Sunday, September 25, 2011

The longest birthday

I have a month of celebrations ahead of me. It started with the assembly of the newly delivered swing set on Thursday; very necessary for a girl my age, especially for sharing with my busy grand-daughter.

Friday night we celebrated with my "Red group" friends with drinks at the Hyatt Hotel. Then today it was a wonderful long lunch with J, J & E at the biodynamic Lark Hill Winery Restaurant about 6klm outside Bungendore, south of Lake George on Bungendore Road.

The weather turned wintry this weekend, but the Spring buds on these North facing vines were clearly there (though not too clear in this photo unfortunately!).

We loved our long lunch together: a very seasonal menu, all locally sourced and carefully prepared with Lark Hill wines to match. That's Jody's ocean trout on the right of the picture below. The rest of us tucked into Angus beef tagliate with truffled cauliflower au gratin - delicious.


The dessert menu was small - but it did include chocolate!


Lark Hill Winery is in a gorgeous spot with great views North over the vineyards, with happy, plump chooks wandering around the bush gardens - a very interesting environment for Ella to enjoy between courses.

We took our time over lunch and didn't leave until around 4.00pm.



I felt very blessed to receive this beautiful birthday card (with an amazing drawing of me by Ella) and a special silver and amethyst pendant necklace - especially chosen by Ella and her Mummy - ("the Gingerbread Man" by jeweller, Christine Pyman) - gifts that are SO special and memorable for me and which will remain close to my heart always!!



Spring really makes its presence felt for my birthday month. The bluebells are flowering now in amongst the hellebores, the azaleas are bursting forth and my orchids are looking amazing (I really did grow this one; I didn't just pick it up this week from the florist).

So far I've planted baby spinach, thyme, lettuce, basil, sage, coriander and parsley in my new herb garden. Ella is always my very keen assistant with the watering can.

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