Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 25th September 2016

 

Dear Friends, we had some wonderful discussions at breakfast last Sunday – firstly Wes told everyone about a very complex web of relationships he had found when researching his aunt, Norma, who was adopted by the same couple that adopted his mother, Doris. Aileen arrived and we got onto the poet, Judith Wright, and her biography and moved onto an Iranian people-smuggler’s autobiography, that Judi had read recently. Before everyone else arrived, Margot told me how disappointed she was that Jack Green’s best artworks had not been on display at the Pop up Exhibition at the Daylesford Museum the previous weekend.

Bilbo rugged up against the cold at the Food Gallery – it must be worth it as he keeps coming back for more!

Afterwards we drove to Sailors Falls to see the waterfalls there, which are quite spectacular. All the walks are closed off, as is the mineral water, so I jumped out of the car, into the rain, and admired the flow from a distance. It was so cold & damp, we decided to drive back home and stay put – all thoughts of a walk from Lake Daylesford to Twin Bridges or Tipperary Springs shelved!

Sailors Falls – view from the top in the rain

It was a perfect afternoon for sitting in front of the fire reading, so we did.

I woke on Monday with some energy again at last and enjoyed walking to and from gym, including a detour to pick some lemons from Bill & Sue’s laden tree.

Wes spent the morning in the garden, and, in the afternoon, after some hours writing, he visited Margot to help get her laptop working again. It seems to have developed a mind of its own while she was away in Queensland!

Tuesday was another beautiful morning and I headed off to Ballarat for my postponed appointment with the naturopath, while Wes did a double shift at the Daylesford Cinema. As it is school holidays, the number of films is increased, and there aren’t enough fully trained volunteers to fill the spots.

I was very happy with my session – the naturopath seemed to think she could help my energy levels as well as offer another way to eradicate the warts on my foot. We had an hour together and she was very thorough. I am a stick in the mud & like to have the same thing for breakfast, some variety at lunch, and very little variety at night. However, I have to try some different things, so Wes has been poaching pears, steaming broccoli and serving more eggs than usual!

Dot & I met up for a couple of hours on Wednesday to play Mah Jong, as we thought it was important to keep the tradition going. Everyone was lovely at Muffins & More and we had a fun time together, before Dot had to leave for an appointment.

Pretty flowers in a cup & saucer on our Mah Jong table

Wes went to the Old Hepburn Hotel for dinner that night with Jeff Bain and they enjoyed the roast pork special with lots of red wine.

I drove to Strathmore on Thursday to spend time with Leanne. It was raining intermittently there and back, and there were plenty of potholes to avoid on the roads. We had a good time together. That night Wes went off to a meeting for volunteers of the Daylesford Cinema, and then dropped in to the Daylesford Hotel, where a few members of our ALP branch were discussing its future.

Wes had a sleep in the next morning, so after shopping early at Coles, I walked Bilbo around the Gardens. The weather was fine so Wes got into the back garden before it was time to drive to Castlemaine for Valerie’s funeral. We went to the wrong Christ Church, but had left in plenty of time so weren’t late for the service. The first person we saw was Gail White, who had arranged for someone to take her & Terry’s places at Brick Lane so she could attend. She had saved us seats next to Dot & John, so it was good that all the Mah Jong ones were together.

The Church was full - Valerie had a large family of 4 and had about 10 grandchildren, as well as 3 great grandkids. There were also friends from Church, croquet, Probus and U3A. Sandra Frost, our cleaner, was there with Valerie’s neighbours; Keith & Ros Pyers were there as Ros went to school with Valerie in Yallourn and Keith’s brother, Val, ran a choir there that Valerie joined. The minister told us that she only made the mistake of calling Valerie ‘Val’ once, before she was put back in her place and advised that Valerie was the only acceptable version of her name. I can empathise as I don’t like any diminution of my name for reasons that go back to childhood, but haven’t left me.

Valerie & Alison

After the service, we walked down the hill to the Church Hall, where we finally met Valerie’s daughter, Alison, who spoke well of how much she loved her mother and how much she will miss her, as did her three daughters, one of whom flew back from Brazil to be there. We also met Valerie’s good friend, Jean, who lives in Dunolly, and who met Valerie through croquet. They went on holidays together as well as spending half each week together. We were pleased to catch up with Tom Cockram, the potter, who moved from Hepburn Springs to Castlemaine some years ago, and Marj Green (wife of Jack, the painter), who lives in Daylesford, but played croquet in Newstead with Valerie & Jean.

