A Voice from the Grave

My father died just over 20 years ago at the age of 82. Not a bad innings.
His father, mother and he had emigrated to Australia from a very economically depressed Scotland after World War 1.
I knew my grandfather for only a short time. He died when I was 5, my grandmother a little later.
In typical Scottish fashion Dad was a man of few words. I knew very little about his childhood or his early life in Australia. It was something he never seemed to want to share.
But when going through his stuff, I came across 20 cassette tapes about his life that he had made for his granddaughter. That’s 10 hours of oral history.
They had a very special relationship and the daughter was always reluctant to listen to the tapes.
"Too sad", she would always say.
But she has finally bitten the bullet and transferred the tapes to CD to preserve them and is sharing them with me.
I must say it was a very strange experience to hear his voice again all these years on.
And the story has been fascinating so far.
The daughter says that not only do I look like him now but we also sound alike.
I cannot disagree as I ‘see’ him in the mirror most mornings and ’hear’ him quite often too (without the accent) before I can stop myself.
So I will take the comparison as a compliment.

He only returned to Arbroath his home town in Scotland once, in 1952, with my mother.
I remember him often saying that 'people say the bagpipes always sound good from a distance and 10,000 miles is about the right distance to hear them from'.
He was always fiercely Australian but seem to quietly cherish his Scottish heritage. My adding ice to one of his beloved single malts would always earn a stern look.
I had visited some of the family in Arbroath in 1969. I really did not know who they were relation wise but I was welcomed with open arms at the time and spent a rather hectic day with them all. I do remember one older lady thought I was my father.
I have visited Arbroath twice since then, once with the daughter and once with the co driver.
Last time before I went, I put a small family history on the genealogy section of the town’s web site and asked for any family contact but heard nothing.
Then last year I got a call from a lady in Victoria who was researching her husband’s family tree and had come across my entry.
From the information she had, it turned out that my grandfather had five siblings, many of whom had also emigrated and that her husband and I were related.
Who knew? Not me. I was never told about grandpa's brothers and sisters.
But now with these tapes seeing the light of day I might learn a whole lot of new things.

Sometimes Decisions Come Back to Bite You

Some time ago due to my and the surrounding vineyards' experience, I decided not to spray for powdery mildew.
We had never had an outbreak in the 10 years prior and climatic conditions (mild cloudy weather) for its development were virtually never experienced in our area.
Not that spraying sulphur is any difficulty as it can simply be added in with the copper for normal downy mildew protection.
The disadvantage is that it's smelly, can cause some breathing allergies and its application can lead to leaf burn on hot (+30C) days.
And not using sulphur saves a bit of money.
Anyway, this summer was virtually not a summer at all.
We had lots of rain (wettest summer in 51 years) and also very cool temperatures and lots of overcast days which is not normal.
You are already getting my drift here.


Sad to say powdery mildew 'hit' the Tempranillo and Semillon pretty hard.
Curative sprays unfortunately did not do their job.
Powdery mildew delays the maturity and retards the growth of the berries and causes them to split.
In addition it causes off flavours in wine.
So this will mean we won't be picking those two varieties this year.
Thankfully the Pinot Noir and the Cabernet Sauvignon have not succumbed and are both looking good so far.
Back to the sulphur next vintage!

A Weekend in Sydney

As time goes on, we tend to avoid going to Sydney as much as possible. The traffic is usually crazy and it's always noisy, crowded and a little bit frantic. This is the complete antithesis of our south coast environment.
However it's always good to visit the daughter and enjoy far better shopping opportunities as well as eat at one or two of a huge range of restaurants with a myriad of ethnic cuisines.
This time we were catching up with a special friend who had made a quick trip home from Canada for a few weeks.
Naturally the co driver had a list of quilt shops to visit. We left home early and made our way north through driving rain and then across the mid western suburbs of Sydney to Drummoyne and Material Obsession.
This quilt shop was housed in a very cute 19th century Sydney sandstone terrace house (replica?).
Luckily the Australian cricket team was completing the 4-0 demolition of the Indian team in the fourth test match in Adelaide so I took the opportunity to listen to some of the day's play on the car radio while purchases were being made.

