Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 23rd September 2018

There were only 4 of us at breakfast last Sunday – Barbara, Judi, Wes & me. It was so cold that Wes didn’t hesitate when offered mulled wine! Boathouse Daylesford was very busy as usual, but we have our own table in a corner these days & never feel under pressure to leave. We keep coming back because the service is so good, the meals are yummy & the views of Lake Daylesford spectacular, no matter what the weather.

 These daffodils all flowered at the same time, which is rather lovely.

We’ve been busy putting finishing touches to our trip – spent Monday afternoon going through it all again – making sure we had all our vouchers & emails for accommodation, shows & walks. We’ve added a day trip to Bruges from Brussels; a walking tour in Oxford celebrating Morse, Lewis & Endeavour, and are waiting confirmation of a Sherlock Holmes walk in Edinburgh. Leigh & Simon are booked to join us in Brussels over that weekend, so we will share Bruges, a special dinner & highlights of Brussels with them.

  

Our resident kookaburras were back this week. This one let me get very close & even took a piece of cheese from my hand!

I was disappointed to miss out on a reserved seat for the Preliminary Final & decided that I wouldn’t queue for hours on Friday with no guarantee I would get in – don’t have that kind of stamina these days.

However, Donna Thornycroft, owner of Wombat Hill Nursery, had a spare ticket & very kindly offered it to me, so I was able to go. Wes was good enough to drive me down as the extra trains didn’t stop at Ballan, which was surprising. And how pleased was I that I went to see the Pies play so very well & unexpectedly beat the raging favourites, Richmond. Such a thrill to be playing in the Grand Final next Saturday. All I’ve got to do now is get a seat.

Collingwood bag, transistor bag & Kleenex in preparation for the game.

Traditionally I decorate the house, so after 5 hours sleep yesterday morning I drove to the $2 shop & bought some black & white balloons & streamers. I suspect the balloons won’t last the distance.

Friday was a delightful day all round – we walked early & spent some time chatting with Barry the fisherman. After supermarket shopping I had arranged to meet Gillie for breakfast at The Food Gallery. As I was walking there, a ute stopped & the driver wound down his window to say hello. It was Greg Stewart, my doctor, who has been out of action for the past three months with a heart attack, followed by complications. It was so good to see him & his wife, Beth, also a doctor, looking for the right path to walk around Cornish Hill.

Gillie & I had a great time together & she had some excellent suggestions for our time in Brussels & Venice. Meanwhile Danny Moynihan turned up at home with some wine & chocolates for Warren & Barbara to say thank you for the two interviews they had filmed of him. This is the first time any interviewee has said thank you with gifts, which were much appreciated.

Latest knitting for Keeping Daylesford Warm – three beanies & a jumper – thanks to Rhonda & Kathy for the wool

 Front door & bedroom window decorations

Last night Wes attended a wonderful 80^th birthday celebration party for Georgina Meadows at the Hepburn Springs Golf Club. He came home with lots of great stories from her speech & those of her son & grand-daughter.

Wes, Georgina, Alan Straub, David Hall & Peter Widdop in party mode!

West Coast beat Melbourne yesterday afternoon to become our opponents next Saturday. They looked very powerful & will be hard to beat. We are off to Melbourne on Thursday, having lunch with Tom Tyrrell & Deborah Fowler; staying at Danny’s & catching up with Jane & David Knox, who are visiting Melbourne for the Grand Final. It will be even more exciting to watch the Parade on Friday now that we are in it. Not sure when I will next be in touch – probably Monday week!

Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 16th September 2018

We enjoyed another fun breakfast at Boathouse last Sunday. David Castles was to have joined us, but his brother & friend led him astray & he slept in! Afterwards Wes & I had planned a walk to Twin Bridges, but it was raining & we opted to come straight home & spend a quiet day inside instead.

I had bought yet another rose from Ken Rae, Spring Park Nursery, at the Sunday Market & Wes tells me that we have officially run out of room for any more roses unless he creates another garden bed.

 Apricot Clementine – no wonder I couldn’t resist it!

I’ve started a new programme at gym & it is quite tough – Barry tells me it is the one he does himself. Obviously with much heavier weights! The reps are 4 x 14, which is a mighty lot of lifting of weights, barbells, dumbbells & kettlebells. This current programme aims to boost endurance, which is perfect for someone with chronic fatigue.

We drove to Ballarat to see the Australian film The Merger, about a battling country Aussie Rules side, which recruits refugees to help them out. It is a lovely film which tackles the issue of acceptance from a few angles.

Thanks for all the suggestions & advice for our upcoming trip. We are thrilled that so many friends are interested in our doings & very excited about all the plans we have been able to make. On our third trip to Pitlochry, we are arriving too late to see the plays, but just in time to see the musical, Chicago, which stars all the cast. In Glasgow we have tickets for a Rachmaninov Concert & in Edinburgh, we are off to see Some Guys Have all the Luck, a new musical based on Rod Stewart’s life.