That night we watched the Sydney Swans demolish Geelong at the MCG and put themselves into their 3^rd Grand Final in 5 years. Messages went to & fro from Jane Knox in Sydney – she was now regretting she hadn’t snapped up cheaper airfares when they were available. However, it is going to be hard for her & David to get tickets as they are SCG members, not members of the footy club.

Yesterday was a busy morning – Wes walked Bilbo, came home to put my henna on, wash Bilbo & poach pears for breakfast. Afterwards, I took Bilbo into town for a walk as I needed to pick up a few things. We met up with some lovely friendly dogs on our walk as well as some friendly owners! Wes spent lots of time in the front garden and everywhere is looking very happy for the attention. We even have a few late daffodils in bloom and are waiting for the tulips.

Last night, while Bilbo slept we were on the edges of our seats willing the Western Bulldogs across the line against GWS at the Sydney Showgrounds. It was a stunning game that was finally won in the last minutes and like most of the AFL footy world we are thrilled that the Doggies will be playing in their first Grand Final since 1961.

Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 18th September 2016

Dear Friends, when I left you last Sunday, we were about to embark on our usual activities of Sunday Market shopping followed by breakfast with friends. Bilbo’s diary had told him that Margot would be back and he didn’t stop pestering us until we popped him into the car and headed off early.

Conversation was very interesting – Janine had been to Hobart with her son, Paul, and came back with some ideas about enlightenment at Port Arthur that none of us shared. Margot had photos to show from her trip, the highlight of which was watching whales from her unit nearly every morning. Judi told us about a leaking vase which collapsed when she picked it up, which forced her to do a Spring clean of their dining room whether she felt like it or not. Janine had volunteered at the 5000 Club, a group that puts on a free lunch every Friday and has been doing so for 5 years. She was very impressed with the donations for the meal, the table settings & the menu and intends to keep volunteering there when she can.

After breakfast we dropped our little fat dog home and went to the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens to buy some plants. Sadly, the best of the stock had already gone and there was nothing that appealed to either of us, so we headed off to the Daylesford Museum to see the pop-up Exhibition of Jack Green’s paintings. There were over 40 on display, as well as some early sketches, and paintings by some of his students, one of whom was Margot, who had arrived back here in time to contribute a very fine painting she had done.

It was wet again on Monday, but Wes & Bilbo walked early and noticed that the Lake was not as full as it had been. I went off to gym and then enjoyed a massage with Nick Massaro, which is always a treat for me and Bilbo as Nick never arrives without something in his bag for each of us!

Wes admiring the view from Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens over the Convent Gallery and out to Mt Franklin

After the massage I gave Valerie a ring at Box Hill Hospital and was thrilled to hear her sounding much more like her old self. She had enjoyed a weekend of visitors and some quality time with one of her daughters, Alison, & one of her sons, Andrew.

On Tuesday we woke to another morning of soaking rain – Wes took Bilbo for a short walk around Victoria Park, before preparing for his morning at Daylesford Cinema where he was showing the film, ‘Ab Fab’. I dropped him off there and headed to The Cutting Studio for a fringe trim, before joining the rest of the audience for this very funny film. We enjoyed it, but it wasn’t side-splitting in the way the TV episodes were.

Afterwards we went to the Food Gallery for lunch and while we were there I received an unexpected phone call from Alison to say that Valerie had died very suddenly from a heart attack. I let Dot know straight away and asked Wes to tell Bob Kennedy & Carol Bruce when he got home, as I had an appointment at EKO. Emma & Alanna were very kind and I was so pleased I had gone. That night was early to bed with toasted sandwiches, red wine & a good sleep!

On Wednesday I went to gym in pouring rain (80mls in 24 hours) before meeting Dot for a cuppa and chat at Muffins & More. Bella & Jackie were very upset to hear about Valerie’s death and bought us each a bunch of flowers, which was very thoughtful of them.

It was still raining on Thursday morning & I emptied 100mls out of the rain gauge. We had planned a day in Buninyong and were looking forward to the Botanic Gardens, the Cemetery, and the Info Centre at the Old Library, as well as visiting the Mount Buninyong Winery for lunch. Everyone was posting photos on Facebook showing how hard it was to get in or out of Daylesford, and we decided it was madness to add to the road chaos when we didn’t need to travel.

So we planned the rest of our trip to Adelaide at the end of November for the Day/Night Pink Ball Test against South Africa. We have decided to spend a couple of nights in Mount Gambier on the way over and three nights in Portland on the way back.

When Bilbo has finished his dinner each night, he likes to sit on Wes’s lap, but Wes didn’t appear, so he jumped up on the couch to be with me instead!