Then we went on to Balmain, another older inner Sydney suburb, for lunch.
At random we picked a North African restaurant which specialized in Moroccan food. Not knowing much about this cuisine we asked them to 'surprise' us.
We ended up with a starter of hummus, babaghanouj and taramasalata with flat bread and then a sample platter of grilled haloumi, tabouli, spicy lamb and pine nuts and marinated sardines.
This was followed by char grilled harissa and garlic marinated octopus and cumin battered soft shelled crab with a date and lime sauce.
All wonderful!
Then it was onto quilt shop #2, Calico and Ivy just a short walk down the road. More cricket for me, more purchases for the co driver.
We made it to the daughters in Rose Bay just before peak hour and wandered down the hill to our favourite Japanese Restaurant for dinner. Sushi, sashimi, teriyaki salmon, teriyaki chicken, gyoza and edamame were our choices.
This simple little place, Asakusa, never fails to deliver.
Next morning we drove along Sydney's eastern suburbs beaches Bondi, Tamarama, Bronte ending up at Clovelly for a light breakfast and coffee in a beach cafe overlooking the ocean.
The daughter had taken an unusual picture of Bondi Beach just before sunset a few weeks ago.

Then it was into the CBD (downtown) of Sydney for some serious shopping at Myers and David Jones before meeting up with Muriel at the Malaya Restaurant on Darling Harbour.
This area used to be a part of the commercial port of Sydney but was redeveloped when the advent of container shipping moved the main port from Sydney Harbour to Botany Bay. Cruise ships still tie up here but both sides of the bay are now shops, restaurants, bars, hotels, a convention and exhibition centre and the Maritime Museum as well as other tourist orientated attractions.
One of the the banquets on the Malaya menu looked intriguing and it did not disappoint.
Popiah, then lightly battered deep fried king prawns with chilli and satay beef skewers were the starters.
This was followed by curry prawns with roti cana, black pepper chicken, korma lamb, kwai du and finally chilli beansprouts and snow peas. And of course boiled rice throughout.
Phew! We all rolled out of the restaurant three hours later.
After a late afternoon coffee at one of the many cafes in the QVB we were overfed and talked out so, after farewelling Moo, we headed 'home' for a quiet night.
Surprisingly no one was interested in dinner.
It was an early rise to head south with breakfast at Hungry Jacks (Burger King) on the way.
Well you can't nosh it up every time!
It was a relative easy drive with very little traffic going our way and four hours later we were home.
A really enjoyable weekend away.

Australia Day

Today is Australia Day and a public holiday.
We commemorate the day in 1788 when the First Fleet of eleven convict ships arrived at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) from Great Britain to establish the first white settlement in what was known then as New South Wales.
They had originally arrived a little to the south at Botany Bay a week before but found the site (recommended by Captain Cook) to have unsatisfactory anchorage, poor soil and little water.
Just prior to their leaving Botany Bay an expedition lead by Frenchman Jean François de Galaup comte de Lapérouse arrived.
Who knows, if he had been a little earlier, we may be all speaking French! But then again, his expedition was never heard of again after leaving the British. There is good evidence that his ships came to grief in the Solomon Islands to the north of Australia.
At least there is Sydney suburb named after him. La Perouse is situated on the north head of Botany bay.

In 1770 Captain James Cook had explored the east coast of the continent then known as Terra Australis and New Holland and taken possession of it for Great Britain on 22nd August.
Previous to that, the continent had been occupied, probably for around 40,000 years, by the Aboriginal people and had been known to Europeans, mainly the Dutch, from the beginning of 17th century.
While the Aboriginal people living here today see little reason to celebrate, what do the rest of us do on Australia Day?
The general consensus is not much. It's pretty much a lay back day, what with it falling at the end of summer school holidays and with a lot of the workforce still on vacation.
There are organized events across the nation with the emphasis on Sydney.
The co driver and I treat it much the same as any other day with no special activities planned.

South Coast Wine Show 2012 Results

The wine show is over for another year. This was the thirteenth.
Out of the 118 entries, 6 Gold, 16 Silver and 46 Bronze medals were awarded.
From the Shoalhaven Coast region, a Semillon took a gold, including wine of show.
Not surprisingly the cooler climate Southern Highlands dominated the gold medals with a Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc from that region also taking gold.
Wineries around our area, Cupitts, Fern Gully and Bawley Vale also won medals.
About a hundred people turned up for the public tasting and award announcements.