We are off to a 2009 Alan Bennet play The Habit of Art starring David Yelland, Matthew Kelly & Veronica Roberts, in Liverpool. The shows we have booked in London are The Wild Duck featuring Nicholas Day; The Play that Goes Wrong, a comedy with a big cast; A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter starring Jim Broadbent; & The Height of the Storm, where we will see Dame Eileen Atkins & Jonathan Pryce. Finally, we have a concert booked in Brussels & another in Venice to round off our cultural education.

Our cousin & God-daughter, Leigh & her husband, Simon, now live in Luxembourg, where Leigh heads up the European legal division of PayPal & we hope to see them while we are away.  

We’ve been able to walk nearly every morning this week, usually in frosty weather, followed by sunny Spring days. We even did the walk around Jubilee Lake on Friday – our first time since Bilbo died & it was so muddy we were very pleased he wasn’t there getting grubby.

After the walk, I feed the birds back here as it is now light enough for them to be up & about. On Friday I threw in some cheese squares & two young kookaburras arrived out of the sky & spent their time throwing the cheese up in the air & trying to catch it in their beaks. We also enjoy seeing the currawongs eat spaghetti, which they do in approved fashion, just as if they were swallowing worms.

I couldn’t get both kookas in shot as they did their tossing routine, but they are together in the old oak tree!

We had a wonderful catch up lunch with Karen (aka Lovely) & Malcolm at Williamstown on Thursday. We met at The Vault on the Strand, which had great write-ups on Trip Advisor – the service was fabulous, but the food & ambience didn’t live up to expectations. Absolutely no fish & chips on the menu, which is a shame when the water is just across the road. However, we loved spending time together with old friends & chatted about any number of things before it was time for us to hit the road.

My favourite red camellia bursting into bloom under the decking outside the guest bedroom.

The footy on Friday night was most exciting when Melbourne overcame a determined Hawthorn to progress to a Preliminary Final in Perth against West Coast.

Last night, we went to see Collingwood play Greater Western Sydney at the MCG along with 70,000 others. I was amazed & proud that the Pies were able to win, especially after GWS took the lead in the third quarter. Our reserved seats were in the open, so we arrived early & managed to get seats undercover on Level 4. We were sitting talking when an old friend from Brunswick Rotary days, Geoff Noble, came by. It was lovely to see him again after quite a few years. Collingwood now play the reigning Premiers, Richmond, next Friday night, in the other Preliminary Final.

On our way home after the game, we drove through snow flurries from Trentham through to Daylesford & there have been a few flakes again this morning to accompany -2°.

Old friends, Terry, Georgie & Laura Borg on a rare holiday together in Rome

Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 9th September 2018

After breakfast last Sunday, we visited the Daylesford Primary School book fair, where we bought 15 books for $45 – bargain! We love supporting this school & the fair is held at this time each year. The books are sorted alphabetically, are in good condition & very reasonably priced. As we left Wes picked up some very yummy home-made treats for a young girl at the front door & we demolished them for afternoon tea.

We’ve spent much of our week planning a trip away before we collect a pair of young Labradors, probably around January 2019. We want to say goodbye to some of our favourite places in Scotland; explore a bit more of Wales; catch up with Jeff & Kev in Torksey Lock; see our friends, Paul & Pauline in Chipping Norton; stay in Nether Wallop (the first place we fell in love with when we visited England in 1975); see some shows in London; discover a little bit of Belgium (on the track of Hercule Poirot), & finish up in Venice at the Hotel Vivaldi where we stayed with my cousin, Leigh Murrin, 10 years ago. It is amazingly time-consuming looking for & discarding various types of accommodation, but we have finally found somewhere to stay for every night of the 7 weeks we will be away.

My job has been to book theatre & music experiences & we are quite thrilled with what we have managed to find. We leave on 11^th October & return on 27^th November, just in time for Chris & Malcolm’s wedding at the Convent Gallery on Friday 30^th.

Latest crop of beanies delivered to Jodie for distribution this week

Apart from the usual activities, we both visited Leanne on Thursday to help her with garage & computer issues; we had lunch with Chris & Malcolm to catch up on their plans for their wedding & watched all four games of footy. The first three games were very lopsided with Richmond, Melbourne & GWS winning easily, but the last game, West Coast & Collingwood over in Perth was very exciting & close until the Eagles took control in the last quarter & won by 3 goals. The Coodabeen Champions have dubbed the Perth Stadium, The Boo Factory, & most of the 60,000 in attendance did exactly that for much of the night!

