Dear Friends, with
no cricket last Sunday, I had no excuse to avoid the garden, so after breakfast
Wes and I got cracking. He went out and bought a short plump Christmas tree,
which I decorated, while he went out again to get horse manure compost. That
gave me free rein with the tree and we are very pleased with the result.
Then I brought all
my potting regalia upstairs and transferred the contents of the greenhouse
(which had turned into a hothouse) into large black pots sitting on the veranda
within easy reach for watering and harvesting. We have a pot full of
self-seeding perpetual rocket, courtesy of Nick Massaro; a pot with full-grown basil
mint and chilli seedlings, and a pot with garlic chives and French tarragon. As
well there is a smaller black plastic pot of Italian parsley sitting on the
table waiting to be put into something more salubrious! I had enough potting
mix to make up a seed tray for spring onions and they are occupying the
greenhouse in solitary splendour, while all the pots of baby rocket are around
the side of the house where it isn’t too hot and they seem to like it.
By the time I had
finished toiling, I was quite ready to sit down with the Sunday Age and while away the rest of the afternoon doing
crosswords and Logic Puzzles. Over a very yummy pumpkin & olive pizza, we
watched the first episode of The Knick, until
eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and am hoping that Wes will watch the
remainder of the series himself. It was far too graphic and the acting was too
pedestrian for me to get any enjoyment at all. We then watched an episode of The Fall and found ourselves wishing we
were seeing Vera instead. Brenda
Blethyn would have sewn up this puzzle in one episode and it would have been
much more realistic!
I had decided to go
to gym on Monday & Wednesday this week as the rest of the week was looking
busy enough and Barry was keen as his Monday classes have been small. I walked
there as I needed to deliver a magazine to Judi and to do a last check of
Daisy-Lea, John & Jan’s holiday home, as it was being settled that
day. By the time it was 8.05am, there
were 17 participants at gym – almost a record I suspect. Two had been there
since 7am and they left shortly afterwards, another left early and a fourth was
attending his first session, and left also as Barry couldn’t give him his
undivided attention.
When I arrived home
Wes was mowing the bottom part of the garden before the temperature reached the
expected low 30s. He had to plant his latest rose Cote d’Azure, which has glorious rich yellow blooms with a lovely
fragrance, and remove his daily 100 weeds before retreating inside to the cool,
where Bilbo and I were already ensconced. Lunch was an encore performance of Seafood Laksa, as good as the first and
he can make it as often as he likes as far as I am concerned.
Like everyone else
we were glued to the ABC news with the shocking hostage situation at the Lindt Café in Martin Place, Sydney. We
were so impressed with the police and their handling of this and could only
hope and pray it would be resolved without loss of life. Sadly it wasn’t and
two innocent victims have died – changing the lives of their families and
friends forever. It also seems that Australia won’t ever seem quite such a safe
place after this terrifying occurrence.
Since we came back
from Scotland, I have had an ongoing project to change all our passwords,
something we try to do every two years at least. Once we have agreed on the
passwords, we work our way through all the sites, memberships and miscellany of
activities that require security and it can take quite a while. I find I do a
better job in the mornings and can only last an hour or so in the afternoon before
my head is whirling. As we keep all our passwords safe in our e-Wallet, it is a
simple matter to run down the listed categories and keep track of where I am up
to each time I have break. I am not a procrastinator by nature, but it did take
me a good 5 weeks to get started!
The next morning I
drove to Ballarat early to change the pin numbers on our credit & debit
cards, which can only be done at ATMs and as there is no NAB in Daylesford,
Ballarat was the next best place. I chose the branch with two ATMs as I needed
about 15 minutes or so to complete the task, but as luck would have it, one of
the ATMs was out of order, so I stopped every time someone else came along to
use it. Then off to Bridge Mall to find the ABC shop in Collins Bookstore, as I had been totally unsuccessful in finding an
ABC Cricket book this year, either
here or in Melbourne. They didn’t have any copies at the ABC shop, but were
able to explain that the new distributors preferred to have customers buy them
at the cricket grounds, rather than at the newsagents, which we have been doing
for years. At least I know why it has been so hard. It seems like a
short-sighted move to me, but perhaps sales have sky-rocketed...I’d love to
know.
Back home I tackled
a few more passwords before it was time for yummy fish pie with three varieties
of fish and lots of chillies while we watched Our Zoo, which has been a most delightful antidote to my steady
diet of crime. Wes had decided to have a quiet day in front of the computer as
he was going to be busy the next day, and I think Bilbo enjoys having both of
us at home and being under our feet. Duke Street was without power for a while
and we couldn’t reconnect to the internet once the problem was sorted. Wes
eventually worked out that our modem wasn’t recognising our new password and
solved the issue, as well as discovering that our Guest password had been
changed, which was why our visitors had been unable to easily connect to our
internet.