This number was down on previous years. This was a bit surprising as there is no Awards Night Dinner this year and this was the only chance to get a good representative tasting of the wines of the zone as well as indulge in some pretty good finger food and local cheese.
Then again total entries for the show were also down with some major producers not submitting at all or with a reduced number.
Maybe a sign of the financial times.
The Australia dollar is currently very strong ($A1 =$US1.05 = GBP 0.67 =EUR0.80.) so our overseas wine markets have been hit very hard and there is substantial competition now in the local market from imported wines, especially from Europe and in particular France, Italy and Spain.
For a full list of medal winners, check out the wine show web site.

Clyde River Picnic

The Clyde River rises in the foothills of the Budawang Range behind us and spills out into the ocean at Batemans Bay. The river valley is a pretty remote area in parts but near Brooman there are a lot of rural properties on its banks. The co driver's quilt group had a social day at one of their member's farms and the men and kids were invited.
It was sure a beautiful setting for a picnic.

The kids swam and paddled canoes, the ladies talked and sewed, the men swam and lay in the sun and I did a little fishing.
The whole thing was a "Summertime and the livin' is easy" scenario.

I had been fishing in the Clyde but a lot further upstream many years ago. We used spinner lures and targeted yellow belly or Golden Perch which is a native Australian fresh water fish.
Casting into the edge of weed beds and around structure like fallen trees always brought us luck.
So this time I took a good selection of lures hoping for continued success.

I found a good spot a little downstream from the group and cast out into a weed bed. I used spinner lures, fluorescents, cicada rattlers and even soft plastics.
Over two hours of effort resulted in nothing, not even one bite!
Ok, so "the fish are jumpin' "part of the song was missing.
But at least the view down river from my spot made up for that.
Finally I gave up and headed back for lunch.
Fresh bread rolls, fresh fruit and cold drinks were on the menu.
After that, I succumbed to lying in the shade of a huge sheoak (Casuarina) on the river bank.
A great day with good company.

Veraison

Veraison is a French word that means, in the world of viticulture, 'the beginning of ripening'.
The word has however been adopted into viticultural English and is regarded as an important milestone in the grape growing season.
Veraison is the time when the grape berry has stopped growing and the ripening process starts. The visible indication of this phase is the change of colour of red grapes from green to red (anthocyanin formation) and white grapes from green to yellowish (carotenoid formation).
The berries also change chemically with acids being degraded and sugars accumulated while herbaceous aromas degrade and fruity aromas start to develop.
Due to the cooler summer this season the onset of veraison is a little later than normal. Theory has it that slower ripening and lower ambient temperatures will improve the quality of the grapes.

As a result of all this, harvest will be delayed for a few weeks. We can only hope that heavy rain, which has also been an integral part of this summer, stays away for the next few months.
We don't need the juice diluted and the grapes put under any disease pressure.
So far in our little vineyard, we have seen veraison in the Pinot Noir (picture) and the Tempranillo.
Surprisingly there has been no sign as yet in the Semillon which is regarded as an early ripening variety. Another indication of the lack of ripeness of the Semillon is that the birds have not yet taken to eating the few bunches which are growing through the netting.
The later ripening Cabernet Sauvignon has a bit of a way to go yet.
So it's time to start cleaning up the wine making equipment and think about bottling last year's vintage to make room in the tanks for the new.

South Coast Wine Show 2012

The entries are in and have been collated. One hundred and eighteen wines from twenty four wineries were received for judging in the various classes next week.
The South Coast Wine Zone covers a pretty big area and has two official wine regions, The Shoalhaven Coast and The Southern Highlands. A third area just west of Sydney around the Hawkesbury River is waiting for recognition.
This means the zone has a number of distinct climatic areas ranging from cool continental to warm maritime. Because of this we get a diverse number of wine styles from the same grape variety depending on where they are grown.

The three judges take around a day to get through the entries. White wines in the past have done better than reds but chief judge, David Morris, say the quality of the latter has been improving over the years. It will be interesting to see if this trend has continued into 2012.
My favourite whites from the zone are Semillon, Verdelho and cool climate Riesling. The Southern Highlands produce some acceptable Pinot Noir as well.
The public can taste all of the entries the following day when the awards are announced.
There is more detailed information on the Wine Show web site.

