The Pot Shed - month 3

My last few week's at the Pot Shed consisted of many job searches and applying for posts for the UK starting in schools in September...unfortunately it was hard to get an interview as most schools are not set up to do Skype calls! But I will keep looking and trying.

 

I did that in my spare time but at work I was busy as always working hard around the property. This month I got up to the usual jobs but this month included a lot of painting. I painted some screens, a fence, the shed and the outside of the shop.

 

Many people were leaving the hostel one by one as they had finished at the winery and we're moving on to other adventures. It ended up just being Maija, Atis, Joaquín and myself then it was just Joaquín and I left for the last week. Because of this we made the hostel very tidy and even gave the bedroom and bathroom a lick of paint.

 

 

One morning I woke to find snow on the nearby mountains so I knew summer was over and autumn was underway.

 

One flower picking morning Trish and I had an encounter with flies. We needed a smaller box but to get one down we had to get up on the bench and take one from the very top shelf. I got up there and started to knock the box down...a few flies few at me, the box came crashing down but Trish caught it only to drop it again as what seemed like a thousand flies came out everywhere. Well we didn't get any more boxes down for sure!

 

A few things I got up to this month:
I went to visit the Sugar Loaf winery. This is where Michael was working and we got to have a tour around the cellar to see how the wine was made. It was very interesting looking at all the pipping running everywhere, seeing the huge tanks fermenting and then all the barrels storing the wine.

 

 

One evening we went out to the cinema to see The Avengers: Infinity wars. Then in the evening we had a BBQ with Andrew and Melisa...everyone cooking a dish to share.

 

One evening we got to see fireworks as a nearby vineyard was having a party to celebrate the end of the harvest of the grapes. The display was so close we watched it from the garden and in doing so our neck hurt.

 

 

On our last weekend we went for a wonder around the Vines Village - some shops opposite the Pot Shed. We went to the cafe with Atis and Maija and got served by Kaden. This was Atis and Maija's last night so we watched a flim, ordered pizzas and played a game of Carioca until 1:30am. On the Sunday we waved goodbye to them, wished them safe travels and then took a bike ride to the Makana Chocolate Factory, just along the road. It was a nice cycle on the way there, we got a free sample when we arrived, watched them making chocolate and brought some truffles for our road trip. The journey back took us twice as long as we were heading into the wind and it was such a battle to go forwards!

 

 

In my last week I sold my most expensive pot at $530! It was Mel's dad's birthday that week too so we had a delicious meal and cake made by Melisa. We had to pack up as it was nearly time to leave. We had a last meal with the family and presented our presents to them and we also recieved a wonderfully written card and a box of the most amazing brittle from the chocolate factory...we also saved this for our road trip.

 

 

In my time at the Pot Shed I learnt a lot about the flowers; how they grow, when to pick them, about spotting on the petals and that you get mutations sometimes...like, you find twins or a 2 headed flower. I had a great time working there and getting to know the Bassett family. Thank you for making our time there so wonderful and part of the family.