We've been here at the Burke and Wills Winery in Victoria with our hosts Andrew and Heather Patterson for three days now and it's been quite an eye opening experience. Burke and Wills are probably Austalia's best known and least successful explorers, who came to a sticky end quite near here, more of that some other time. Andrew is Vin's sponsor here in Australia and a fine winemaker, musical entrepreneur and along with his charming wife Heather are wonderful hosts. We have been fortunate enough to arrive at a time when his brother Michael is here. We've been out Kangaroo spotting, had supper at the local bar in Heathcote and had a Barby which was held in our honour with all Andrew and Heathers friends and neighbours. Keith Potger of the Seekers was one of the guests and was a well known singer over here called Martin Pearson. It turned out to be a fantastic evening, superb food, great company, magnificent wine and Australian Champagne from the Burke and Wills Estate We were all asked to sing for our supper. I have to report that Vin's healthy low fat regime has flown out the window, he's had Bar-B- Que Beef on Weetabix, Lamb Chops in Muesli and high alcohol fermented grape smoothies, all in the name of healthy eating. He does his best!!! To prevent under arm fungal infections caused by the heat, Vin has taken to wearing a clove of garlic under each arm pit, he now eats on his own, well down wind!! We have seen a number of magnificent Wedge Tailed Eagles flying around, hundreds of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, an Echidna in the middle of the road, which is a marsupial Ant Eater and lots of beautiful Eastern Rosella's which are crimson parrots.
We are actually living in our own little house just down the Burke and Wills Track with a lovely couple called John and Marilyn, they also own a vineyard, in fact Vineyards are scattered all around us, we now have a new daily duty which is to sample as much of the local wine as possible. Last night John & Marilyn cooked us a superb steak and salad supper washed down with his award winning Riesling and a bottle of his superb Champagne. Once again we sang for our supper as we looked out at a wonderful sunset across their fields of Olives and Vines, there has to be a song there somewhere! It's a hard life on the road!
We leave this little corner of heaven to travel to Vin's first Festival booking at Port Fairy which is 200 miles down on the Victoria coast. There is a monsoon heading that way at the weekend, but all is not lost Vin has managed to find an Op Shop (Charity Shop) with a couple of high class waterproofs left over from the Goldrush in 1880. The paid us to take them away.
One piece of bad news from home, my lovely Julie managed to break her wrist on Tuesady, she fell off a ladder while pruning the Wisteria in the back garden, sorry about that baby, we're thinking about you, hope it heals quickly.
We are actually living in our own little house just down the Burke and Wills Track with a lovely couple called John and Marilyn, they also own a vineyard, in fact Vineyards are scattered all around us, we now have a new daily duty which is to sample as much of the local wine as possible. Last night John & Marilyn cooked us a superb steak and salad supper washed down with his award winning Riesling and a bottle of his superb Champagne. Once again we sang for our supper as we looked out at a wonderful sunset across their fields of Olives and Vines, there has to be a song there somewhere! It's a hard life on the road!
We leave this little corner of heaven to travel to Vin's first Festival booking at Port Fairy which is 200 miles down on the Victoria coast. There is a monsoon heading that way at the weekend, but all is not lost Vin has managed to find an Op Shop (Charity Shop) with a couple of high class waterproofs left over from the Goldrush in 1880. The paid us to take them away.
One piece of bad news from home, my lovely Julie managed to break her wrist on Tuesady, she fell off a ladder while pruning the Wisteria in the back garden, sorry about that baby, we're thinking about you, hope it heals quickly.
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