Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 26th April 2015

Dear Friends, when I left you last week, we were heading off to breakfast where we enjoyed a good 75 minutes of interesting conversations, with Margot leading the way for a change. It was so cold that Bilbo had to wear his coat and he seemed very happy indeed. Pasquale & Toni were expecting about 30 people upstairs at 11am, but they resisted asking us to hurry up, which we really appreciated and made sure we were out by 10.15am.

Sunday was wild and woolly weather with the wind blowing in from every direction and leaves going everywhere. I had been keen to see ‘Shaun the Sheep’ the film, and Wes decided to come with me. We joined quite a few others retreating from the weather and thought it was a very clever and entertaining film.

The next morning Wes & Bilbo braved the elements and walked early. It was too cold at 7.30am to walk to gym, but the weather had improved by the time I left to come back home. It had been ages since I had spoken with my sister, Paun, and was lucky enough to catch her for a chat later in the morning as Cliff Place Café was closed for the day after being open every day for the school holidays. She sounded very chirpy and updated me on her three sons, Liam, Warwick & Rohan.

That afternoon I had my flu injection, which was painless and didn’t involve any immediate side effects. It is quite fun to sit in the waiting room, which is full of friends, most of them waiting for 15 minutes to elapse so they can go home again. I met up with Ian & Trish Tinetti, John & Yvonne from the Sunday Market, Jeff Pedretti, who used to run the Daylesford Gym, and Una with whom I had done Barry’s class that morning. The talk was mostly about Collingwood and the ANZAC Day match against Essendon.

On Tuesday, it was my turn to walk Bilbo, which I did at 8am, when the weather was kinder. We walked up around Cornish Hill, around the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens and back home via the main streets. Wes was showing ‘What We Did on our Holidays’ with a star-studded cast, so I joined him at the cinema for the 10am session. It was a lovely film, and we are both pleased to have seen it. There were only 7 of us in the audience as the 10am Tuesday session time is shown as being for ‘Mums & Bubs’. So far, there haven’t been any of them in spite of heavy advertising and a wide range of films. With a bit of luck the committee will decide to stop advertising the crybaby session, as lots of us retired people are very happy to see a film at that time. It would also be good for people working in hospitality, who are usually employed during lunchtime, the late afternoon & evenings.

Late that afternoon Wes told me that all colour had drained from my face and that I should go to bed at once, which I did. I ended up having a 48-hour reaction to the injection and am very lucky that I can just go to bed and let it make its way through as quickly as possible. Wes looked after me with food and drink and Bilbo did the rest.

On Thursday I was feeling better, but still coughing and sore, so got up, did some shopping, collected the mail etc and came home exhausted. The rest of the day was spent doing very little indeed as I was determined to feel well enough for the ANZAC service followed by the footy on Saturday. The highlight of the day was the news from Marilyn Preston that Sarah & Heath have a second beautiful daughter, Ruby India, born safe and sound.

Robert & Marilyn with newly born Ruby Preston

Bilbo and I did the Bush walk on Friday morning and Josie took us from the Glenlyon General Store to the Reserve with morning tea by the mineral water spring. It was a lovely walk with lots of beautiful oak trees still in full colour. Meanwhile Wes had been very busy at home with Brian the electrician coming to check out all our wiring etc to see why our dishwasher keeps playing up. He concluded it is an earthing problem, which can be repaired by Barclays next Wednesday afternoon. Nick Massaro also came to repair two holes in our bedroom wall, which we thought were caused by possums, but turn out to be the work of rats!!!!

In the middle of all this activity, Wes heard from his cousin, Mandy, that her mother, Joan Testro, was not expected to live much longer, and she wanted him to be prepared for the phone call when it arrived. As well, he read on Facebook that an old friend and client, John De Simone, father of Joe, had died peacefully on Wednesday.