That Was The Year That Was

Happy New Year to all my readers!
For us 2011 started with a pretty difficult vintage. Continuous wet weather made fungus control very uncertain and we paid the price when our Semillon "went to God" in spring. The reds seem to be faring better so far.
The strange weather continued all year under the influence of La Nina and it was officially the coldest start to summer in 50 years. In fact we had our first swim of the season on Christmas day!

On the positive weather side, there were no huge wind storms, damaging thunder storms or bush fires in our area this year.
The same can't be said for northern Australia, especially Queensland, with some disastrous cyclones (hurricanes) and wide spread flooding at the beginning of the year.
The house got a new roof as well as some remedial structural work and we are pleased the leaks have stopped. Worth every dollar.

The cattle got through winter in good condition on supplementary feed and produced 5 calves in the spring. Sadly, one didn't make it (no, not the assisted birther) but that's life on the land. Snake bite? Who knows.
There was a bit of a health scare mid year but things are now going well and all that has been put behind us.
The trip to the USA in September was great. New York, Washington DC and Nashville were all new destinations for us and we saw and did lots. Catching up with family in South Dakota was, as usual, also fun.

We are now at the end of the festive season but summer holidays for the bulk of Australians will continue for another month. After they have all gone home our lives will return to normal ie. quiet and peaceful, on the beautiful south coast of New South Wales.
Plans for 2012?
Travel wise, we will probably stay 'home'. A trip to Melbourne via the Snowy Mountains and back along the coast road is in the final planning stage. The co driver wants to attend a yoga festival in the Victorian capital and I can more than fill in my time in the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula wine regions.
Tasmania in spring for a few weeks is also a possibility.

Other than that we are gearing up for the 2012 vintage which will start in February.
The vines are thriving under the damp, coolish conditions but seem to have produced a lot of leaves and not the normal fruit load. Hopefully the quality will make up for the lower yield.
It's hard to believe that this blog is over seven years old now and has had over 22,000 hits in the last 4 years. Written mainly for family and friends, the geographical diversity of readership always amazes me.
Hopefully you will all be with me for another seven...or more.

Christmas Day 2011

After opening presents, we had our traditional breakfast of pancakes and then headed for the beach.
It was a warm sunny morning with not many people around. The water was a bit cool to start with but we soon got used to it. This was our first swim of the season. We had the pleasure of sharing the surf with a pod of about ten dolphins which came quite close.

Then it was back home to prepare for Christmas lunch. The daughter had brought down a bottle of Pol Roger champagne so we started with that. Then it was the choice of oysters natural or oysters kilpatrick followed by fresh tiger prawns.


We then put some fresh mussels on the BBQ to open and had them with a spicey home made Italian tomato sauce. All this was washed down with Margan's Hunter Valley Semillon and/or Verdelho.

After a bit of a rest, we bbq'd some lamb filets and had them with a feta, oregano and olive oil sauce together with grilled tomatoes and cauliflower au gratin. I found a bottle of Wynns Coonawarra Alex 88 Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 in my secret stash to go with this.
You would think this was enough, but no.
Dessert was a choice of ice cream with home made chocolate sauce or plum pudding, vanilla custard and ice cream.
We all then raised the white flag!
And a short sleep during what was left of the afternoon was in order.
No dinner (big surprise!) but a quiet evening in front of the TV finished a great day.

Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas Eve dawned with a thick pea soup fog.
It was still hanging around mid morning but cleared to a bright sunny warm day.
At last summer appeared to be here.
The co-driver, daughter and I headed down the beach for a walk and a sit on the rocks.
The beaches have a few more people than normal on them but it will be Boxing Day when the hoards of touros arrive for their holidays.
Town was busier than normal on Friday when we did our Christmas grocery shopping but hadn't reached the frenzy we know will happen on the following weeks.

So, touros, some advice for the following four weeks.
We know you only have a limited time away from work and we know you want to fit as much as possible into your holiday, but....

• running your shopping trolley into the back of my legs while standing in the supermarket queue won't make it go any faster.
• the people who live here full time know most everyone else including the check out chicks and store owners. If we have our normal 30 second chat during and after getting served, no need to tut tut and roll your eyes at the delay in your getting served.
• I know you don't think the 'dogs on leads' sign at the beach means you and that you think it's ok for your dog to crap and wee everywhere and hunt down the new hatched and endangered hooded plover chicks in the sand dunes but at least take a bag and clean up after it.
  
