Glannant

Peter's 1st & Madison's 3rd

Sunday the 23rd July 2006. Peter Xegas turned 1 on Friday and Madison turns 3 on Monday.
A collection of Peter and Madisons' best friends and relos turned up at the West Pymble Bicentennial Park for a Sunday morning romp in the sandpit and some good food and plenty of presents. The 1st sunny day for a week and the place was full of kids at many different birthday parties. Competition was fierce for table so we had to bags a table at 8.30 in the morning for a 10 am start. A fine time was had by all.

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Xegas Family Christening

The Xegas family led by proud mum Christine and dad Chris celebrated the christening of baby Peter Harold Xegas today with a baptism at the Knox Chapel followed by a brunch at the Xegas household. Grandparents ,relatives and friends gathered to wet the baby's head. New Godfather, Andy Reeve flew in from Singapore and joined new Godmother Cassy Butler in wishing the baby well. Baby Peter was non plussed by all the attention and gurgled his way through the ceremony. The table groaned with food and a good time was had by all.

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Tasmania. Feb 2006

In February we drove down to Melbourne with our friends John and Sonya. We drove in our new[old] Landcruiser and John and Sonya used their Landcruiser with their Cavalier camper trailer. We caught the Spirit of Tasmania in Melbourne and sailed overnight to Devonport.

After disembarking we drove to Launceston were we hired a camper trailer to go behing our vehicle. We then toured over to the east coast and spent several pleasant nights at Stumpy Bay , a great campsite just on the beach with pristine but cold waters. From there we journeyed down the east coast and caught the ferry over to Bruny Island where we spent another couple of days. It was actually quite cold considering it was the middle of summer.

When we returned to the mainland we ventured onto the infamous Jeffreys Track which links the Huon Valley with the Derwent Valley. This track climbs up the backside of Mount Wellington and is extremely steep and rocky. It is rated as 'medium' by the 4wd experts but I wouldnt want to tackle one deemed hard.It took all day to reach New Norfolk despite the modest distance. We were exhausted.

Kept moving over to the west coast. Abandoned the camper trailers at Queenstown for the night as it was pissing down.

Travelled over to Strachan and then over the Pieman river and up the Wilderness explorer to Arthur River where we spent several days camped in the same spot that Jan and I camped in 1999. From there we drove to Stanley and climbed the Nut [ chairlift for the infirm] and admired the view. Continued on our round trip,back on the boat, got lost in Melbourne, found the Sydney road and non stop to Mudgee. The Landcruiser averaged around 14l/100k which is not bad considering the low range work and the towing. We are sold on camper trailers and are looking to buy one.

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KMFC 1958-62. A blast from the past

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Were Baack

Watch this space...returning soon with an all new look !!!!!!!

April at Glannant

Weve had a busy, rewarding, frustrating and most pleasurable week down on the farm.

The wine is still gurgling away in the oak casks as we look towards the olives which is all that we have left to harvest. We have welcomed a visiting 'expert' who informed us that we have a large quantity of oil producing olives so for the first time Glannant should be the fine producer of olive oil.

We decided to spend this week inside the house, and Di and Sarah came over from Dubbo for Wednesday, and get a few tasks completed, not the least one being, the dining room floor. With he help of Peter Polman who happened to be visiting, all the vile grey lino was lifted, then the layer of masonite to reveal, alas, not beautiful boards like the old kitchen, but a mismatch of boards, in colour, history and in stages of ' rottenness'. It meant a new floor. We tried the local timber yards without success so jumped in the car, back to Sydney, bought the material and back to Mudgee. Guy then laid ad estapoled the floor and we moved the furniture back in on Saturday just before the arrival of Chris and Madison and the Kaleskis X 5 (click on the photos to get the whole slide show). We had a great time with our large family over the weekend.

Thanks John for all the help especially with the wood heap that we just didnt get to. We had some lovely evenings watching the sun set and moon rise from under the pear tree while we sipped on a glass or two. The little girls fed the horses and Mrs Brown and her mates produced a few delicious eggs. Memphis and Madison had a competition as to who would get to her water bowl first!

bringing in the harvest

Down on the farm has been a busy place to be. 3 weeks ago Richard and Helen were coaxed into spending the weekend with us. At the moment they arrived at Mudgee, they drove to the Poets Corner Vineyard and joined us in the picking of all the shiraz grapes left by the harvesters. It took about 5 hours with enormous support from Kevin and his family. We elected 3pm to be quitting time - and the call to stop was ignored by no one. By this time we had the back of our truck and Kevin's trailer filled.

Saturday morning I decided to take Helen into town to have morning tea at a gorgeous little place that has recently opened - The Country Store and when we got back they were all in our vineyard - there were still not enough grapes to fill both new casks! Helen and I, somewhat reluctantly, got into it with them.

The rest of the afternoon was spent putting them through the crusher and into the large plastic vats where they would sit for a week - with Kevin pushing the 'must' down morning and evening until we got back.

The following weekend was quite laborious as we strained all the liquid out from the pressing and poured it into the casks. This took all of 2 days but it is now down and we should have about 933 bottles of shiraz in 12 months time. Grapes look magnificant at a baume of 15 which should equate to a big red next year. We certainly owe Richard and Helen and Kevin who, hopefully, will share it with us.

March down on the Farm

Its a very special time on the farm at the moment, as it always is of course as the grapes are swelling and almost ready to be picked. We just hope that the birds don't see it the same way, but fingers crossed - they all seem to be fine sofar.

We also seem to have a huge amount of figs which we simply can't pick and he birds are enjoying those - just how much fig jam can we make!

We had a great weekend with Lucy and Sam and its hard to believe that Lucy is 30.