We gave ourselves a day off today because it has been 36 degrees for the last couple of days and the house renovations have been hard work. So we took ourselves off to the Hunter Valley for the day and thank goodness we did because it actually reached 40 in the end. It is less than an hour from us and easier to get around than the wine regions I have visited in France. There are loads of wineries one after another in quite a compact area (by Australian standards). Most of them run tours and they are all very generous with the wine tastings.
We went on a tour at the First Creek winery but the most interesting one we visited was the Drayton Family Winery. The chap who started it was a farm hand who came over from Lincolnshire in 1835, his wife and two of his children died on the voyage and he was left alone with a four year old and a new born baby. Undeterred he set off for the Hunter Valley, planted a vineyard and built a winery. How did he manage that? And how did he know what to do or where to do it? The early settlers really were made of much sterner stuff than us!
In the picture of the vines you will see a rose bush at the end of each row. This is an early warning device, if there are any nasty bugs around that will damage the vines - the rose cops it first, the same principle as the canary down the mine.
Got the good news today that Zoe and Shaun have arrived safely back in Melbourne so hopefully we should see them quite soon.
Looks like we could be in for a thunderstorm later, there were bush fires in Adelaide and Perth last week but today every state except Tasmania has fllood warnings and someone has already drowned........Dangerous place Australia!