• realize that our beaches are quite long and relatively uncrowded. No need to park yourself and your sprogs one meter from us at the far end of the beach, turn up your music and kick soccer balls/play volley ball/play beach cricket/play badminton on top of us. And please take your empty bottles and cans with you when you leave.
• surfboards can be dangerous weapons. Don't ride them in amongst swimmers.
• beach umbrellas have steel spikes on their ends. These become spears when the wind catches them and they cartwheel down the sand. How about making sure they are safe and secure before heading into the water. No one wants to see child shish kebab.
  
• yes, our roads are narrow and get quite busy at this time of year. No need to tail gate us and participate in outrageously dangerous passing maneuvers to get to the beach 10 seconds before us.

I know all this will fall on deaf ears but at least I feel better now. As one of our shop owners said to us "it's good that they bring their money with them every year, pity they leave their good manners at home".
Anyway we are off to see some friends who own a local winery for a few drinks.
Merry Christmas!

The Valley Christmas Party

Each year one of the families in the valley hosts our little community’s Christmas party.
This year it was our turn.
It’s a very informal affair with BYO food and grog and a plate to share.
Seven of the eight families turned up with the valley matriarch, Norma, unfortunately still in hospital. She assured us in a phone call during the evening she would be there next year.
With the weather forecast to be iffy, we set up in the car port, aka ‘the winery’, with the BBQ’s nearby.
We needn’t have worried as the rain stayed away but being protected from the unseasonably cool wind was a bonus.
The mutually owned Christmas lights were strung up and we minimally decorated with some bits and pieces that had been stored away, forgotten, for many years in the shed.

The unofficial mayor, neighbour Bob, attempted as usual to get some community projects discussed eg. cattle grid maintenance at the entry to our road plus a few other things.
It’s been the same agenda for as long as I can remember and discussions always get diverted and Bob in the end gives up and postpones them until next year.
I decided to have a bit of a retro starters menu. So out came the party pies, sausage rolls and cheerios (no, not the cereal, but cocktail sausages), all party food of my childhood. All were scoffed down.
I had also ducked into the German supermarket chain Aldi in town to see what seasonal German delights I could find as a reminder of spending two Christmases in that country.
I picked up some Pfeffernuesse and Lebkuchen as well as some marshmallow snowmen. They had all sorts of familiar goodies there but we didn’t want to go overboard! These were pretty popular too.
So with the odd Christmas song amongst the 60s and 70s music on the play list and lots of good food, the evening flew by.

There were lots of different salads and hot dishes to go with BBQ meat and a variety of desserts.
Norma had delegated the co driver to make sure that her pavlovas were on hand as usual. So under the watchful eye of neighbour Jude, the co driver, who had never made this traditional Australian (New Zealand?) dessert before, put together two beauties.
Both were quickly devoured.
So that was it for 2011.
We are lucky to be living along side such a great group of people.

Better Luck Next Time

In February this year I wrote about the upcoming 2011 harvest “another problem fungus is botrytis or grey rot or bunch rot. Botrytis cinerea results in a disintegration of grape berry structure and creates the ideal conditions for the infection of the fruit with yeasts and bacteria which increase volatile acidity and laccase activity.
The musts obtained from infected grapes are strongly compromised both microbiologically and chemically. This shows up as laccase enzymes, a high concentration of apiculated yeasts, acetic bacteria, lactic bacteria and high concentrations of gluconic and acetic acid.
The most important wine making problems are caused by the presence of laccase, an enzyme that oxidises wine polyphenols.
As an indirect consequence it causes the production of acetaldehyde, the reduction of the free sulphur dioxide, an increase in "faded" aromatics, the loss of primary aromas, the darkening of white wines, and an increase of orange notes in red wines.
So we have a bit of a battle on our hands this vintage to produce reasonable wine”

Then in March, post harvest, I wrote about the Semillon, “the fruit has been affected by botrytis much of which we managed to manually sort through and discard. It will be interesting to see if that fungus has any affect on the resultant wine quality particularly its oxidation 'resistance'.”
Well the chickens have well and truly come home to roost.
Despite increased levels of sulphur, maintenance of a low pH and as best as possible reducing the exposure of the wine to air during the various production procedures, the smell of acetaldehyde (sherry like) and a noticeable browning in colour is obvious.
The wine has become victim of oxidation almost surely caused by laccase enzyme activity.
Unfortunately it has become undrinkable and will have to be poured into the ground.
That’s the risk of a Vin de Garage operation with no real sophisticated quality control equipment available.
Better luck in 2012.
And for all those inquiring about the welfare of the 'assisted birth' calf I blogged about last month, I have included a pic taken a few days ago.
Both baby and mother are doing well. So that more than cancels out the disappointment of the loss of the wine.

