the dining table.
Thursday was one of the hottest days, 95+, so none of us did very much other than stay indoors with the AC on.
We do take our walk to the cafe most mornings, which we really enjoy. It’s a nice walk into town along the road bordering a golf course. The views across the course are really beautiful. I’ve never seen anyone playing golf on the course, but I have seen some guys unloading their golf carts, so it must get used. During the week the cafe is a stopping place for many workers getting their morning brew with some brekkie (breakfast). Some other regulars stop in, several with dogs, so we all go on about our pets. Banjo is a magnet for folks. He gets petted a lot. On the weekends, the customers are mostly tourists, holiday-goers, who stop on their way through Rylstone. There is a town caravan park between Lou’s house and the cafe, so we suspect that many of the weekenders may be camped at the caravan park or are staying in one of the two small hotels along the main street.
Friday evening we were invited to Margaret’s for dinner. Tonight was Clare’s turn to prepare the meal and she made pork kodon, a Japanese dish with pork, rice, and egg. It was delicious. We said to Clare and Daniel that anytime they wanted to come to America, they could be our chefs. Both are excellent cooks.
Clare then showed us some of her costume creations and artwork. She is one very talented artist! Both she and Daniel are creative and artistic and they make the most amazing things. Clare is also running a specialty cake business and is a very skilled cake decorator. The costume below was very elaborate with lights that changed color and loads of emblems, symbols and lettering.
Her drawings and portraiture are fantastic. We wish and hope that she will get further training because we think she’d have a great future in the art world or in costuming. This picture below is a side-by-side photo and drawing that Clare did. Half is a photo, and half is her drawing. Pretty amazing!
We then played UNO again, continuing our game from Monday night. It was lots of fun and everyone laughed and had a good time. Clare won, having not lost a single round. Sorry, Christine, I didn’t notice that I didn’t get you in the photo.
Saturday Lou and I went to Margaret’s to help finish the concrete job we started last month. I am happy that the project got finished and that Margaret will be able to move her new plastic water tank onto the pad. I must say, Clare and Margaret are really hard workers!
Lou then mowed Margaret’s grass, which worried me, as it was 90+ with hot sun and he’d already been out in the sun with the concrete job. But that wasn’t the end of the work. When we got back home, we went to work on extending the aviary roof to create a bit of a veranda that enabled more shade for the birds. Lou had planned it out using brackets that he had and some metal sheets. We had taken some rebar and a bit of timber from Margaret’s to use as well. I found some PVC pipe in his shed that we also used. It was one of those projects where you use what you can find and try to make it work. And, Lou was actually successful in getting it done. The birds have a little more shade and the apples and fruit that he sticks in the wire to feed the birds is more protected and will stay fresher longer out of the sun.
After dinner we watched a big storm approach. The clouds were ominous, but then the storm clouds turned pink and orange. The orangeness was a bit concerning because it looked a bit like fire. As you recall, the Australian bushfires of late 2019 were horrific and so lightening storms are worrisome here. We could see lightening and hear thunder off in the distance but the bulk of the storm skirted around us. We had been hoping for some rain as it has been very hot and dry the past few weeks. It did rain just a bit, but not enough. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in just a few minutes. We all were sitting inside at one point and Lou said, “I smell smoke.” We all jumped up and went outside, where the smoke smell was quite prevalent. We ran around the house and looked up and down the block and off across the back paddock, but we didn’t see any flames anywhere, thank God. We don’t know where the smoke smell came from. When Christine and I were getting into bed later, we smelled smoke again, but didn’t see any cause. We still don’t know what caused the smoke smell, and it was alarming for a bit. All the photos below were taken over the course of only about 6 minutes, so you can see the sky went from dark and ominous to pink and orange and very angry-looking.
This morning we awoke to another fine day that felt fresh and clear. Below is the view from the top of Lou’s driveway looking over the neighbor’s house.
It has been a very nice week and we are loving being here.