Karen turned 30 last weekend, Easter Saturday in fact. She has an official party coming up next Friday, but last weekend, since a few of us were hanging around in Clare anyway, we decided to have a bit of a non official celebration.

The restaraunt at Neagles Rock, where the Gringo works, seemed like a likely venue for such a dinner. It wasn't actually open, but we don't let little details like that stop us, not when we know a couple of chefs....


So we set a table for 8, sent the chefs to the kitchen, and had a good night. It was just like a dinner party, except the dining room was bigger and the dishwashers were faster.

The food, as usual was bloody superb, and there was enough to feed 16 of us. Karen had a good time trying to decipher the common theme of her many gifts. It was a sneaky puzzle, and I'm not going to go into details in case I want to use it on one of you guys one day.

Other than dinner, Easter in Clare was on the whole pretty relaxing, we did a lot of sitting around and sipping beverages. Lea and Jon were staying in the most amazing B&B, and here is a shot I snapped showing the view from the back verandah of the place they were staying. It shows the Clare Valley in all of its Autumn Glory.