I Had A Dream

I had a dream last night, as I do most nights. In my dream the Demons won the premiership. Then I realized it wasn't a dream.

But seriously, I did dream last night. As usual, I could remember little of it, about all I could remember was that a bloke I knew many years ago, Milton Lilburne, was in it, and, in the dream, I was looking at some old kiwi fruit vines he'd pruned hard. Now I haven't seen or heard of Milton for maybe 25 years so why he should be in my dream I don't know.

Milton, an ex Kiwi, had a kiwi fruit farm at Avonsleigh. He bought it from an old bloke named McClean, who had it as an established plantation way back in 1973. When we planted Kiwi fruit in 73 at Chamomile Farm in one of our early escapades we were told of McClean's orchard by the Dept of Ag horticulture advisor (Harold Marshall was his name...gee my memory surprises me) from Knoxfield. Kiwi fruit were a novelty back then. My father Lyle had some discussion with McClean, I think they got on OK. I did most of the grunt work in 73 putting up the trellis, then pulling them out many years later when we needed the ground for other things.

When I came back from Wangaratta in 1981 I kept bees as a sideline and Milton approached me to put bees in his kiwis for pollination. I did this one or two years, then the next year I think I'd reduced my hive numbers so I put Milton onto Redpath's Beeline Apiaries who either provided the bees or arranged someone else. I regarded Milton as a friend, he'd pop in to the farm with his wife. They both worked at Monash University, Milton a lecturer in law, his specialty was contracts. He was about 50? and I recall him drinking a can of beer at his orchard quite early in the morning.

As I lay awake this morning a whole heap of memories flooded back from the years at the farm, including the above. I couldn't think of Milton's wife's name for a while but it did come to me. Christine. I think she was a second wife, a good bit younger than Milton. As I write it has come to me that during the time I knew them Christine gave birth to a boy, named Wilson if I'm correct. He'd be about the same age as our boys now. None of this may be accurate. Later they bought a house and some acres on the old Emerald Rd on the way to Monbulk, just north of the creek at Butterfield Park. None of this matters but I'm excited by the memory of it and am pleased to write it down. They were looking for things to grow as foliage or other ideas. I suggested they plant euc pulverulenta along their fence and they did.

When I entered a contract with Australian Herb Supplies (originally Melbourne HS) in the late 1980's which gave them exclusive rights for 10 years to our produce, for a sum, there was in the contract, that AHS had to buy a minimum $amount each year. AHS had the contract drawn up by solicitors Klieger, Katz and something and when I was telling Milton about it, after I'd signed, he asked to see it. I showed him and he pointed out that the problem with that minimum clause was that I'd be left doing all the hard stuff they couldn't easily get elsewhere. That is exactly what happened, in pretty quick time. He also said it was a shabby document that was full of holes if challenged and frankly wasn't worth the paper it was written on. I had this is mind when things didn't go well, and found other customers. AHS continued as a customer for a couple of decades in cordiality, no-one mentioning the contract. Funnily, in the Herald Sun a year or two later I read that solicitor Katz was up for murdering someone. Don't know how that ended. AHS sold to a big NSW company several years back. They bought from us for a few months then wanted a supplier contract signed with stipulations about guaranteeing supply or something so we said no thanks and never heard from them again.

So I lay in bed thinking back over all this, and many other things, and people, from that era. When I got up and saw our Demon friend, my thoughts were very much with florist Ben who gave it to me.

For many years Ben came to the farm and bought posies and foliage, maybe 48 weeks a year. He was Jewish, his shop I think was in Balaclava area. He was probably our favourite customer through the 90's, so pleasant and reliable, always payed happily without question. He was a big footy fan, he followed Nth Melbourne. I can't remember his surname. He knew Joe Gutnick who was president of the MFC and very high profile at the time. Nth Melbourne had a strong team winning flags in 96 and 99. Around that time I gave Ben an LP record of the 1977 Grand Final replay (North won) by 3KZ, with the commentary by Ian Major and Jack Dyer, which I'd purchased at the time. I figured he'd get more pleasure from it than me. He was rapt. The next week he turned up with that Demon carving which I've had since. Being a bit of an entrepreneur he'd commissioned a guy in Bali, where he went every year, to make these things in AFL club colours. He had prototypes of most teams and was intending to have them produced in big numbers to sell in Australia, but the AFL said no he couldn't do it, to do with licensing or something. The Balinese guy was a bit confused with gridiron Ben said, hence the ball in the right hand raised to throw.

To end the Ben story, he died of oesophageal cancer in a few short months after diagnosis about ten years ago.

We have some great Demon stuff made by our friend Owen Murray.  A lead light candle surround, ceramic shields and other inlaid glass window hangers. I don't have to dream about a Melbourne premiership anymore. It's reality. We have plenty of reminders, and the finals and other games recorded. Not sick of watching them yet. 