I’m very proud of the Magpies for getting into the top 4, but always thought we would go out in straight sets. It will be interesting to see how we fare against Greater Western Sydney at the MCG next weekend.

Finally, we have enough daffodils to fill a vase – so happy & beautiful!

We got to bed so late last night that our early walk has been postponed until after breakfast. I’m heading off to the Sunday Market soon & even though it is 4 weeks since Bilbo died, I am still not used to going on my own. He loved Sundays & the ritual of visiting the Market followed by breakfast until we had to change venue & there wasn’t a spot for him within sight of us.

Bilbo enjoying shredded cabbage earlier this year

Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 2nd September 2018

We started our week with another lovely breakfast at Boathouse, where we were joined by Aileen. Judi was pleased to be with her friends again & we listened to some stories about her time with her mother, the kindness of strangers & the success of the memorial service that she & her sister, Sue, had organised.

I arrived back home at the same time as Wes pulled in back from his overnight stay in Melbourne after Siobhan & Simon’s wedding. We chatted over cuppas & caught each other up on news, of which he had by far the most.

We’ve been enjoying walking around Lake Daylesford most days if the weather permits. If not at 6am, I like to go around at 8am, when it is quiet or late morning if I have been at gym.

Wes has planted two tree ferns in our garden. When we were in Tassie in June this year, we fell in love with them again & ordered a couple from Ken Rae at Spring Park Nursery. He finally produced them at the market on Sunday, & we are tickled pink as they look very healthy & are just starting to uncurl some fronds. One is in the back under the decking & the other is by the pond in the front up against the wall. Both are sheltered, will get lots of water & enjoy some sunshine, but not too much!

 This pair of Pacific Black ducks (thanks David Castles) were on the step looking as though they wanted to join gym on Monday morning – perhaps they liked the music playing!

We are delighted to welcome a new neighbour this week. Esther moved into no 76, the house that was briefly for sale next to us, and she assures us she is here to stay. Wes & I have both introduced ourselves to her – he to offer assistance & me to let her know that her recycling bin disappeared early one morning (I suspect it was collected accidentally by the truck emptying the bins). As I was chatting to Esther, mutual friends from Sister George arrived – with a big recycling bin in the boot of their station wagon! We don’t know anything about Esther yet and look forward to spending some time with her when she is out of panic mode unpacking & settling in.

Early morning birds finding their seed & rice under the frosty lawn

I’m very excited that Collingwood finished in the top 4 & has a double chance in this year’s finals series. We start by playing West Coast at the new Perth stadium. I did consider making the trip, but it would be too exhausting as the AFL package gets you there & back in two days!

It was so cold on Wednesday morning that I had to wait 20 minutes for the hot water pipes to defrost & was nearly late for gym. There were only 4 of us in attendance & I suspect we weren’t the only ones with no hot water. Plus, those who lived out of town would have been nervous of black ice on the roads. Once the sun came out it was beautiful – Barry’s 9.30am class was probably packed.

We were due to have a day out on Thursday, but as the rest of the week was busy we opted to see a film at Ballarat instead. We had a few chores to do on the way & had time for lunch before the film, so tried Jade Inn, a very enjoyable & friendly Chinese restaurant in Sturt Street with lots of variety on the menu. Wes had pork with blackbean sauce & I demolished a plate of Szechuan prawns.

Wes saw the film, Blackkklansman, recommended by his friend, Tom, while I watched The Book Club, as both films finished at the same time. My film was entertaining & I enjoyed watching Diane Keaton & Jane Fonda, two excellent actresses.

We had been invited to lunch on Friday to celebrate the ‘end of Winter, beginning of Spring’ by Di Lyttleton & Jeff Bain, who live about 5 minutes away from us. We were delighted to be part of their guest list, which included Georgina Meadows, who we met at the same time as Di in the early 2000s; Roger & Val Roberts, who are painters that we first encountered when we were running the Daylesford Rotary Art Show, & Norma & Jim Foster, who we have not met before & enjoyed spending time with. Di produced her usual spectacular meal – soup, huge cold platters of fish & chicken, yummy sweets with an enormous cheeseboard to finish. Conversation flowed around a wide range of topics with lots of laughter & some serious moments as well.

Yesterday we drove to Euroa, (via Kyneton to see the daffodils), where we had a lovely visit with Warren’s nephew John, his wife, Dannielle, & their 4 children, Malachi, Kalarni, Dublin & Irish. The family is building a new home on a large property a few kms outside of Euroa & we were able to have a guided tour before settling down to lunch at the local Chinese restaurant, Flam Shan, where we were brilliantly looked after by owner, Connie.

clockwise - Wes, John, Kalarni, Irish, Malachi, Dannielle & Dublin

We’ve already walked around the Lake this morning & are looking forward to breakfast at the Boathouse with friends after visiting the Sunday Market, followed by a quiet day at home.