Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 17th June 2012

Dear Friends, we’ve had a very busy week and I am fighting off a head cold that threatens to turn into something worse. We’ve been resting the past couple of days in the hope that I will win the battle.

Our week started well with a trip into Melbourne for me for the traditional Queen’s Birthday match between the Pies & the Demons. I left early to avoid traffic, parked near the Malthouse Theatre and walked to the Kino, where the only film showing around that time was ‘Bel Ami’, which was sumptuous but meaningless!

I arrived at the MCG in plenty of time, found Loud Gayle chatting with friends in the Long Room, and then found John, Kyahl, Malachi & Dublin Anderson, who were sitting in the sun anticipating an exciting day. Kyahl barracks for Collingwood like his father, but the other two are Carlton supporters like their mother. They had agreed to wear Collingwood jumpers for the day and I hope they don’t suffer lifelong emotional scars as a result!!!

Dublin & Malachi without Collingwood jumpers!

My seat was also in the sun, but up on the third level, and I stayed until the game was won, before heading back to the car and tackling the drive home through rain, mist and some fog. It was lovely to arrive home to find the fire burning and all three boys relaxed. Wes had cooked dinner and uncorked a good bottle of red.

The following night we celebrated our 42^nd Anniversary with a brilliant meal at Mercato – I had arranged for us to have their degustation menu with their choices of wines and we enjoyed every one of the eight courses. Next day we both agreed we didn’t feel we had eaten or drunk too much, but we had enjoyed a very special evening over 2.5 hours.

 We had to go to Ballarat the next morning before driving to Melbourne to see the play, ‘The Heretic’, where we shared a sandwich and chat with Ian & Robyn. That was the highlight of the afternoon, as the play was a huge disappointment. Noni Hazlehurst was good, but everyone else seemed to be playing a caricature of their characters, with atrocious English accents and shocking stage movements. We suspect the material of the play, climate change,  was very interesting and challenging, but it was presented appallingly, so we left at interval, and were safely home just as the rest of the audience was being released from the second half. Ian & Robyn assured us that we made the wiser move.

We had hoped to go to Aperitifs that evening as they were in King Street, just in front of us, but we were both tired after the long drive and decided to have an early night instead, with me the lucky one getting dinner in bed.

On Thursday it was 30 years since Perc died, and although, I miss him every day, I found that day particularly poignant and sad. Wes was going to a Brunswick Rotary lunch so he visited the cemetery on his way, taking pink hyacinths as our memento. I had a good chat with Viva, who was also feeling very flat and we amused ourselves by trying to picture Perc at 93 still growing perfect tomatoes and silver beet and enriching all our lives with his presence.

Photo shows Perc with me in a stroller in the garden of 34 Balloan Street, Coburg

Wes enjoyed catching up with some old friends from Brunswick Rotary days, especially Russell Badham, Russel & Joy Dale, Tom Tyrrell, Peter Johnston etc. He had a difficult drive home in bad weather and it was his turn to have dinner in bed! I had driven to Ballarat again as it was time for a facial and tidy up with Sarah. I was to have taken Judi, but she very kindly agreed to travel independently and allow me to get home before it was dark. We watched the footy in bed, and thought the Blues played one of their best quarters during the third term when they wrested the lead from the Eagles. Sadly for Wes they were unable to keep up the pressure in the last quarter and lost by 10 points.

Bilbo & Frodo have been particularly naughty or ingenious depending on your point of view – Bilbo worked out how to get to the fruit bowls on two succeeding days, even though they were out of reach (we thought). He got up on his hind legs and leaned over as far as he could to rock the bowls until they tipped over and split their precious cargo – both days we realised only as we heard suspicious sounds of bouncing apples and receding dog paws as they raced off with their booty. The fruit is now completely out of reach again and the boys are getting around with hangdog looks!