Wes cooked a yummy version of his fish pie with pumpkin and invited Nick to share it with us, which he did. There were lots to talk about with the ANZAC commemoration at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Before he left, Nick filed the underneath of our front door to stop it sticking and now we keep slamming the door as we forget how easy it is to open and shut!

Dawn service yesterday morning at Daylesford

We decided not to go to this service as it was raining and went to the 9am informal service at Eganstown, which we like to do together. Wes laid a wreath on behalf of Catherine King MP, the RSL Treasurer, Ken Dowling, spoke well and reminded us all of the Turkish losses and of the generosity of Ataturk after the war. I congratulated him later and told him how meaningful his speech had been to us as we had been to ANZAC Cove and seen the tributes to the fallen by the Turks. The highlight was the unaccompanied singing by local, Sallie Harvey, of the haunting anti-war song, ‘And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda’ by Eric Bogle.

I set off after this for Melbourne and the footy, while Wes went back to Vincent Street Daylesford for the ANZAC Day Parade and final service of the day, where he met with Barbara who likes to join the march wearing her grandfather’s medals. He said there was a big turnout and that Sallie Harvey sang again – unaccompanied and to total silence and appreciation. When Wes got back home, he was able to see the Blues have their first win for the season against the hapless Saints in New Zealand.

Meanwhile I had booked a car park, which was a blessing as the parks were all full, and I arrived at the ground in plenty of time to get a good seat on the Balcony in the MCC Pavilion with a perfect view of the game and under cover until the last quarter when the rain slanted sideways. Amazingly, the weather didn’t deter too many souls and there were nearly 89,000 of us at this 21^st meeting of Collingwood & Essendon on ANZAC Day. And yes, I’ve been to every single one of them, which is such a privilege and thrill. We were well entertained by service & civilian bands until the ceremonies commenced. It is always breath taking to be at a crowded MCG during the minute’s silence, which is followed soon after by clapping and cheering loud enough to raise the roof. The Pies won the arm wrestle by 3 goals, but the game was always in doubt until the 20-minute mark of the last quarter.

Back home Wes was sitting happily in front of the fire looking mellow and relaxed. He and Bilbo had enjoyed a quiet afternoon together without the stresses of driving to and from Melbourne in pouring rain. There is no further news on Joan Testro as I write this – she is surrounded by her three loving daughters and sleeping peacefully in between sips of French champagne – what a woman!

Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 19th April 2015

Dear Friends, another beautiful week has flown by. We started with a fun breakfast at The Food Gallery Café – Wes told some funny funeral stories, Michael joined us, Margot gave Bilbo 2/10 for manners, Gail popped in unexpectedly, Aileen stayed long enough to drink a coffee, Judi told us about attending a gay funeral (unexpected death of their 51-year old neighbour) and Janine arrived late and had to fight for a seat. When Aileen finally arrived, we had to make room for her as well!

On Monday, it was time to go back to normal – gym classes restarted, kids went back to school, tradies were out in droves, U3A classes began and Daylesford was emptied of most of our tourists...only a few visitors from NSW where school doesn’t go back for another week. Wes planted bulbs in the back and ‘messed around’ in the front garden.

Our ornamental grape looking at its best as it starts the big climb up to the decking

Lib and her daughter, Becky, flew down on Saturday to help Paul Tyrrell celebrate his 40^th birthday. Bec was complaining about the temperatures, as most Queenslanders do, but we think Melbourne has put on some beautiful Autumn weather over the past week or so!

                                                                  

‹Lib visiting her Dad, Doug Mathews, aged 97 & still going strong

 Paul Tyrrell with Oscar & Macy

We awoke early to rain (finally) on Tuesday morning, so the early morning walk & a game of golf were both cancelled. I got up to give Bilbo a bone, which he toyed with briefly before coming back to bed. Wes went off to do projectionist duties at the Daylesford Cinema and later in the morning, Bilbo and I went for a long walk to make up for missing our early one.

