In what is becoming a  yearly tradition, we headed up the Calder to the Charlton House for Charlton Show weekend.

Leaving just before 6:00am on Saturday with a lounge suite loaded in the new trailer, roof pod filled with clothes and other miscellaneous items for the weekend and car loaded with three adults and a dog, we had a good run and arrived around 9:45am

This gave us plenty of time to unload, inspect the fruit trees we planted last trip and attend to some miscellaneous chores before heading off to the show.

As has been the case on the last few trips, I started up the ride on and mowed the grass whilst Shirleen visited Mum to reclaim the EasyKneel mum borrowed so she could comfortably tend to our now flourishing rose garden. Emily, who made the trip up with us isn’t used to early mornings and long drives so decided to put her head down for a rest before we headed off to the show. Grass mowing was quicker this trip as growth has slowed considerably with the warmer and dryer weather and it wasn’t long before mowing and brush-cutting were finished.

After a ham roll for lunch we headed off to the showgrounds where we had a lovely afternoon inspecting the various craft, photographic, food and flower displays, and visiting the animal displays, tractor pull and sheep dog trials in the main arena. I really liked the sheepdog trials but was a little disappointed that not one of them was found guilty!

Heading back home after a couple of hours, Shirleen and Emily continued stripping paint of the skirting boards and dado panels whilst I started filling holes where I had re-nailed all the trim in the study. We were initially planning on painting the dado however, Emily did such a great job of stripping the paint to reveal beautiful golden toned Baltic pine, that we decided to completely strip the boards down to raw timber and varnish rather than paint. Thanks Em!

At around 6:00pm we returned to the show for pizza and beer, but decided not to stay for the fireworks, which we watched from the verandah at home.

Sunday was earmarked to spread the pea straw which was delivered during the week around the fruit trees and roses and attend to a few more odd jobs (like fitting a draught strip to the front door) and before long it was the time we always dread… pack up and go home time.

The weekend went far too quickly and we are looking forward to annual leave over Melbourne Cup week where our 9 day stay will still be too short!

Roses Blooming

Who needs a rake when you have a dog to pick up the grass clippings

Baltic Dado

One of our beautiful roses