Our friend, Bill Longley, one of our earliest mates from when we first came to Daylesford, has cancer and has been in hospital for 11 weeks. He is back home and rang to let us know that & to invite us to pick some of their many lemons. We dropped around to do both on Friday morning, but he was at an appointment so we missed catching up. We took the opportunity to check John & Jan’s house thoroughly, as they are still away – probably in Broome now.

Saturday was a lovely day – we drove Teddy to Castlemaine to pick up some oysters and fish at ‘She Sells Seafood’, Glenn’s favourite place for seafood and I rested in the afternoon doing crosswords while listening to footy and Wes did some more Ancestry work. Jane & David were riding on the ‘Death Road’ in Bolivia, and I’ve just heard from them that they survived the experience.

Cyclists on Death Road & Jane with her T-shirt – scary stuff indeed!

We’ve just returned from a fun breakfast where Gail had us in fits of laughter over an invention that helps females use public loos, and we all chimed in with stories in a similar vein. Wes had us all laughing until we cried as he recounted Terry McDonald’s mobile phone in the public loo in Nepal story.

This afternoon we are heading to the Lyonville Pub to hear didgeridoos being played! We have been invited by Di & Jeff, Val & Roger and it will be lovely to catch up with them all – we haven’t been to the Radio Springs Hotel, hope it is warm.

New Year’s Eve 1988 – Blairgowrie – the Maloneys showing their
dancing styles!

Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 10th June 2012

Dear Friends, it seems ironic that we are celebrating the Queen’s Birthday weekend here, while she gave her other subjects a long weekend to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee last weekend. Perhaps we in Oz didn’t take it seriously enough. I’m taking Black Caviar’s trip to Royal Ascot very seriously and just love this cartoon that Carol sent me from the Herald Sun during the week:

Gillie sent me a very handy link to Powercor - www.powercor.com.au, where you can register your National Meter Identifier (NMI), an 11 digit number on your power bill, so that you can be notified of power outages and when you might expect power to resume. She assures me that we all got a letter telling us that but I don’t remember receiving it and we are pleased to now be on their SMS list.

We’ve just returned from an interesting breakfast – Michelle, the owner of Harvest received a phone call from her chef’s brother to say the chef wouldn’t be coming in today – so she had rung a replacement and our meals would be later than usual. We decided to stay, enjoyed our hot drinks & then were pleasantly surprised when our meals arrived quickly, although there was some confusion over who was having toast & who wasn’t! At least the boys didn’t miss out.

Denise Anderson, Joan Testro & Amanda Testro in 2008

We’ve had a busy but good week – on Sunday, Wes dropped me at the footy, while he visited Joan Testro for a chat and a whiskey! David Lazzaro asked me to get him a Visitor’s Pass, so we could sit together in the MCC and we enjoyed chatting and reminiscing about our many years of watching Collingwood together. One of the first people I saw when we walked in was John Stapleton, a friend from Melbourne Uni days. He hasn’t changed except for the colour of his hair! At half-time, the interview on the big screen was with Teddy Potter, my all-time favourite footballer. He was as modest and self-deprecating as I had hoped and when asked his favourite memories, said he loved watching the champions he played with go about their game. The Pies had an easy win and it was great to watch some of our youngsters getting a chance to show their skills.

On Tuesday, I drove in shocking weather to Melbourne to visit Viva. It was a good 2-hour visit, which allowed Leanne some free time. Viva is looking very well, and her mind is as sharp as ever. Gillie had given me some eggs for her and Viva assures me that Leanne used those eggs to make her omelettes for lunch three days in a row. In the afternoon, Wes and Barbara went to Ballarat where they had a number of things to do and then he shouted her afternoon tea to celebrate the publication of her book about her father. We saw a copy of it at breakfast this morning and it is a wonderful achievement – 110 pages full of history and photos.