I met Gillie for lunch back at ‘The Food Gallery’. We had been going to try ‘Larder’ but there wasn’t a spare seat at midday, and we’re not sorry as we had the seafood chowder, which was very yummy indeed. Wes joined us after the film duties finished and reported that he had finally shown a film that no one turned up to watch!

On Wednesday post gym, I joined Valerie & Dot for another good morning of Mah Jong at ‘Muffins & More’ before visiting Fiona at ‘Daylesford Aromatherapy’, where we get refills of shampoo, conditioner, laundry powder, kitchen liquid, and essential oils. Fiona has been running this lovely little business for 16 years and we have been patronising her for all of that time as we bought our original weekender at 78 Duke Street in August 1998 – where have those 17 years gone to I wonder?

                                             

Last week, Joyce, Manny & their 4 offspring, their partners & children all spent a couple of days in Ballarat and here is the photo to prove it. We had fun finding Mark, Grace, Mia & Lily; Shane, Melinda, Katia & Alessia; Matt, Sara, Genevieve & Ava; and Jessica & Geoff. Manny has officially retired at last, and it looks as though it suits him very much indeed.

The next morning I drove to Poyntons’ Nursery in Essendon to catch up with Leanne. We had a lovely time chatting over hot drinks before choosing her new watering can and some King Alfred daffodil bulbs for here. It was raining as we sat looking out onto the Maribyrnong River and everywhere looked beautiful and green.

Everywhere we look, we see gorgeous colours – yellow, orange, red, maroon & green in so many different shades. It truly is the best season here.

On Friday very early, Wes drove to Heidelberg to play golf with Tom, Danny & Bobby. They had a lovely morning on the course and repaired to the local hotel where they spent the next 5 hours chatting & catching up. Wes had hoped to visit Joan Testro as well, but she wasn’t well enough for that to happen.

Meanwhile Bilbo & I went shopping at Coles early before joining the Bushwalking Group on a lovely walk around Jubilee Lake and the old railway line there. The five of us really enjoyed the very pretty scene and were most amused when Bilbo started crying every time we stopped to admire the colours or the water or just to catch our breath.

When I logged onto Facebook I was greeted by the lovely news that Emily Knox, daughter of Jane & David, is engaged to Alan Kinnear, from the Isle of Bute. Congratulations to you both – we are so pleased for you. Wes logged on yesterday to discover that Belinda Clarke, daughter of his cousin, Wayne Testro & wife, Janice, has given birth to a baby daughter, Josephine.

My current project is getting ready for the next Crime Fiction classes, which are now being held later in the year. Our tutor, Graeme Boscoe, has asked us to looked at the ‘Purloined Letter Society’ (http://www.thepurloinedlettersociety.org/Catalogue) website, which rates the best known crime fiction writers, and to decide if we agree with the number of stars that have been given to writers we know. I have decided to do this in the form of a spreadsheet, so each day I transfer the information from the website and add the books I have read and my thoughts about them. I am quite surprised by the number of different authors I have read and look forward to trying a few more.

Yesterday we woke early to discover that Daylesford was shrouded in fog and light rain was falling. Bilbo was very happy to have a bone and come back to bed with me, while Wes worked at the computer and waited for news of Joan Testro. (She had slept through the night and hopefully is on the mend.) We had prawn & ginger congee for breakfast and then drove to Trentham to meet Mick Carey, & his wife, Pam. Mike was at school with Wes and they have stayed in touch intermittently over the years. He & Pam are now retired and happily living in Torquay, but were spending the weekend in Daylesford for a wedding at the Convent Gallery. Wes had suggested ‘Pendower House’ would suit them and they were very happily settled there. We went for a stroll around the Trentham Market with Bilbo, then put him in the car, and spent the next 45 minutes in ‘Chaplins’ chatting over hot drinks. We had hoped to bump into Bob White or Glenn Testro or both while we were there, but no such luck.

Another baby, this time Maya Skewes, very early arrival to Angela & Nathan. Angela is Glenda Rozen’s only daughter and, like her mother, a much-loved person in Daylesford.

