Olives.

A The journey from Ballarat this morning took us through Cresswick then Smeaton (the surname of our good neighbours in Cash Grove, we were thinking of you Luke, Linda, Jas and Josh) past some dry dams and a few volcanic looking hills which broke up the predominately flat landscape, although we did struggle up a few steep sections…….I think I can….. I think I can…….. We arrived at Liz and Kens property at lunchtime. Liz Sardone was my Dad’s second wife and we have kept in touch over the years. Her partner Ken’s jazz band played at our wedding party, he is a great trumpeter and a very nice guy. He carries a trumpet mouth piece in a little leather pouch in his pocket wherever he goes so that he can practice at any time! They bought these 70 acres 6 years ago, planted 20 acres of olive trees and started building their mud brick house while living in a caravan, they are about a month from moving in. Liz has created some great gardens, planted many fruit trees, great apples, a wonderful vege patch, lots of mosaic features and other arty/ crafty things which appear here and there and are quite uplifting. They use 90,000 litres of water each week for the olives and produce about 5 tonnes a year, this will increase as the trees mature and they plant more groves. The shower out the back of the caravan, not far from the thunderbox (Ha, what a great name for an outdoor toilet eh?!) is a work of art. Ken has invented a system where you fill a galvanised rubbish bin with water, stick in an element from an old urn to heat the water up, then use a clever home made winch to lift it up so that the water drains out through a pipe to the shower rose. The kids had a go this evening after our walk down to the dam, great fun. Was a lovely sunset this evening and we noticed that the sheep are not really the same colour as the tall, dry grass at dusk, it is only in the midday sun. At night they appear as darker shapes as the sun is behind them, silhouettes on top of the hill. Grant, the local policeman at Newstead arrived just after we did and had a cup of tea and a bowl of pasta with us as he does once a fortnight-ish. There is not much crime around these parts so he does get to do his own thing a fair bit and when he left he put on the lights and sirens for Jarra. Went for a spin on the four wheel motorbike which was very nice, the wind blowing through what is left of my hair…………