We started our week catching up
with Janine Hawker over breakfast & hearing all about her recent trip to
Morocco. She had brought home lovely bottles of rose essence as gifts, of which
we were most appreciative. The Sunday
Market had been very busy at 8am, when we arrived, and true to her word,
Yvonne, had dog pumpkin to add to the dog carrots, celery & apples. Lewis
& Morse are loving this regular addition to their meals.
After breakfast at The Food
Gallery, we walked across the road to the Town Hall, where a Terra
Nullius breakfast with speakers was being held. There was a good
sized group & most visitors were supportive. When we got home Wes unfurled
our Aboriginal flag & replaced the Collingwood flag on our flagpole. It is
certainly bright & colourful & a reminder every day of what we did to
our original inhabitants.
We had promised ourselves a drive
to Lexton, which had been slightly impacted by the recent fires. We enjoyed our
drive which went through Waubra, (where there is a viewing platform of the
wind farms) and found ourselves in a very dry, small town, with nothing
open and no way to spend our money, which was one of the purposes of the visit.
We found the footy ground & golf course, which had been close to the fires,
and stopped at the lovely reserve to let Lewis & Morse stretch their legs.
This little town (pop 150) had been discovered by Major Mitchell in 1836 &
became a town in 1851, preceding many bigger gold rush towns. It relied on
agriculture for its survival.
That night we had promised
ourselves tinned salmon sandwiches on yummy pumpkin bread from the Sunday
Market. We enjoy our meal, downed a glass of wine, and went off to bed happy
with our day.
Sadly, I suffered a severe bout of
gastro during the night and spent the next three days in bed trying to recover.
Tinned salmon is off the agenda forever and Wes has nearly gone crazy trying to
find things to tempt me to eat. I couldn’t even keep down cups of tea at first.
By Thursday I was well enough to
get up & dressed for a few hours & catch up on emails, post etc. Lewis
& Morse were delighted to see me, as they had missed my company, which is
rather lovely. They had been allowed into the bedroom each morning &
evening to say hello with competiitve amounts of licking & tail-wagging.
Meanwhile, Wes was kept busy
looking after me, helping Barbara daily, cleaning out our pond, watering the
garden & keeping the weeds under control. I was so thrilled I had washed
the windows last Saturday as the view from the bedroom is so clear &
delightful, it was a pleasure to be confined to quarters.
The first thing I
did on Thursday morning was pick roses as they are still blooming profusely.
On Friday I was able to do the
shopping at Coles & dog socialising at The Food Gallery with
Wes. The highlight was George Jackson’s partner, Terry Stroud, arriving &
being greeted rapturously. Terry works in Canberra & he had driven down the
day before, glad to escape the fires & smoke haze.
Yesterday I walked early with Wes
around Lake Daylesford & we were the only ones, which was blissful, after a
hot, horrible night. It was 23ยบ at 6am, but the temperature didn’t rise much
above that & when the rains came, we all cooled down. While the boys were
drying off after their baths, we visited the local Farmers’ Market, and caught
up with the Daylesford Rotarians manning the sausage sizzle & all their
news. When we got home, Wes hosed down Glen’s car as it was covered in a film
of red dust. Rob was doing the same to their cars. We were lucky that ours were
under the carport & didn’t suffer too much.
We are sorry that Ash Barty wasn’t
able to progress to the final of the Australian Open, but very proud of her efforts
& her winnings, that she donated to the bushfire relief appeal, will be
very gratefully received.
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