New TV aerial

 Last night I watched two old fave movies on the new 55 inch TV that Lib and Gord bought. They were "In the Heat of the Night" and "Once upon a time in America". They were on at the same time so I decided to watch ITHOTNight, seeing I had to choose one, and I reckon the first half hour or so of it is brilliant, and OUaTiAmerica is a very long movie. I switched during ad breaks back and forth and the two finished almost together after midnight. Having seen the movies multiple times in the past and knowing the plot, it was easy to switch with the ads and enjoy them both. They contain some great scenes and dialogue, and in the case of the OnceUaTiA, the music is hauntingly beautiful.

We've had this TV a couple of weeks and I had to get a TV antenna man to set it up in our lounge/theatre room. I hadn't been in a hurry to get a TV and connection prior to this because when we moved in the TV we brought with us wouldn't pick up signal from the aerial connection in the wall in the family room and I had an antenna man come and he put a booster on the old aerial and ran a connection to a point in Gord's room. This cost us $440, which seemed a bit steep to me, but no matter we needed a working TV. Channel 7 reception still broke down in the evening sometimes (we're in a bit of a reception hollow we were told), but Foxtell worked OK and most of our viewing was satellite. The man said if we still had trouble we'd need a new aerial, cost maybe $1000, so I was in no hurry.

When L and G bought the new TV it was time to move. I thought I'd try a different antenna guy, not because I was unhappy with the previous, but the thinking was a second opinion would be worthwhile as I'd already had one estimate. The new guy was someone who had been recommended to Gord by the lady who runs his mindfulness class. To cut the story short this guy came back three days after my initial call, having paid a visit to see the same day I called. He installed a new aerial on the existing big pole attached to the house and tuned in the new TV, total cost $295.

I gave him $320 cash, said the extra was goodwill. I told him the other bloke said maybe $1000 or upwards. He told me he knows that guy well, he's semi-retired and deliberately charges high because he can, and only needs a few jobs a week to do well.

So there you go, it pays to get more than one quote. 

The Lemon Tree

We had lemon trees at Gembrook and it was always a pleasant thing, to go out and a pick a lemon, or several, whenever they were needed. Also I supplied my friend Ralphie for some years and after Maria left her farm and moved into Emerald I regularly took her lemons. To me it's comforting to look out the window to a tree laden with lemons. If for seasonal reasons lemons were a scarce on my trees there were a few mature ones at the farm and I had friends with trees.

When we moved to McCracken I was well aware our house had no lemon tree. After seeing the price of of them in shops over the years I was resigned to paying high to get lemons. So one of the first things we did after the unpacking and organizing was to find a nursery and buy a lemon tree. We bought a 'Eureka' and left it in its pot on our concrete patio, against the house, over winter. It blew over a few times in strong winds and I was itching to get it in the ground. We planted it late August, when I hoped danger of frost biting the new growth had passed.

It now stands in pride of place behind where the large sycamore was before we had it removed, a nice sunny position. Lib has made a garden around it with blocks and I've planted some thyme, sage, oregano, chives and garlic chives, and mint at the back, in the hope that these will thrive in the years it will take for the lemon tree to obtain size.  

 

       The pot obscures the lemon tree but this pic shows the garden. The garlic in the pot in the foreground seems to be doing well. I planted them in a pot in April, having brought some bulbs from Gembrook, and not having any place yet organized in the garden for them. I also planted some mint we brought with us in the pot left of the garlic and it's jumping now with the warmer weather. The other is silver beet I planted at the same time. That big Chinese pot we brought with us, now standing on the stump of the removed sycamore. Thousands of baby sycamore seedlings are coming up everywhere but they're easily weeded. Not in the pic but I have parsley, basil, dill and coriander coming up in pots. Behind the lemon tree, if you look closely you can see a tomato staked beside the fence.

We are enjoying this early gardening. In the foreground of the pic below is Gord's osmanthus that he brought. That section was there already as a garden but was dominated by arum lillies, grasses, and agapanthus which we removed. Lib wanted a path through it hence the pavers and we planted two purple hop bushes on the fence, a red cordyline, a bangalay palm, a mandarin, an eriostemon (now known as philotheca) and a small tree/shrub whose name escapes me but it supposedly has fragrant flowers in summer. This area is much a work in progress, we'll have to see what does well and prune and discover as we learn our new environment. In this lower shot you can see a planter box at the back. There are three of these, for annual herbs and vegies as the season goes. The beech tree is in the middle of the grassed area, but has not yet shot to leaf. It'll be an interesting first season. I planted some pumpkin seeds in pots in August and yesterday planted the seedlings, which were doing well, outside in the gully yesterday where they can be rampant (if they grow, I'm dubious about the soil out there).