While Wes worked hard in the garden on Wednesday I joined Carol, Dot & Valerie for a morning of Mah Jong at Harvest Café. In the afternoon we hosted a very good Rotary Arts Show meeting – Wes and I had put a lot of work into it and we were pleased with the commitment from the other members, all of whom went off having undertaken to perform various tasks. Our biggest issue is sponsorship and I was delighted the next day when Ann Holden, my masseuse, offered a Gift Voucher, to start us off. Thank you Ann – you are very generous.

That night at Rotary, Jan Pengilley chaired a meeting looking at the past year in retrospective. Wes helped her with a power point presentation. He and I were delighted with the unanimous support for the Art Show. We will be handing over editorship of the Rotary Bulletin at the end of this month – it’s been enjoyable but it is a big commitment to be available most Thursday mornings in the year to write an interesting & relevant 3-4 pages.

After the Bulletin on Thursday, Wes did some gardening, while I had a massage, and then attended U3A Morning Tea, where there were 4 potential new members. Judi, who is President until October, was delighted. She got the membership up to 175 in her first year, but a number of people, like Warren & Barbara, have not renewed, as there are no classes of interest to them at present, so new Members are in demand.

We were expecting Josephine Ward to come to lunch – she had made the date the previous week, but was planning to visit on her way home from Bendigo after seeing the Grace Kelly Exhibition. We didn’t know if she had bought a ticket, and if so, for which session, so it was lovely to hear from her at midday, when she said she would be leaving Bendigo and driving to us. She got a little lost trying to find out part of Duke Street, but arrived full of beans and we shared a lovely lunch of soup, followed by Wes’s speciality of steamed asparagus with poached egg on top, and finished with a King Island blue cheese. We finally ushered her out the door at 4.30 pm in the hope she would get home before it got dark.

I have been feeling more energetic this week, so have been trying to walk where possible. On Friday morning Gillie and I made arrangements to meet at Red Star Café for breakfast, so I walked to Hepburn Springs, which takes about 55 minutes from our place. We enjoyed a lovely 90 minutes together, then she and I drove back into Daylesford, where I left her at the chemist and walked back here. Wes and Barbara drove to Melbourne for the Carlton vs Geelong game that afternoon – Wes wasn’t looking forward to the game and he was very disappointed that Carlton, although they started well, didn’t finish off and were beaten again. It was Cheryl’s birthday and I left her a message wishing her a happy day. She rang back and we enjoyed chatting and catching up – Sharyn & Shane and their 3 boys were coming that night for the weekend, as was Andrew, who was staying overnight. She assured me that she has snaffled the middle grandson, Jules, as an Essendon supporter, and enjoys sharing her passion with him.

 Cheryl’s handsome grandsons - Aidyn, Luke & Jules Owen

On Saturday I walked the boys so Wes could have a sleep-in. We walked through town and then to Glenn Mack’s house to check if he had received any mail into his letterbox, which he had; and ditto to John & Jan’s house, and they had as well. On the way we met Marjorie and gave her & Ginnie a surprise as we walked past their home, ditto Michelle and Anthony who were outside Harvest Café at 7am and weren’t expecting anyone to walk past, let alone me with Bilbo & Frodo.

While Wes was washing the cars and later the boys, I walked back into town to replace my gloves and everyday shoes, which had both developed fatal holes during the week, then visited the Spa Quilters display at the Daylesford Primary School. I can only marvel at the beautiful, accomplished work done by some of our local friends.

Wes had invited Georgina Meadows and their mutual friend, Sue Riley, to drinks at 5pm yesterday afternoon, but we hadn’t heard whether they were coming or not. At 4.30pm we got changed, lit the fire, turned off the footy and put on classical music, set up a cheese platter, put the French Champagne on ice and waited to see what happened. Just as we were deciding they weren’t coming and thinking of ringing our friends to join us, in they came with Sue’s husband, Jim and another friend, Robyn, in tow. Wes is responsible for Sue making the decision to stand as Deputy Mayor for the City of Melbourne, something she did successfully some years ago and she is still in that position. She was delighted to see us again and they were obviously all having a wonderful visit and promised to return at Melbourne Cup time for the Art Show, especially now that Georgina is on our committee.

