I'm sure I've used this Snoopy before, but it is so true about dogs & their hearing as all dog owners know. Our boys can be dead to the world downstairs, but hear me open the dog treat drawer through two closed doors with a set of stairs in between.
When we reached the Sunday Market last week, we were delighted to find they finally had the Service Victoria QR code for us to check in. Yvonne was organised & even gave me a small bag of chopped up cabbage for Lewis & Morse as they had to miss out on a visit. As we couldn't meet friends for breakfast, we sat down to crumpets & honey with the Sunday Age, which was a great consolation prize.
Lewis & Morse still enjoying their new bed, especially in minus temperatures
Wes was inspired by Dene's cake of the previous Saturday, and decided to made a chocolate mud cake, which he did most successfully & iced as well. We weren't able to share it around as he had used the only round tin he could find, which was a cheesecake tin, so there were some issues with removing the cake when it was cooked.
Carlton played well against the Swans before finally running out of puff. Our friends were rugged up at the SCG with the temperature down to 15°. Meanwhile we were in short sleeves in sunny Daylesford, where the temperature was 12°, but felt much higher.
On Day 4 of our lockdown, it was -2° as we walked around Lake Daylesford. Our pond & both bird baths were frozen solid & all cars not under cover were iced up. School was a discussion of the Adelaide Pink Ball Ashes Test coming up in the middle of December. We are keen to go, if it is safe to do so, and have been on the lookout for a new boarding kennels for Lewis & Morse. I've contacted kennels in Ballarat & Creswick, which both seemed promising. We've ended up choosing Creswick as they replied promptly & offer excellent rates on boarding & hydro-baths. They are also closer than Ballarat, which is a bonus.
Stunning early morning photo of Lake Daylesford by Frank Page
On Tuesday, after a lovely Lake walk, I came home to Zoom chats with my sister, Leanne, & friend, Terry Borg. Both were looking good & coping well with lockdown & Leanne was able to tell me she had finally been given her first Astra Zeneca jab. I walked into town to get our prescriptions from the pharmacy & was delighted to see everyone masked up & distancing. I came home with date scones for morning tea, which we enjoyed sitting on our decking with a pair of labs looking for crumbs.
On Wednesday we finally welcomed a couple of plumbers to fix a few issues, most urgent being a dripping kitchen tap, which has needed to be swathed in towels day & night to stop the water going into the cupboards under the sink. None of the local plumbers that Wes contacted replied to him & he finally found a Ballarat-based one who was happy to help us. The blokes arrived on time & took two hours to solve our issues. Wes spent the time upstairs with them, while I minded the boys in the study. We three all needed the loo once the all clear was given!
What we didn't expect was that the plumbers hadn't checked their work before they left, which meant they had to return the next morning. The kitchen tap was fine, but the upstairs cistern had no water in it & water was flowing from the downstair's basin into the cupboard. Fortunately more experienced plumbers arrived early & fixed these issues. Wes looked after them while I did supermarket shopping & then Zoomed with Kathy & Karen.
On Friday we managed to walk two complete laps of Lake Daylesford before the rain started in earnest. We had hoped to take the boys socialising at Virgin Café, but it was closed until this coming Friday, so we had breakfast at home after I had an early Zoom chat with Leanne. We were excited to have the lockdown conditions eased in Regional Victoria, and happy to keep wearing masks indoors & use QR codes everywhere.
Morse & Lewis staying in touch
Yesterday our downstairs jug decided to leak all over the filing cabinet on which it sits, so we mopped up the water & gave it the flick. I went to Mitre 10 to get a replacement & was pleased to see that they had a QR code, as did Wombat Hill Nursery, where I picked up some coriander seedlings & a lemon verbena plant. Wes had washed Lewis & Morse, and in spite of the minus temperatures, (-2°, feels like -6°), they went off playing chasey skidding over the frozen back lawn.
We had picked all the figs from our tree after the leaves fell & tried to get them to ripen in the sunshine through the lounge windows. I managed to get 1kg that I stewed with honey, ginger & a vanilla bean & we declared that a great success.
We woke this morning to rain & mist, so we all missed out on a walk, which meant I went back to bed after feeding the boys, with a pot of tea & the Sunday Age, where I read all about Collingwood's exciting & unexpected 5 point victory against Adelaide yesterday afternoon. We welcomed back Jamie Elliot, who promptly kicked 6 goals straight & was the difference between the two teams. Fingers crossed the Blues can have similar success against West Coast at the SGC this afternoon.
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