Cafe essential...

We are one step further to open the cafe side :-) My new baby arrived yesterday and makes a potent brew. Ohhh...and you'll love the purple cups :-) It'll be exciting to experiment with all the different coffee brands until I'll find the exact right one/ones. Now we start with a lovely bland for milk-based coffees (my barista experience at Tahune Airwalk tells me that that IS the most popular) but behind the kitchen door -rest assured- there will be much experimental coffee drinking to chose the brands for aficionados. Let me know, when you visit, if you are one of those :-)
The basic menu is also taking shape. It will be influenced by the response you'll give me...
We will be mentioned in another wine guide (I'll tell you about it when it comes out) and one of the question was: what makes you different from the competitors? We ARE different in most ways but I'd like to think that our customer service is, what really differentiates us from the rest.
Jan cleaned the windows last week It is a big job :-) we have soooo many of them...
The swallows hatched their chicks the parents are very busy feeding the brood
And last for this week...a bunch of Baco Noir Even the stem is red for this very rare variety :-)

Good fruit set

The grapes are growing nicely this year. The fruit set was successful thanks to the warm and unusually calm (meaning no howling gales) weather.
It is time shortly to cut the tops off, they are being put under the 3-rd foliage wire right now.
Paul is finalizing the tranches above the septic pipes. This place will be the future berry garden with blackberries, blueberries and raspberries planned.
The kitchen is a dream! :-) even though the cupboard doors are not done yet and the range hood is not fixed. (Who knows how many more days I'll have to wait for the serviceman to bring those parts down?! They suppose to come from Melbourne... you think they would've arrived by now from Europe!)
The Red Hot Pokers are flowering and the honeyeaters are visiting in numbers.

No other news for this week...have a nice relaxing break with family and friends on Australia Day.

Life at the new place

The kitchen is nearing completion..first the overhead shelves were done. They are blackheart Sassafras. Here you still can see my temporary camp cooker :-) The cooking books found their places and then the new cooker was installed. No doors on the cupboards yet but that's not so urgent...
The fire on the green velvet hill over the road is finally extinguished by the welcomed rain. Luckily it was a low intensity fire, only the under-scrub burnt out but it was going on for quiet some days.
We were bottling some 08 Pinot today and I've been promised the palinka labels are coming soon ?! :-)

My professional coffee machine is on it's way down to Tassie (yes, as you know EVERYTHING is coming from the mainland and it takes 2-3 WEEKS to get it) and I have beaut, new tasting glasses.

We had some lovely, young customers this week. I find it always a pleasure to meet those who are just starting to learn about wine appreciation and they are not afraid to ask how to drink it responsibly and what is the difference between how you drink beer, alcopops and wine.

Life is getting now into the normal routine in the new place and we absolutely enjoy sitting out on the back veranda with glasses of wine in our hands :-)
And finally the new additions to the chookyard :-)

Finally online!

Sorry for the looooong absence but Bigpond took its TIME to switch us over to the new house. Nearly a MONTH!!!!! NO COMMENT ! We had fires over the road, the helicopter hovering above us and the incompetent operators instead of trying to find out what's wrong, wanted to sell me a different option EVERY time I've called....
New posts will be coming soon...

Happy New Year !