Sue Riley

Jane & David Knox are continuing to enjoy their holiday – Jane sends me photos every few minutes it seems and here is one of the best. They are travelling with another couple at present, who are Essendon supporters, so I imagine things could have been tense after last night’s incredible win by the Swans who gave up an 8 goal lead to nearly lose the match in the last quarter. The Pies are playing tomorrow and I have been unable to give away my spare ticket, so I will be there on my own. I had been going to take John Smith, but he is in Darwin or thereabouts and won’t get back in time!

My favourite of Jane’s photos – this is a view of an Inca Greenhouse

The rest of today is going to be fairly quiet after our busy week and we have lots on over the next 7 days. I’ll talk to you next Sunday! 

Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 3rd June, 2012

Dear Friends, Winter has set in with very low temperatures first thing in the mornings lately, usually followed by bright, sunny days, although rain is expected over the next week. Wes played golf on Monday, and we met afterwards at Harvest for brunch, then in the afternoon he interviewed Warren Pengilley (photo below) for two hours as part of Hepburn Voices.
Carol wasn’t feeling well on Tuesday so I shopped for her and spent some time chatting afterwards. When I arrived home Sherryn rang and we enjoyed a lovely long catch-up call, as it was months since we had spoken with each other and we had both been overseas during that time. Viva is going well, I have spoken with her most days and she sounds a little stronger each time we chat.

Wes and I have both spent time in the garden –he has done lots of pruning, while I’ve mulched the vegetable patches in the back garden, much to the delight of Bilbo & Frodo, who watch everything we do very keenly, and enjoy helping!

Judi & I went to Bendigo together to see the Grace Kelly Exhibition and we are so pleased we did – her frocks are in amazingly good condition and even ones we thought looked very ordinary, looked wonderful when she was wearing them. We were able to watch old footage of her at her engagement & later when famous actors came to visit her and Prince Ranier in Monaco.

On Friday Nicole came to cut my hair and she brought her younger son, Liam, who was feeling off-colour, much to the delight of Bilbo & Frodo, who played happily with him.
Yesterday we did the early shift on the Farmers’ Market – we always enjoy doing that together – catching up with local friends and making visitors welcome. Afterwards Barbara & Gillie joined us at Gracenotes for brunch. In the afternoon Michael & I went to see Daylesford just fail to beat Bungaree in a match they had been expected to win.

Jane & David Knox sent this beautiful photo from Colonia in Uruguay

Jan & John are in Coober Pedy and have decided that they won’t hurry home, but will go to Darwin, Broome, Perth etc and drive back across the Nullarbor. We are all delighted that they are going to extend their time away and make the most of having driven that long distance. John was especially thrilled when Melbourne recorded their first win for the year with an unexpected victory over Essendon.

We were a small group at breakfast with the Smiths & Whites & Glenn all away. However, we ranged over a number of topics and Aileen amused us by describing her brother & elder sister, who seem to be extroverted and out there, while she is quiet with a wicked sense of humour. The good news at Harvest was that their heater is now working properly, so we were much warmer than we have been over the past couple of weeks.

There have been a number of changes in town recently – a photographer who took over a large shopfront in the main street has closed, as he could no longer afford the rent. That shop has now been filled by Alpaca Passion, which was further down the road in a smaller, darker space, that they are very happy to vacate. There are new owners at the Modern Day Bakery and they have given the place a facelift. The Bendigo Bank is going great guns & there are two new vacant shops next door to it. They will probably be snapped up as soon as they are completed. We have another second hand store – Former Glory, which is struggling to compete with our three charity shops and the Mill Market. There is a community garden next to the Library and that is a big success with lots of produce and no shortage of volunteers to work in it or donate mulch, leaves & soil.