Lazy Sunday.......

Well it may have been lazy, but it was a lot of fun!  All met at Tracey and Brendans for bacon sarnies, to find Tracey had done the full English!! With tea and orange juice too!  Good girl.  So we all sat down in the garden, soaking up the sunshine and stuffing our faces.  Then we piled into 2 cars (driven by Carrie and Mandy, thank you so much!!) and headed off for one of South Australia's well known wine regions, McLaren Vale.

I had been given the task of picking out some vineyards to go to and had used the age old method of choosing the ones with interesting names (works for me at the Grand National.....)

So as we turned into the road for the first one, we stopped before we go there at a little place that advertised beer tastings too.  Lead the way.....

We sat and had a selection on 5 beers, one of which was a magnificent dark ale at 8.8%!!  And blood handsome it was too!  There was a Ginger Ale and a Honey One, along with Wheat and a 50/50 but the dark ale was the winner.  Then we moved onto a selection of wines, probably 6 in all.  Not bad for 1100.....

Then we got all the clan in the cars, buckled up and drove the massive 400 yards to the next place, one that I had chosen, Foggo (forever to be known as Froggo.....)

And what a find, told you the method works.  Small operation, great lady in the cellar door, complete with insults for us pomms, but really knowledgeable about the wine which is all picked by hand from 100 year old vines.  And the difference shows.  The 6 or so wines we tasted were all at least 6 years old, and all red, and wonderful.  So much so that 2 cases were bought!!  We had a great time there, loads of banter and a good giggle accompanied by bloody good (and free!!) wine.

We left and headed onto another place that had a maze for the kids to play in and this one made mead too.  Not quite as good service, it was bigger and more people in, but the wine and mead was free so what the hell, we were having fun.  So after drinking our fill of their offerings, we went outside again to get in the cars for the next vineyard.  But Tracey and I got distracted.....

The kids we rolling down a lush green hill towards the car park and we took one look at each other and thought, why not!!  OMG it was so funny, we lay down and then we rolled, and rolled, and rolled and rolled!! Thought it would never end!  We landed in a heap at the bottom in fits while the others looked on agog!!  Did make me feel a bit sick though.......!

Next stop was lunch at Tapestry, a place with a view to die for!! Funnily enough we didn't have wine here, just water all round and 3 tasting platters with the most gorgeous spicy chorizo, olives, dukkah, bread, pies and lots more.  Accompanied by some chips and unfortunately a rather uninteresting cheese plate.  But that aside it was a great place to stop.

Mandy had to leave after lunch as she was working so off she went, and we moved onto another winery, but by this time it was 4pm and we were all full and those of us that were drinking (sorry Carrie and Mandy) had had our fill, and when a dog came in, got excited, rolled over and wee'd on my foot, it was time to go, so we headed home. 

A quick stop was made to meet a new addition to the Bell household, Buddy their Golden Retriever pup. He was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute and still smelt all milky with razor sharp teeth and huge soft paws.  He is going to be a very bog boy!

Playtime over, I said my goodbyes to the Bells (minus Mandy who is very kindly giving me a lift in the morning) and with a tear in my eye we headed off to drop the Crawley's at home.

Another emotional goodbye ensued (I wont go into details!!) and then the final journey back to the Hutsons for me. 

The Heggie's were my final goodbye as they were dropping me off (see above) so after I got myself back together I sat on the Hutsons beautiful deck and watched the sunset one more time.  I will never ever get sick of doing that.

So, thats that for Sunday.  You and I both know what is coming tomorrow but I cant bring myself to mention it, not just yet.........so lets have some pics before bed!

Night night xxxx