It was good to wake to a dry morning and Wes & Bilbo had a careful walk around the Lake, where the path is very wet & slippery. I went shopping at Coles and then walked into town to meet Judi at Muffins & More for a catch up cuppa, which was most enjoyable.

Wes made a very yummy garlicky pumpkin & fennel soup before heading off for an afternoon of meetings with Jenny Beacham. I chatted with Leanne and then had a lovely phone call from Karen Stevenson. We had planned to catch up with her & Malcolm yesterday before going to the footy at Port Melbourne, but with all this rain, we decided not to make the trip. We were also feeling quite flat after Valerie’s sudden death and probably not in the right mood for socialising.

  

Great photo of Lake Daylesford – you can just see the bridge, which is impassable and God knows where the seat has gone!!!

We couldn’t take our eyes off the footy and watched in amazement as the Western Bulldogs team got their act together in the second half & ran all over Hawthorn, putting them out of the contest for the Grand Final.

When we woke yesterday, it was dry & warmish, so Bilbo & I went for a lovely walk around the Wombat Botanic Gardens, where we enjoyed looking at the stunning display of primula in the Conservatory.

Wes spent the morning in the front garden, putting down steps to make it easier for us to get around. We settled down to watch the Collingwood Reserves play the Footscray Reserves in a Preliminary Final. I turned the TV off when Footscray got 20 goals up & congratulated all my Doggies friends – a Preliminary Final in the Seniors next Saturday and a Grand Final in the Reserves next Sunday – what a weekend.

The Swans were too good for Adelaide at the SCG, but ended up with some injuries and will be hoping they can field a strong team to beat Geelong next Friday night.

Bilbo with his back to the stunning primula at the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens.

It is wet and cold again this morning, so plans for a walk to Tipperary Springs have been put on hold. Bilbo is waiting impatiently at the top of the stairs for me to take him to the Sunday Market and then breakfast.

We have Irish friends, Jim & June Swatman, in Iceland at present & all their photos are making us quite keen to get back there. We have done so little and there is so much to do. I am rereading all my Arnaldur Indridason crime novels – it is so much better once you have been there and can picture exactly what & where he puts his detective, Erlendur.

Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 11th September 2016

 

Dear Friends, we certainly enjoyed our Father’s Day and spent the afternoon like these three Peanuts characters. Wes felt like breakfast at the Boathouse, so after the Sunday Market, we headed off and Barbara met us there for her first outing all week. We were looked after beautifully by Suzanne & Claire and enjoyed very yummy meals indeed – Wes & Barbara had a breakfast bagel with fried egg, bacon & salad, and I tucked into the mushrooms dish which is my favourite.

After breakfast Wes & I visited the annual Daylesford Primary School Book Fair, where we picked up 22 books, and brought home a jar of raspberry jam, all for about $60! It was too wet underfoot for gardening, so Wes decided to light the fire and read. I sat at the computer reading some lovely emails from friends apropos my computer issues and then added our new books to the book Inventory. The afternoon flew by as we read the weekend papers, did crosswords and had a drink or two.

I had hoped to go to gym early on Monday before driving to Strathmore to see Leanne, but I realised I was putting pressure on myself, so cut out the gym and was preparing to leave when Leanne rang to say she would prefer I came on Friday, which suited me fine. Bilbo & I went for a long walk around the Gardens & Daylesford Railway Station, while Wes spent the morning in our garden. The weather was good enough for me to finally do some transplanting of shiraz beans, which had been sitting in the greenhouse and needed to move to the planter boxes, with stakes.

Wes and Bilbo walked early in the dark on Tuesday, while I caught up with ironing and other house chores. Then off to gym for me and off to the Daylesford Cinema for Wes to show the delightful Irish film, ‘Sing Street’. I joined about 8 others there, and we all enjoyed it, except for the two sitting next to me who thought they came expecting to see ‘Ab Fab’.

After gym on Wednesday I spent time with Judi at Muffins & More, catching up on our week’s news. My good Mah Jong friend, Valerie, has been in hospital and everyone at the café was pleased to hear she was out and staying with her daughter, Alison, in Melbourne, to recuperate. Wes spent the morning helping Barbara, mostly indoors, and came home to cook us a yummy risotto for lunch. We watched and enjoyed a very old ‘Inspector Morse’, which we had not seen before.

I walked Bilbo around the Gardens again on Thursday, while Wes mowed the lawns before the rains came down. He did a great job and everywhere looks very neat & green. The promised rain didn’t arrive until night-time, when it bucketed down. We watched the Bulldogs beat the Eagles over in WA, which was an amazing victory considering they are still without many of their stars.

