Although I had a couple of lone visits to the Charlton House in recent weeks, it had been a while since we had both visited, and we were looking forward to this trip.
We had planned to transplant the roses from our Somerville garden to Charlton this weekend so whilst Shirleen took Matthew for a MRI on his injured ankle on Friday morning, I started digging up the roses and wrapping them on wet paper towel for the trip to Charlton later in the day.
As we had to pick up some split system compressor units on the way, we decided to take the ute rather than the Volkswagen, given the the trailer would be carrying considerable extra weight. This meant Skylar had to stay home this trip, and it was a very sad puppy dog we left behind, but an excited one we came home to.
After a detour from our usual route to load up the compressors we finally hit the Calder around 2:30pm stopping at the outbound service centre for a bite to eat and again at Ravenswood for a toilet break, as well as to check that our trailer load was secure.
Arriving at Charlton shortly before 6:00 to plummeting temperatures, we decided to unload only the essentials and complete the rest the following day (not that Saturday morning was any warmer…)
After a brisk walk into town first thing Saturday to put on my lotto tickets, the trailer was unloaded and after a walk around the grounds to inspect the citrus trees we set about preparing the front “diamond” garden for the rose plants. A few hours, several barrows of weeds and a whole lot of effort later, we had a rose garden planted complete with (temporary) automatic watering system.
After a short rest Shirleen continued on from her previous work stripping paint from the dado and skirting boards in the entrance hall whilst I started preparing the study for the same treatment, starting with the re-nailing of all the plaster strapping, picture rails and other trim, and sanding some of the flaking paint from over the fireplace.
Around 4:30 we finished for the day, showered, and sauntered up the road to dear friends Ross and Peggy’s for five o’clock drinks followed by dinner at the East Charlton Hotel.
After a sleep-in Sunday morning we harvested citrus fruit from both our orange and Philip and Janet’s lime trees then started packing up for the trip home.
Looking forward to our next trip which will be the 2nd anniversary of our first visit as owners of The Charlton House. In that time we have done an amazing amount of work but in some ways have still only scratched the surface.
Roll on the next two years!
