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How this year is flying past – wasn’t it Christmas only a few weeks ago, and now it’s nearly Easter.

We’ve had a busy – thumb twiddling – few weeks. We have either been flat out, or flat out doing nothing, or flat out doing dozens of fiddly little jobs that seem to fly under the radar.

After two weeks of drizzling rain – storming rain – looking like rain – we finally have some clear and muggy weather.

I'm in trouble with my vineyard manager for putting the cows in the harvested vineyard as I don’t like seeing the knee high feed going to waste when so many friends are doing it tough further west. On strict orders, the cows have now been removed and the vineyard slashed.

Today is the last day of summer – and it is raining. Glorious, soaking and much desired rain.

What a busy few weeks we've had – asides from the family playing “head cold ping pong” and taking Sophia to a fantastic horsemanship clinic run by Tanja Kraus.

Great news! Our Shiraz harvest is in, and brewing, thanks to the harvesting team of Glen and Jason from (with me scurrying around with a bucket, picking bunches the mechanical harvester missed), and a huge thanks to Matt from Gundog Estate for processing our wine.

By crikey I smell delicious. Nothing like spreading 400kg of chicken manure by hand on a 30+ degree muggy day – not to mention 50kg of potash – then having a serious scrub off and pickling copious amounts of cucumbers. Not sure how I pickled 4 huge jars and yet, by the end of the day, have more cucumbers on the bench than I started with.

Perhaps I should back up a little and explain about the chicken manure.

The days are getting shorter, and wine harvest is upon us early this year, in the dry but still beautiful Pokolbin. Long stretches of near 40 degree days have upped the sugar content and the Shiraz grapes are burgeoning a deep purple – almost black – on the vines. We are waiting with baited breath for Matt from Gundog Estate to give the nod and the harvesters will move in.