Wednesday was
another cool morning which gives us all a chance to open windows and doors and
let the fresh air in, before it gets hot again. I headed off to gym before
coming home to get changed for the last Mah Jong of the year. Dot, Valerie and
I had a fun morning and each of us won a game, which seemed very fair. Dot’s
husband, John, joined us for lunch afterwards.
In the afternoon I
had an appointment with Greg Stewart to find out the results of my blood test.
He was thrilled with everything, including my current blood pressure and told
me I had a less than 2% chance of a stroke or heart attack in the next 5
years...not that I had contemplated either of these events as there is no
family history of them. I suspect I’ll trip over a large recumbent Labrador
instead!
In the meantime Wes
was having a very busy time – he started by filling up the garbage bins with
weeds from the front garden, and then hosed everywhere before heading over to
Barbara’s place. They spent the afternoon at Mooltan and the RSL doing
interviews of old diggers. Wes arrived back here in time to get changed,
collect Janine Hawker and go to the Daylesford Rotary Christmas break-up at the
Daylesford Cidery. I was well and
truly asleep when he arrived home, but had left him a note suggesting he sleep
in and that I would walk Bilbo.
He took advantage
of my offer, so Bilbo and I had a lovely, but dark early morning stroll around
the Lake. It was cool, so there was mist rising, which is always magic. The Boathouse Café has finally opened again
this week, and it looks lovely with a few lights on so it is visible from
wherever you are walking. It is probably 2 years since it burnt down and early
reports from the new place are very encouraging.
Inside looking out
Wes decided a very
quiet day was in order after his busy day, so spent time at the computer and reading.
Meanwhile I had lunch with friend, Sheila Hollingworth, at Gracenotes Café. Sheila & Vaughan have bought a house in Clunes
and have been living there for the past 6 months after a year of so of
travelling. Originally I was to drive to Clunes, but Sheila decided she would
like to visit Daylesford and I was very happy to meet her locally. She and
Vaughan both find Daylesford very busy these days after living in the sleepy
hollow that is Clunes and we made plans to catch up with them both over there post
New Year. Later on I had a haircut with Lyndal at The Cutting Studio.
On Friday I woke up
feeling quite exhausted and realised I would be unable to do the final Bushwalk
for the year. This was a shame as Wes was joining us all for lunch afterwards
at Ian & Josie’s home in Musk. I stayed in bed until 9am (in the past I
wouldn’t have been able to get up at all) and spent a very quiet day at home
mostly watching the cricket. Wes cooked poached ocean trout which we ate with a
small amount of the huge potato salad I had made the day before for the shared
lunch.
Yesterday I felt
much better when I woke up and knew I had made the right decision, as we were
off to Strathmore to have a low-key Christmas lunch with Leanne & Smokey.
We were in charge
of bon-bons, salad and bubbles, while Leanne provided a lovely meal of roast
pork & turkey with bread sauce and baked vegetables. Wes had bought some
smoked salmon for me and sweets was a gigantic trifle that Leanne had made. We
exchanged gifts for Smokey & Bilbo and Leanne gave us a beautiful star for
the top of the Christmas tree, while we had brought her a Darrell Lea Christmas
pudding and some chook manure!
We drove home
listening to the wickets fall at the Gabba and were able to see the end of the
match and Australia’s unlikely win. Bilbo had slept for most of the time we
were out and was thrilled to bits with his new friend courtesy of Leanne. We
were all in bed early and watched the Hobart innings in the Big Bash, but were
asleep by the time the Melbourne Stars failed to match their score.
Today Bilbo and I
are off to pump mineral water, to visit the Sunday Market, and then we three
will head to breakfast at The Food
Gallery for the last time with year. It is a perfect morning here, so Wes
and I will both do some gardening before it gets too hot.
There won’t be a
Dispatch next Sunday as I am off to Melbourne on Boxing Day for the Test. As
usual Wes will very kindly drive me there early, we’ll stop at the MCG for me
to get a seat ticket, then have breakfast with Peter and Anka at the European Café before Wes drops the three
of us back at the ground and checks me into my room at Rydge’s Hotel in Exhibition Street. Jane and David Knox are joining
me at the MCG and the hotel for Days 2 & 3, and I expect to catch up with
Gayle Gibson, John Webster & David Lazzaro over the match as well.
Happy Christmas to
you all and thank you so much for sharing our lives over this difficult year.
We hope you enjoy a wonderful Christmas Day with family and/or friends and that
2015 is a safe, happy, healthy and peaceful year for us all.
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