Lucky week

Our friend Jennie celebrated a birthday this week - made even more remarkable by her surviving a head on collision on the Barton Highway at the start of the week - with NO damage to herself or Wayne (the car was a different matter). Jennie is an excellent driver and a very cool operator - and an absolute dynamo in the vineyard and other places.

She picked Podfood at Pialligo for her birthday celebration, mostly on the strength of its excellent wine list. With temperatures dropping  on Friday and rain falling steadily by early evening it looked to be a quiet night at Podfood (until we arrived anyway).

The wine offerings were exceptional (although it took AGES for choices to be made) and the menu was thoughtfully devised and beautifully prepared. We were all VERY impressed. The stand out wine for us was the 2010 Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay (from the Adelaide Hills) although the 2008 Vinea Marson Nebbiolo from Heathcote in Victoria was pretty special too.

I went through the whole menu - all three courses and ate (and drank) all of my adults only affogato; house made vanilla bean ice-cream, espresso coffee and Frangelico liqueur (although Rob had a few mouthfuls of this too). I regretted the combination somewhat at 4.30am the next morning!

With the rain cleared and everything washed clean and green we spent most of today in the back garden, lifting and stacking hundreds of pavers in readiness for the landscaping we're having done over the next month or so.

Rob will build a pergola over the where the old paving was (and then the paving will be renewed) and a new area of paving will be laid under our pretty crab apple tree.
 

AND Rob mowed our lawn for the first time in many months. It is Spring indeed!!

And the Dendrobium orchids are looking their best at the moment. They must thrive on neglect because I am not very nurturing of them!