When we woke on Friday it was to discover that the news on Valerie wasn’t good. The doctors are Box Hill Hospital think she has cancer and that the tumour on her neck is causing her pain. She is being give some strong medication and they may decide to operate.

Meanwhile our friend, Russ Wilkinson, is in rehab at the Queen Elizabeth Centre in Ballarat, which is good news; and Terry White, our good friend, is recovering well from his operation and hopes to be driving again in a week or so.

I drove down to Melbourne to visit Leanne, while Wes & Bilbo stayed warm & dry at home. It was absolutely pouring with rain and there were streams of water at the bottom of our street making it quite difficult to get out. On the way I encountered a fallen tree that covered three of the four lanes of the Woodend road leading to the freeway, but fortunately traffic was light and cars & trucks were able to get around it. By the time I came back the tree had been completely removed.

We watched the first half of the very exciting Geelong & Hawthorn game & caught up with the second half yesterday morning on the replay as we were too tired to last the distance. I had been checking the scores during the night & was amazed to see that Geelong had fought back & won by 2 points, when Isaac Smith missed a set shot for goal after the siren that would have given the Hawks the win.

Bilbo sleeping through the excitement!

We have received 60mls in rain since Thursday night and Lake Daylesford has broken its banks at one particular spot.

Simon Murrin posed for a photo sitting on that soggy bench when they were in Daylesford last month! Thanks to Roger Brailsford for this photo.

Yesterday afternoon we watched Greater Western Sydney outplay the Swans to record a famous win in their first AFL Final. And last night, we were very sad to see North Melbourne bow out of the finals with barely a whimper – not a fitting end for 4 veterans, who have given so much and are being compulsorily retired.

Although it is cold this morning, there is no rain and as I sit looking out into the garden I can see daffodils, an old apple tree in blossom, camellias looking very happy and mist rising over the Lake & the Wombat State Forest.

Bilbo & I are about to visit the Sunday Market before going to breakfast at the Food Gallery. Margot will be back with us after 5 weeks in Queensland – she won’t be enjoying the cold, but will be thrilled to see Bilbo and hopefully, us as well. Then Wes and I are going to see a weekend pop up exhibition of paintings by Jack Green, a friend who died in 2010. We are also hoping to get to the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, where the Friends of the Gardens are having a plant sale. 

Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 4th September 2016

Dear Friends, it has been quite a week since I gaily wrote up last Sunday’s Dispatch and restarted the computer to send it off. That was the end of the computer for some reason. Happily, I had put the Dispatch up on my Blog, http://karenmaloney5.blogspot.com.au/, which saved all the work, but everything else was lost.

I went off to the Market while Wes tried to sort it out with our Tech Experts, and when I got home, he had decided he would give breakfast a miss and see if he could get anywhere. When I arrived back, the experts were asking for us to back up everything on an external hard drive, which my computer lacks. So we had to wait until Monday when we could visit Bi-Rite at Mitre 10 and pick one up.

At lunchtime, we headed off to the MCG to see Collingwood play Hawthorn and arrived in time for a drink at the outside bar where we had taken the Murrin family three weeks ago. Amazingly the game was totally engrossing and the Magpies only lost it in the last 30 seconds. The atmosphere was electric, like a Finals game, and we were both so pleased that we were there to experience it.

On Monday, after an early walk, we visited Mitre 10, where Tim sold us a hard drive and back home we went to spend the rest of the day in front of our computers. Sadly, the back- up didn’t work on the hard drive, so all my files and folders were wiped out.

While Wes went off to show the film, Central Intelligence, (but nobody turned up, so he, Malcolm, Angie & Ethan had a wasted morning), I drove happily to Ballarat Mazda as it was time for our little Mazda 2 to be serviced. I arrived in plenty of time only to be told that Mazda had moved to an industrial estate in Wendouree, and the receptionist very kindly printed out a Google Map, as I am not familiar with Wendouree at all.

I finally found them and was feeling flustered and upset, which no-one seemed to appreciate – ‘but we sent you a text message yesterday’ was the response to my queries. I discovered that there was a courtesy bus, so went into the waiting area, where I promptly muted the wretched breakfast programme that was showing, to the applause of the other occupant. I have since realised I could have changed channels to ABC News 24 – maybe next time!