On Friday night, I was very relieved to find Collingwood hit their straps again and after a close 1^st quarter, were able to power away from the improved St Kilda. It’s a long time since we have kicked a 21-goal score. St Kilda was disadvantaged by losing their inspirational captain, Nick Riewoldt, just before the game started.

Yesterday afternoon, I took Bilbo to see Daylesford play Buninyong at Victoria Park. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and it was a perfect day for a local game. Wes was going to come, but Carlton was making a fist of their game against Essendon, so he decided to watch that instead. Daylesford played out of their skins during the first half against a very strong Buninyong and were eventually overhauled by 6 goals.

Today we are expecting some very dirty weather, which hasn’t arrived yet. It was cold and wet early, so Bilbo got a bone and was back in bed in a matter of minutes. We will head off to the Sunday Market, before enjoying breakfast with friends at ‘The Food Gallery’.

Wes is very busy getting ready to present a four-week course on ‘Ancestry’ at the Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre next month. He is enjoying the preparation and is hoping for a good group of people who are serious about doing work on their family trees, and who are in need of a few tools to help them on their way. The classes are on the first four Saturday mornings of May and it would be lovely if Wes can pass on his passion for family detective work to others.

P.S. I’m finally dissuading the cockies from munching the small birdseed on ‘Fawlty Towers’ by arming myself with a long-range water pistol. They don’t like it at all and as I sit here looking out the magpies and rosellas are fighting over the spoils with nary a cockie in sight.

Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 12th April 2015

Dear Friends, I hope you all enjoyed a very Happy and safe Easter. We had a fun breakfast at ‘The Food Gallery’ with Danny, Judi, Barbara & Janine. Both Barbara & Judi had brought eggs for everyone, which was good as I hadn’t bought any at all this year – Wes got Edradour Whisky for Easter, which he received a few days early as the decanter was empty and things were looking grim!

Easter Saturday lunch with friends at the Farmers Arms – Judi, Gayle, Robyn, Karen & Wes in the front with Danny, Michael, Ian, Fraser, Karen & Malcolm behind- you can tell by the smiles that it is post-lunch and we’ve all had plenty to eat & drink!

After breakfast we went to see Brian Nash’s one-man exhibition at the Daylesford Town Hall, where he had 220 paintings on display. We fell in love with a few of them as we always do, but will need to make room if we buy another one. Danny bought a lovely painting of the old stone homestead at Lavandula which will should look great in his guest room – I’ll let you know after I next stay over.

It threatened to rain all day Tuesday and Wes was persuaded to have a sleep-in, give Bilbo a bone and read The Age instead. Later I walked Bilbo into town to collect the mail and see if we could find a large water-pistol with which to deter the cockies which are driving us crazy at present. We had a lovely walk and got home just as the rain started to spit down. Wes spent the morning in the garden before going off to show the first two films of the day at the Daylesford Community Cinema in the Rex Arcade.

Bilbo getting comfy on our bed – not much room for the rest of us!

Meanwhile in London, our aunt & uncle, Jeff & Kev Hoolihan, spent Easter in Balham with their daughter, Leigh, and her husband, Simon. They also caught up with their son Mike and his family while they celebrated Leigh’s birthday, Easter & Leigh & Simon’s 2^nd Wedding Anniversary. Can’t believe it is two years since we flew to London to share their marriage day.

The rain eventually tumbled down in Daylesford much to everyone’s delight as we were getting desperate for it. I realise that unless the sun shines a bit more most of my remaining tomatoes won’t ripen, but we have done very well from the 8 bushes and I could always look up the recipe for ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ from the book of the same name by Fannie Flagg!

During the afternoon it got cold enough to light the fire and Wes was delighted to arrive home to a warm house with the welcoming flames and the wonderful smell of burning wood. Happily, both children’s films had been well-attended.

