Daylesford Winter Dispatch - Sunday, 31st July 2016

Dear Friends, once again, we had a fun breakfast, especially with the addition of Gillie, who popped in for a coffee and catch up. Bilbo was given far too much to eat as usual and slept away the rest of the day until dinnertime, when he woke on cue for a smallish repast.

You can see how cold it still was at 9am outside the Food Gallery

Wes drove off to Bacchus Marsh to listen to more poetry readings from Amit and others. Penny didn’t get there, but there were quite a few other readers and Wes got to read some poems himself. On his way home, he stopped at Tylden Cemetery, where he found a Munro baby (Viva’s side of the family); a Maloney family, and lots of Macaulays, relatives of friend, John Macaulay, who was interested in what Warren posted on Facebook.

On Monday, after gym, I enjoyed a lovely long catch up with friend, Di Lyttleton, at the Food Gallery. It was foggy and wet, so she was happy to forgo walking her dogs for the warmth of the café. When I arrived home, Wes told me the sad news that our dear friend of many years, Mike Hill, was at home in palliative care, as he was no longer able to go anywhere safely.

Sadly, Mike died of lymphoma on Tuesday, and leaves behind his partner, Lorna Pitt, as well as a great legacy to Brunswick through his work establishing Westwyck, and as a Councillor and first Mayor of the City of Moreland. He loved reading my Dispatches and often followed up on things like changing passwords or correcting any ambivalent statements I made. His last outing that I know of was to the footy on Queen’s Birthday, where he was delighted to see his Demons beat Collingwood. I didn’t begrudge him his excitement for a second.

I watched the film, Downriver, with Wes at the Daylesford Cinema on Tuesday morning and what a bleak film it was. There was barely a character to like in it, just some very fine acting and a very tragic story. This is an Australian film, a mystery drama, beautifully shot in Warrandyte. Afterwards, Wes went to visit his sister, Denise, bearing lunch, to celebrate her birthday; while I had lunch at Jackie’s on Vincent with Gillie Gough & Michael Ivanchenko. The other two shared some yummy, but meaty dumplings and I tucked into the Shanghai pepper squid with extra chilli sauce. We had a lovely time chatting about all sorts of topics and were toasty warm under the heater and near the open fire.

Stunning glimpse of Lake Daylesford early on Tuesday morning courtesy of Beck Walker

There was no Mah Jong and no Sandra on Wednesday, so after gym I came home and rested before we headed off into Melbourne to visit the Old Melbourne Gaol and attend a private viewing of  ‘Degas: A New Vision’  courtesy of our financial advisors, First Samuel, at the National Gallery of Victoria. We parked near the Malthouse Theatre and caught the tram along St Kilda Road into town. Our visit to the Gaol was superb. We are National Trust members, so it was free. We were welcomed very warmly and our options explained clearly by Fiona, who gave no impression that she was saying it for the umpteenth time that day. Inside a group of schoolgirls were being taken on a noisy guided tour, but we were able to wander in and out of the cells on all three floors without hindrance. The Gaol focuses on many things, but Ned Kelly’s hanging is the most historic event to have occurred here and there is a lot of information to digest. Wes has a forebear, Edward Adams, who was at the death at Ned’s request and he is shown in the picture taken just before Ned was hanged. The man who murdered Warren’s ancestor, Frank Cartwright, was imprisoned here and we found his cell as well.

Before we left, we visited a small room, which commemorated the 30^th Anniversary of the Russell Street bombings, which were meant to destroy the police complex, which was across the road from the Gaol. Sadly, they killed Angela Taylor, a young police officer, who was walking across the road to get lunch for her mates. The complex was damaged but not destroyed and there were very few injuries.

We caught the tram back to the NGV and found our way to the private viewing, where we were plied with excellent and plentiful food & drink by very friendly, experienced staff before we were given an overview of the Degas Exhibition, and then a tour accompanied by two volunteer guides. I was underwhelmed by this huge display – I found his paintings of women showed little or no empathy with the exception of what I think is his best work by far – The Absinthe Drinker (pictured). There were a couple of other paintings I liked, mostly horses, which he seemed to prefer to women! The highlight of the evening was catching up with dear friends, Tom Tyrrell & Deb Fowler.

We were quite tired by the time we arrived back home, well past our bedtime, only to discover that I had forgotten to close the door into the laundry, and Wes had forgotten to close the door into the bedroom, with the result that Bilbo had spent the time we were away lying on our bed in supreme comfort – when he wasn’t gnawing at the giant bone we had left to keep him occupied!!!!!

On Thursday, Wes had an early appointment here before driving to Strathmore to help Leanne with her computer. I did the supermarket shopping, so he could take some stuff with him and then had a very quiet day recovering from the excitement of the day before. Bilbo and I were in bed by the time Wes arrived back at 9pm and we decided to have a sleep-in on Friday morning, which was a good decision, as Friday remained wet & foggy all day.

Another of our Daylesford friends, Russ Wilkinson, has been very unwell and in hospital in Melbourne. We knew Russ back in Brunswick days when he was a member of the East Brunswick Progress Association, run by Vic & Vi Little. Russ has taught Daylesford & surrounds how to play Mah Jong and looks after the weekly group, the longest-running U3A class, which has been going since our inception.

Jane Knox’s father, Frank, had a fall in the shower on Sunday, and has been in hospital ever since. Jane & David has just arrived at the snowfields, when they got the news, so drove back home on Monday to be by Frank’s side. It is such a worrying time for us as parents reach their nineties and frailty sets in – we are very lucky if they don’t suffer mental issues as well. On Friday, Jane herself, ended up in hospital, and will have an angiogram tomorrow to find out why she hasn’t been feeling quite right.

Yesterday we woke yet again to fog and constant rain – 10-20mls per day on average. Wes and Bilbo walked early in it, then came home & dried off before Wes went off to attend a Council briefing for the new suggested home of the Hepburn Hub. Council has suddenly realised that we have a nearly empty building in the main street that could solve most of its space problems, and cost heaps less to alter than the plans they have been foisting on an unhappy Shire. They are choosing to ignore the fact that many ratepayers, us among them, suggested the Rex Theatre ages ago and were ignored.

Wes arrived home very pleased with the hearing he and others had received and hopeful that sanity would prevail in every respect. We had fish & chips for lunch in celebration and sat down in front of the open fire for an afternoon & evening of footy. Sadly, the Blues were unable to beat ladder leaders, the Hawks, but they tried hard to stay in the contest.

We were thrilled when Collingwood was able to come back in the last quarter after being headed to beat West Coast, and then settled down to watch an even contest between North Melbourne & St Kilda, where North were determined to celebrate Boomer Harvey’s record-breaking 427^th game with a win, and did.