Karen, the bus driver, dropped us off at Myer in Sturt Street and I did a few chores before heading to Errard Street for my appointment with a naturopath recommended by my podiatrist, Victoria Armstrong. We had just started our session when I noticed she was very distracted and discovered that she had expected a refugee Sudanese family at 9am that morning and they had only just arrived. They had travelled from Mildura with a sick child and had gotten lost. Naturally I gave up my appointment for them and wondered what else could go wrong!

The next thing was a phone call from Mazda to say my car was ready an hour earlier than expected and Karen was on her way to pick me up. She was very helpful in giving me directions on how to get back home without retracing my steps and when I went to pay the bill it was free, except for the new windscreen wiper inserts which I request every service.

That afternoon, we finished the download of all the programme updates from when we bought this computer, which was running Windows 8 at the time. This was another long afternoon, but by the time we went to bed, I had managed to get my toolbars back, my sheep photo on the desktop and Reckon, Skype & e-Wallet working.

The next morning, I spent restoring my Documents & Photos from back-ups and discovered that I had only lost about 10 days of work, mostly because I had forgotten to back up on Saturday when everything worked briefly – my own fault. Then I went for an enjoyable cuppa and catch up with Judi at Muffins & More, while Wes went over the road to work in Barbara’s garden. She had caught a bad cold from one of her carers and spent much of the week resting in bed.

That afternoon was spent recreating my Calendar back from the Google one and reinstating recurring events, which don’t sync very well. Finally, I had to get my printer to talk to the computer again, which involved downloading drivers and umpteen updates, but that issue is now resolved as well.

We had decided to go to Bacchus Marsh on Thursday as part of our exploring days, but changed our minds and visited Avoca instead. First we took Bilbo to see the Blowhole, which is looking spectacular after all our rain, and on our way back, detoured to see if Bryce’s Flat was cut off by running water and sure enough it is. There used to be a very high bridge over the creek, but Council in its wisdom replaced it with a very low concrete slab, so every time we have rain it is impassable by car or foot.

Bilbo & Wes at the Blowhole

We dropped Bilbo back home and drove the scenic route to Avoca, spending a little time in Clunes & Talbot on the way there. We arrived too early for lunch, so decided to visit a winery and chose St Ignatius. We are so pleased we did – Sylvia, who looked after us, and her husband, are from Argentina, and they moved to Melbourne in their early twenties. This winery was their dream and they do everything themselves. We particularly liked their Chablis, Cabernet & 2014 Shiraz, so bought a mixed dozen before heading to the Avoca Hotel for lunch.

This hotel was a very pleasant spot with a good wine list and plenty of interesting wines available by the glass. The dining room menu offered Tuki trout, which I couldn’t resist, and kangaroo, which Wes enjoyed.

We drove back home through Creswick and vowed to go back soon to explore Avoca and its interesting old buildings and wineries further.

That night Wes went to a social evening for Daylesford Cinema volunteers, which was held at Horvat’s Supper Club.

On Friday, we slept in for a change, and I went shopping at Coles too late to be able to take Bilbo on the 9am Bushwalk. So I walked him around Lake Daylesford instead and let him have a swim in the flat shallow area. Wes was able to spend the morning in the garden, much to his delight, and we were back at our computers after lunch – him trying to catch up on all the work he was unable to do while Tech Experts were using our computers, and me trying to download my favourite photo manager – Microsoft Office Picture Manager, which has disappeared with Office 365 2016. I eventually did it, took control of my photos and finally could start on this week’s Dispatch!

Yesterday we had a lovely three-hour lunch at The Surly Goat in Hepburn Springs with friends, Jane Barrett & John Webster & Roger & Val Roberts. Amazingly, three of those four are Poms, who are all delighted to be living in Daylesford. We had plenty to chat about as well as enjoying our beautiful meals. Wes, Roger & I had the snapper, which we couldn’t fault – note the clean plates!

L-R John, Jane, Val, Wes, Karen, Roger

Wes discovered when we arrived home that he had lost his good glasses and went back to retrace his steps, while I turned on the TV to watch Collingwood play Williamstown in the reserves footy, as advertised. Instead Channel 7 was showing Geelong & Essendon, which was a good, high-scoring game, but not what I wanted to see! The Pies won well and are into a Preliminary Final in a fortnight.

This morning there is a message on Facebook that Daryl Raine has found some glasses and as his business, Aqua Viva, is next door to The Surly Goat, we are very optimistic that these glasses belong to Wes. Bilbo & I are off to pump water & stock up at the Sunday Market. The usual breakfast has been cancelled as everyone is busy, but Wes had suggested taking Barbara to the Boathouse instead if she is up to it, so that’s what we will be doing for Daddy’s Day.