Wes walked Bilbo in the misty rain on Wednesday morning before settling down to computer work and helping Barbara with reorganising her garage. I went off to Mah Jong, leaving Bilbo with Sandra, which suits him very well indeed. Sandra arrives at 7.30am which means we have to get ourselves showered and dressed and all the dog beds put up off the floor before she comes. It doesn’t seem fair for her to have to shift Bilbo’s many beds, pillows & toys.

I played Mah Jong with Dot & Valerie and we have never seen ‘Muffins & More’ busier or noisier. The staff was looking very weary and hoping that the school holidays would soon end, although they would be delighted with the sales. While Valerie and I were having lunch, another patron came over to tell us that watching us play made him nostalgic. He had bought a set in Thailand and it includes tigers and other tiles not normally found in the Chinese version.

When I walk Bilbo in the late morning or afternoon, I am enjoying looking at all the ANZAC displays in the shop windows here. Very few proprietors have refused to have poppies of some description in their windows – paper, knitted, crocheted, painted, on tiles, on mugs, in wreaths – wherever you look people have been using their imagination and producing some wonderful, evocative images.

On Thursday, Wes drove to Ivanhoe for Charlie Diluca’s funeral, which was well attended. He spoke with all members of the family, who were most appreciative of his presence, as you are when you are farewelling a loved one. Afterwards he drove to Epworth Hospital to visit Jan Smith, who is slowly recovering from her back operation and subsequent very scary blood clot. When she gets out of Epworth, she will be in rehabilitation for some weeks before she can come home again. We had bought her a lovely floppy soft toy dog to keep her company and she was delighted with it.

Jan on the slow road to recovery

                      Here is a photo from last year -   L-R Barbara, Jan, Judi, Danny, Lib, Karen,                                                                                John & Warren

On Friday Wes walked Bilbo early while I stayed in bed solving DA’s two crosswords. I had planned to go on the Bushwalk, but the destination was Irishtown, 35 minutes’ drive away, and I didn’t think Bilbo & I would be back in time for Glenn Mack’s arrival as we had invited him to join us for lunch.

So Bilbo & I set out for a bushwalk of our own – up the back of our street through Cornish Hill, over to Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, where I finally got a chance to admire the giant begonias in the greenhouse there, around the gardens and out again at the back of the railway station, where I admired the signage put up by Council & Rotary to celebrate the war service of locals. This area has now been planted with very healthy rosemary bushes and some red geraniums. We stopped at Wombat Nursery, where everyone came out to pat Bilbo and Jeff sold me some tulip & tête-a-tête bulbs.

On our way through Vincent Street, we ran into Sheila Hollingworth, who was on her way home to Clunes from Melbourne, and catching up with a couple of friends while she was here. It was lovely to see her and she was thrilled to pat Bilbo as it is a while since her labs have died and you never stop missing them. We also bumped into Michelle and Bindi-Sue (dog), regulars on the Bushwalks and she explained they had been missing as she & her partner, Sharon, a policewoman at Trentham, had bought ‘Forget-Me-Not-Cottages’ and were spending every spare second on this accommodation.

Glenn Mack arrived for a lovely long lunch, mostly sitting out on the decking before the European wasps drove us inside. Wes had cooked fresh whiting fillets and served them with steamed green beans & smashed potatoes – very yummy indeed. That night we watched the West Coast vs Carlton game in Freo and were impressed with the Blues first quarter. Something happened after that first break and the Blues only managed 3 goals for the rest of the game. Very disappointing for all their supporters & their loved ones!

It was another beautiful Autumn day yesterday – Wes & Bilbo walked early and after turning 3 kgs of tomatoes into sauce I took him for another walk in the sun. We caught the 1.30pm train to Melbourne so we could fit in a yum cha lunch before the Pies played Adelaide. And what a good idea that was! From the first bounce, it was obvious that the Crows had our measure and when we had only kicked 2 goals to half-time, I decided it would be a good idea to go – I hate leaving the footy early, but we caught a train that left at 6.08pm and were home by 7.45pm. Bilbo was thrilled to see us and we enjoyed some of the fresh tomato sauce with pasta while watching the Swans beat Port in a very entertaining game. At least Collingwood put up a fight in the last quarter and kicked a few goals, so that we were only beaten by 27 points, but the difference between the two teams was more like 100 points. It was great to see St Kilda have a good win as most pundits were predicting them to be bottom of the ladder again, which is very dispiriting for their many loyal supporters.