A November Update

Last weekend was supposed to be a really busy one with Saturday taken up at a country race meeting at Moruya to watch one of Seldom Winning Trainer Bob’s horses run and a trip the next day up over the mountains to Braidwood and Bungendore for two country quilt shows.
On the Friday night a facet of my ill-spent youth revisited and I spent over an hour studying the form for the 7 race program and making my selections. Then I spent an hour explaining ‘racing’ to the co driver who was quite excited about her first ever day at the races.
But fate intervened overnight and into the morning when the heavens opened up and dumped 70mm (3inches) of rain on us in a few hours which caused the races to be cancelled.
It was even more galling that by lunchtime it was all blue sky and sunshine.
Sunday however found us early on the road and heading west to the quilt shows. I won’t go into details as the co driver has finally started a quilt blog ‘Coloring Outside the Lines’ and you can catch up with news of the shows there.
But that is typical of early summer weather here. Hot sticky days followed by thunderstorms and a cool southerly change. Last night was a corker! Hours of thunder and lightning, some simultaneous, accompanied by patches of torrential rain. And it’s amazing how localised these thunderstorm cells can be. My rain gauge showed 8.5 mm while the official weather station some 20km north recorded only 2.4mm.

Meanwhile all the cattle, including the new calves, have gone next door for a short holiday. Neighbour Bob has some paddocks full of long grass that needs eating and he appreciates the fertiliser that is deposited in the process.
The grapes are growing like triffids with all this warm wet weather and it’s been a bit of a battle to keep them under control (green pruning) as well as keep the spraying up. There doesn’t appear to be the volume of fruit on the shoots this year as in the past however.
So we are winding down for Christmas. Our only commitment for this is hosting the valley get together in a few weeks. Other than that and a visit from the daughter it will be the usual low key event.

Brooman and Batemans Bay Date Day

Between where we live on the coast and the beautifully rugged Budawangs which form part of the Great Dividing Range to the west is the Clyde River valley. This area is home to many State Forest areas as well as National Parks. It is also home to many people who want to get away from it all and live a quiet secluded rural lifestyle. Many have small acreages, hobby farms as well as larger commercial cattle enterprises.

Photo: James Lamb
The area has quite a history. Two minor gold rushes in the mid and late 1800s brought it to prominence and subsequently it was a centre of a thriving timber industry. Brooman the main centre no longer exists apart from a dilapidated road sign.
The area is serviced by some pretty rough, narrow, winding, unsealed roads and a labyrinth of fire trails. There is a definite lack of signage and it’s not too difficult to take a wrong turn and get a little lost.

The co driver’s quilt group is meeting out that way on a property for their Christmas lunch in a few weeks so we thought we would take an exploratory detour on our way to Batemans Bay for date day and lunch at Innes Boat Shed.
The road west took us out of the lush temperate rain forest country of the coastal strip and into the river valley. Turning south, we followed the very windy road along the Clyde to Shallow Crossing where we crossed the river on the water covered causeway.

From here the river widens as it heads to the old port of Nelligen and eventually spills into the ocean at Batemans Bay. The country here is tall timber, mostly spotted gums, with an understorey of cycads eg.burrawangs. It was a pleasant river drive for the most of the way. We only came across two other vehicles the two hours we were on the road.

Once in ‘the Bay’, we headed for the Boatshed for our monthly fix of fish and chips (and potato scallops). This simple place sits over the water and serves the best fresh fish and chips in the area. It has been there for 50 years. No credit cards, stand in line to order and pay, no table service, clean up after you! The local council awarded a developer a contract to redevelop the site. The locals were appalled that this institution would be pulled down and replaced by a modern glass and aluminium monstrosity but all protests and petitions were in vain. However the global financial crises apparently sent the developer to the wall.
Karma!
Innes remain there on a monthly lease. We all relish this stay of execution.