Important visitors, Apple trees and Beautiful doors.

Last week we had some very important visitors to Earthstead. My sister Maree and her husband Michael were in NZ for a conference, and on their way home to Australia, took a few days out to rest and visit with us. Here Maree and Wwoofer Sarah pick apples for bottling.










Maree and Michael run a very successful pub, The Barron Valley Hotel in Atherton, North Queensland. They have hectic lives, keeping up with their flourishing business and 6 children and 4 grandchildren. It was great to be able to offer them some pampering in our Earth House, and see them looking relaxed and happy.








Maree is embroidering a quilt for her second grandchild, Isaac.
















Even though we had visitors, work continues as our wonderful wwoofers, Sarah and Fernando, (who has returned to Earthstead for his second tour of duty) tackle the Barbary hedge at our entryway.











Another job completed this week was to weed, compost and carpet around our apple trees.














Here Sarah and Deb, (from the UK originally, but now living in NZ) load up the wheelbarrow with the lovely compost we have made here at Earthstead.......








....and Fernando is ready to spread the compost, and cover under each precious tree with old carpet.
As you can see from the height of the grass around the trees, we have had a wonderful growing season here, and any areas neglected have become over grown. Now the tiling is done, we have more time to devote to our gardens, and farm, and things will begin to return to order.







Now the Earth House is all but finished, we are moving on with the Cobb Cottage. This week Dave Carter, timber joiner extraordinare, has finished the beautiful Oregon doors we commissioned him to make. We were blown away with the beauty of these doors and the passion and care with which they were made.





Dave is a collector of door handles and has shared with us some of his more interesting ones. We will use these on the internal and external doors.










The job of oiling these beautiful doors fell to our willing worker Deb. She is an expert painter, and we were so grateful for her care and precision in bringing the beautiful timber to life with a natural oil finish.







On Sarah's last morning with us, we pulled out the best crockery and cake and had a impromptu celebration morning tea. Builder Richard and lighting designer Sue joined us.