sunset

the days are starting to get a little longer. this at 5.30 pm

Squiffy Island

We have Squiffy Island back. Need a bit more rain to make it look good. Cootamundra Wattle getting fully blown, Golden (Pycantha) Wattle a little behind.

Shortbread really!

Sally making wheat free shortbread. Mmmmm

Sally's Shortbread

Lloyd Gollop and David Jones at Lewie's party in Ballaarat. Great night! '05 Dalwhinnie Chardonnay, '86 Redbank Cabernet and '88 Sally's Paddock.

Pelican

,
Nice dinner for one off the bar at Pelican, Fitzroy St. St Kilda. This is Mike the friendly Sommelier/Barkeep. Good fun place.

Bendigo

The lovely WineBank building in Bendigo. Great collection of wines. (Including ours).

Burning off

Burning off heaps of wattle regrowth all weekend.

Heading home

Getting back from Melbourne to redbank on Friday night. Interesting sky over the Pyrenees. This photo taken from Quoin Hill.

Planting olives

Some of the olives were mixed up with thhe Oak trees and not doing so well, so transplanted to site below big dam wall. Muddy! Turned out they are Sevillano, so happy to realize we have more eating olives than I thought.

Wattle

The Cootamundra Wattle is starting to flower. Note full dam behind. Been having a lot of rain.

Tasting 09s

They are all beautiful, but it is still serious business tasting this year's vintage wines. The Pinot Noirs will need a bit of work.

Blending

Sash and Scotty heavily involved in a trial blend for the 2008 Sally's Paddock. Looks good.

Mick the Pruner

The loneliness of the long distance pruner. The iPod helps I suppose.

View

Fixing a blind in the cottage I notice the view from the balcony is as good as we say it is.

Chooks

Have three new Isa Brown chooks. Fresh eggs soon.

Olives

Putting up some of the 2007 vintage olives into jars. The rest are still in brine but will go for Tapenade.

Chester

Chester ,
the Redbank Winery horse, don't mind to see the rain.