Meanwhile, back in Daylesford, there was a huge crowd attending the 100^th Anniversary of ANZAC celebrations in Vincent Street and Town Hall.

We have just returned from the Sunday Market and are heading off to breakfast. Wes and I have been sitting at our computers, while Bilbo cries at the top of the stairs!

Daylesford Easter Dispatch - Sunday, 5th April 2015

Dear Friends, it’s been a very quiet week for me as I started to feel the beginnings of a cold while we were at the MCG last Sunday. We had a wonderful time there, with fabulous seats, a great lunch beforehand, and a catch-up with Bill & Chris Waterhouse during the tea-break. We met Bill & Chris on our first Cricket Tour in 2008 and have stayed in touch, seeing each other when we have all been in Brisbane and/or Melbourne. When Mitchell Starc bowled Brendan McCullum with the fifth ball of his first over, we all realised that it was going to be tough for the Kiwis to make a big score, and that we were all deprived of seeing one of the Captain’s wonderful aggressive cameo innings. And so it came to pass, with a splendid innings by our Captain, Michael Clarke, playing his last One Day International game for Australia, which we won easily, if not as graciously as most of us would have liked.

By the time we arrived back here in Daylesford I had no voice and was feeling quite unwell, so took to bed and didn’t really get up again until Friday, when I got dressed and was taken for a drive around the area in lieu of our traditional Good Friday walk. I spent the week resting, reading, doing crosswords and trying to build up energy reserves. It did help that the footy had started again and my favourite commentator, Gerard Whateley, was back on Fox Footy nearly every weeknight & on the ABC radio for many of the matches. Sadly Carlton was unable to keep up the good form it showed against Collingwood in the practice game, or even the good play it managed in the first quarter against Richmond on Thursday night. Wes is very disappointed and has decided that the coach, Malthouse, that he and many others thought would be the saviour of the Blues, needs to go.

Wes has had a very busy week – looking after me with lovely meals, doing the shopping, gardening, walking Bilbo, showing ‘SpongeBob...the Movie’ at the Daylesford Community Cinema in the Rex Arcade, training someone else to be a projectionist, and somehow keeping up with Facebook, emails and Ancestry. He spent time with Barbara as usual on Wednesday morning, and has her front garden looking good as well.

Yesterday we had a lovely lunch with old friends at the Farmers Arms Hotel here in Daylesford. Danny came and stayed the night and will be joining us for breakfast today before driving back home. We watched the footy together, and were very thrilled that Collingwood could hang on for a slim victory against Brisbane at the Gabba.

We were shocked to read of the deaths of two friends during the week – Charlie Diluca, who we first met in the 70s when he and his wife, Jan, were next-door neighbours to Tom & Lib in Rosanna, and Noel Hinks, who we met with his wife, Helen, on our first Cricket Tour in 2008.

As well, our friend, Jan Smith, has been in hospital, where she had an operation on her back. She didn’t recover as quickly as the doctors would like and we were all very worried about her, but her husband, John, says she is gradually improving and if the Saints can have a win this afternoon, I am sure that will brighten her spirits.

Very old photo of Lake Daylesford looking back into town

As I sit looking outside into the back garden on our first day without Daylight Saving, it is frosty with mist rising from Lake Daylesford. The rosellas have discovered that Fawlty Towers has lots of seed again, the roses are having another burst of bloom, the rosemary is making a pretty hedge in-between the rose bushes and the seaside daisies are looking happy and contented as they frame the pathway.

We wish everyone a very happy and safe Easter and I promise a longer letter next Sunday!