Farm Life: Beef Stew and Old Friends

Not only did I find out on Saturday it was a long weekend but I also had two dear friends coming to visit Roy and I for the night. With the weather being so gloomy these past few weeks we have wanted to reach out to some friends to come and visit while we are both in the same place. Rain again on the forecast, got our spirits down but it held off enough to dry the ground to slash a little, dry some kindling and have a small fire to keep us warm late afternoon. The night turned sour with the rain pelting down on our tin roof. With four people in our little shed it is standing room only yet cosy around our table with a warm meal and board games.

Finn was one of our flatmates for years in West End, like a brother to both of us it was his first trip up to the farm. Verena has been up several times and helped me paint our bathroom and get the floor down as a surprise for Roy’s birthday last year.  One of my closest friends we all ways make the time to get together and eat like kings.

With no exception while Finn and Verena were with us we cracked a few jars of my home-made pickles and ate them with dips, chips and sipped them with Roy’s home-brew. Catching up about the past months events it was hard to cover all the lost ground that slips away. It is amazing that you can achieve so much in a small amount of time. We have all grown in various ways and it is really great to catch up also on old stories of being back in the day (Brisdisni days).

Roy and I recently realised that we no longer owned any board games and during the Australia day weekend down pour with the power outages we were reading loads of books but wished we had some board games – like the old days. Our games were handed over to other enthusiastic players when we left the country a few years ago. We have finally bought a game – Ticket to Ride – its great. The only thing is Roy and I have played just the two of us and learnt the tactics and needed to play with more people to see how it changed the dynamics. We love strategy games both of us like to win so it can get very competitive, Finn and Verena turned out to be quiet the rivals we needed to give this game a new life.

With the expected rain coming and these cool nights, I wanted to make some comfort food for our guests. Beef stew with onions and carrots and a good splash of red wine. (Verena I used gravy beef) – so she can make it again at home.  Inside we cranked our little electric heater to warm us while we played board games and drank wine. Dinner was spiked with a little chili enough to keep our bellies warm and our cheeks rosy – Mind you that was most likely the wine we drank.

What do you do during the rainy days? Board games and pancakes?