Last week, we were pleased to be
able to buy our fruit & vegetables from Yvonne at the Sunday Market, as
well as eggs, bones & treats from Jeff & sourdough bread from Steve
& Ken. The Market stalls were set wide apart & easy to access. Yvonne
had pre-packaged everything & we were happy to fit in with her quantities.
Corey wasn’t there with his butternut pumpkins & organic zucchini &
squash, but we were able to get everything else we usually buy. I had
sterilised all our coins & Ken was thrilled to have some pristine ones for
change.
Morse in his
favourite place, cuddled up next to Wes
Lewis & Morse weren’t too
happy with the new arrangements as it didn’t include them, but we left them at
home with treats & somehow they coped! It did seem strange not to be
setting off for Sunday Breakfast, but we did have an outing to the Springs
Medical Centre for our flu injections. This was very well handled and the two
large waiting areas were utilised in turn. After the injection had been
administered we were asked to sit in our cars for 15 minutes in case we had an
adverse reaction. We had none & came back home, where we stayed put for the
rest of the day, watching what turned out to be the last games of footy until
at least June.
That night we heard that Victoria
& NSW were going into lockdown starting Tuesday. We immediately changed our
plans and decided to visit Leanne the next day instead of later in the week. As
well we planned a trip to Ballarat to collect my bracelet, get some cash &
pick up some spirits from Dan Murphy’s, all of which we accomplished easily.
Our beautiful
weeping Japanese maple
Our trip to Strathmore went
smoothly – lots of roadworks, but very few cars. We were able to get everything
Leanne needed & help her with some chores around the house, garden &
garage, before heading back home. Glen Tandberg next door sent a photo of the
boys watching her through the fence. Nick Massaro had dropped off marrow bones
for them & they were in seventh heaven.
The kindness of friends has been
wonderful. Gillie has not only delivered a big bag of tomatoes to me, but also
quinces for Rob & Dene, who have given us some plum jam; Janine gave us
lemons & we delivered some messmate honey in return as she had never tasted
it & Judi gave us some quince jam. We love buying O’Toole’s honey from their
roadside stall with honesty box. I visited Tonna’s on Wednesday morning to get
pasta & discovered they had decided to operate via online or phone orders.
They have set up trestle tables out the front for us to collect our orders when
they are complete. Danielle Tonna gave me an A4 sheet setting out their
instructions, so I promptly scanned it as a PDF & emailed it to as many
friends as I could. Those who responded were most impressed, especially as not
everyone wants to continue shopping at Coles if they can avoid it.
Even though I was quite tired
after our trip to the Big Smoke the day before, I got very domestic on
Wednesday morning and stewed peaches & pears, cooked pumpkin for the boys
& made 8 containers of tomato pasta sauce, courtesy of Gillie’s wonderful
rouge marmandes. I was able to use our own chilis, basil, oregano & parsely
as well, which was very satisfying. We’ve tried it & it could be my best
batch ever. Not that it compares to Tom Tyrrell’s first chocolate cake, a photo
of which he put up on Facebook for us all to admire!
Our roses continue
to bloom & provide us with beautiful sights & smells
Wes did Barbara’s shopping for her
on Thursday and took her for a drive to see the Autumn colours, while I did
umpteen loads of washing, brought in all the bins (wearing gloves) and caught
up with my aunt, Jeff Hoolihan, in Lincolnshire, via Skype. I also try to ring
Leanne every day as she has realised we will probably not be able to come and
visit in the near future, unless there is an emergency.
That afternoon Wes brought Maisie back
after he had walked her, so she could spend some time with us & the boys.
She is a lovely dog & is quite lonely now that all her socialising has been
put on hold.
Spot Maisie – at
least all three dogs are smiling & having fun together
On Friday, after walking the boys,
I headed to Coles at 7am & was very impressed with their procedures. I was
able to buy just about everything I needed. Quite a few friends were shopping
at that time – Gillie, Janine, Bruce, John & Peter to name a few. I wore
gloves and didn’t need their sanitising wipes and used the self-checkouts as
the staff are no longer packing bags anyway.
We had decided to take the boys on
a second walk – a special Friday treat to replace socialising. We parked at the
bottom of Fulcher Street & walked to Twin Bridges & back. Lewis &
Morse were quite bemused with the narrow paths and steep steps, but found that
treats were forthcoming, so they persevered. We hadn’t done that walk ourselves
in ages & it was lovely to be the only ones there, listening to the
birdsong & smelling the gum leaves & bark as we walked. By the time I
sat down to tea & toast we had been up & about for 4 hours! No wonder I
was tired by the afternoon.
Yesterday was another beautiful
day – Wes washed the boys after their walk & they promptly went out and
rolled in the dust. I needed to visit the pharmacy, the newsagent & the pet
shop. All three shops had good protocols in place, as did the bakeries which
were serving one customer at a time at their front doors.
A beautiful
Daylesford sunset courtesy of Frank Page
Like many of us, we had planned a
holiday that we have had to cancel. We had hoped to drive to Sydney & back
during June, but with all the state borders closed, we won’t be doing that. I
was pleasantly surprised by the attitude of everyone I contacted, including our
Sydney accommodation which was fully paid. We have received our refund already.
As well, Eureka Kennels advised they are staying open for the duration, which
is good to know. I had wondered what we would do if both of us were infected
with COVID-19 as we couldn’t ask anyone to take on a pair of young Labs.
We are enjoying the Fox Footy
offerings – watched a very exciting high scoring game between Carlton & the
Western Bulldogs at the MCG in 2007; as well we are enjoying rewatching every
episode of As Time Goes By with the incomparable Judi Dench; I’m
making my way through the entire Vera series thanks to next-door
neighbour, Glen; as well as Midsomer Murders with both Barnabys,
and A Touch of Frost. We have some wonderful old Sherlock
Holmes DVDs starring Basil Rathbone; the complete Fawlty Towers;
the complete West Wing, and everything else that our smart TVs
offer. Apart from that we are keeping busy with the Lewis & Morse; with our
garden; our computers, & Wes visits Barbara every day to make sure she is
comfortable & has enough to eat, drink, read & watch & helps her
prepare for open house each Saturday in case someone wants to view her home.
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