Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 28th May 2017

Dear Friends, we had a most enjoyable breakfast last Sunday, as we were joined by our friends, Andrew & Syd, who had driven up from Carnegie to be with us. They both were in good spirits so there was much laughter, and I think David Castles was delighted to find Andrew as interested in tools, cars & gadgets as he is. Afterwards Wes took Andrew, Syd & Barbara on a tour of the area, until Syd became too tired & they went back to Barbara’s home for hot drinks & a chat.

In the afternoon, the footy was a mixed bag – Eleni Glouftsis made a successful debut as a field umpire in the Essendon vs West Coast game, which Essendon won by 10 goals; North Melbourne held Melbourne at bay, and after a promising start in driving rain in Freo, Carlton went down to a more determined side that played the conditions better.

We are at the end of Autumn here, but there is still much beauty to be seen, as some of the trees have been very slow to lose their leaves, and as I look up from my desk I can see all the shades of yellow, orange, red & green in the gardens around us. The birds are still here in good numbers & we have been visited again by a pair of kookaburras, much to our delight, until we discovered they had pulled all the Brussel sprouts seedlings out of their planter box & strewn them around the decking.

Kookaburras – one on Fawlty Towers in the garden & the other on our window ledge upstairs

We have had a very social week here. It started on Monday late afternoon when we met up with Jan & Warren (Secundus) Pengilley, for drinks at ‘Wine & the Country’. Jan has just published a 324-page A4 size story of their family from 1830 to 2016 & we have a copy to read, which will be a delight. We have known the Pengilleys for as long as they have lived in Daylesford. They moved here with Jan’s mother, Olga, to be near their daughter, Tara, & her husband, Diedrich & son, Renier. We first met them at Rotary & as Wes was already a member & the first Warren to do so, he became known as Primus, hence Secundus. We loved them from the minute we met, and although we don’t see each other as much as we would like, we are always in each other’s thoughts.

After Tuesday’s film, ‘Their Finest’ starring Bill Nighy et al, we had a lunch at ‘Jackie’s on Vincent’ with the 10am crew & their partners. We all loved the film, which includes some wonderful bit parts from well-known actors, and is much better & more thoughtful than the trailer suggested. Lunch was fun & Chris Soper discovered that he & Jeannette’s father-in-law had been born near each other in country NSW and had a common ancestor.

Clockwise – Jeanette, Malcolm, Chris, Betty, Norm, Ken & Wes

The next day after Dot & I had played Mah Jong & Wes had spent the morning with Barbara, we met up with friends of 45 years – Kathy & Gerard Lazzaro, who had driven up to Daylesford to have lunch with us at ‘Boathouse Daylesford’. This was the perfect spot to catch up over 2½ hours as the weather was cold & alternated between dull & drizzling & sunny & drizzling! Kathy & Ged have recently returned from a wonderful trip to Poland, Wales & England & we had loaned them our Tom Tom for the journey. Of course, when they picked up their car in Bristol, the one they had ordered & paid for wasn’t available & they had to take the bigger, less suitable model that Europa cars gave them. It turned out to have an inbuilt GPS, so they returned our Tom Tom, without having used it. They had plenty of serious & amusing stories to tell & we enjoyed our time together very much indeed.

On Thursday, I drove to Strathmore to spend time with Leanne, as it had been 4 weeks since I had seen her as I wasn’t prepared to risk driving a manual car with my sprained wrist. We achieved heaps together & I plan to visit again next Thursday to finish off some of the tasks we started. Meanwhile Wes invited Glenn Mack over for lunch & they had an enjoyable time together. He also took Bilbo to the vet for his annual check-up & we were delighted that he is in good shape for a 12½ year-old.

By Friday, I was very happy to spend the day at home after doing the shopping early & made a big pot of minestrone soup, which usually lasts three or four meals.

Wes went off with Brian Nash & they ended up spending time with Nick Massaro at his property in Porcupine Ridge.

Yesterday we started with breakfast at ‘Larder’ & chose something different from the interesting menu. My scrambled eggs were delightful & Wes enjoyed an avocado & heirloom tomato designer meal. This gave me some energy to sweep up Autumn leaves & wash the cars before sitting down to an afternoon of footy on TV.

This weekend is Indigenous Round & all the teams wear jumpers designed especially for the event. Yesterday was 50 years to the day since the 1967 Referendum (passed by over 90% of the vote) that finally included Aboriginals in our population and gave the Government the power to legislate with respect to Aboriginals. Some of the Indigenous players wore the number, 67, on their backs in lieu of their usual number, and at the tossing of the coin to start each game, Indigenous players represented their teams instead of the Captains, and gave each other gifts. The most important game played was last night when Richmond hosted Essendon at ‘Dreamtime at the G’ in front of 85,000+. Even the centre square was painted in the striking colours of the Aboriginal flag.

It has been raining quite heavily overnight, but the rain has settled down, so Bilbo is waiting patiently for us to go to the Sunday Market, followed by breakfast. Wes and I are then heading off to the MCG to see Collingwood play Brisbane in a game that starts at the very friendly time of 1.10pm. This should see us back home before dark & hopefully smiling as we listen to Carlton play North Melbourne on the drive back.