Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness?

Isn't that Autumn? Yet have a look at these photos. Can you see the mist rising off the squash? The weather has been so weird lately. We consistenly get cold winds. As for fruitfulness, we have been inundated with raspberries from Anna's, so I have been making jam and put down some Framboise - raspberries in brandy - which cant be consumed for eight months yet.

My Christmas dollars have now been spent. Which is just as well as I love shopping, and have a great tendency to buy "just one more thing".

One more week of school, finishing on Tuesday the 7th. I have a pedicure and painted toenails lined up for the Wednesday, as my treat for making it through another year.

Double Dutch

Our theme for race day this year was Doubles. We all took doubles on race 3 and 4 which was very stressful for duncan on the computer, but we did have one guy get over a $100 return on this. We had everyone come dressed as doubles. Duncan and I went as North and South magnets, we had a couple of bikies, two sets of cowboys/girls, and Sitzje and Ineke came in their clogs with little dutch themed scarves. Murray and Shirley came as life guards - even had matching speedos on!!. They have been involved in surf-liesaving for 40 years, so every second race, they disappeared and came back in a different outfit. They missed out on the birthday suit and the wetsuit. One was too bulky to bring, and the otherone wasn't.

From our back yard to theirs.

In our back yard we have a whole heap of gewurztraminer. Its clone is Colmar 456. So when we decided to go to France next year it seemed only logical that we explore the wine district of Colmar. Its in Alsace Lorraine - a region which has a bit of an identity crisis as it has been French, but invaded by so many other armies throughout the centuries. We hope to spend 3 days there followed by a day in the bigger city of Strasbourg. Their national dish is sauerkraut, but the buildings look very Swiss. They also grow quite a bit of Pinot gris as they are close to Italy, and the hot dry weather allows them to ripen Tokay - which we normally get from Australia! Should be interesting.

We are using a travel broker instead of a travel agent this time and it seems that for people who sort of know what they want this has been so for a very positive change. We have been alarmed by the number of seats already booked on the planes, but all is in place and we should be confirmed by the end of the week.