Daylesford Dispatch - Saturday, 22nd December 2012

Dear Friends, this will be my last Dispatch for 2012, as I probably won’t get a chance to write next weekend. As usual I am off to the MCG for the Boxing Day Test, and Sunday will be the final day if it lasts that long.

We were delighted to receive a phone call from Ben Lazzaro on Tuesday to announce the safe arrival of Jack early that morning. We are so pleased for him & Leanne and hope they enjoy a wonderful life with Jack.

 

We are looking forward to meeting both Jack & Charlotte in the New Year.

When I last left you we were planning a busy Sunday with breakfast in the morning & drinks with Gillie in the afternoon. We discovered that Judi & Michael were joining us for drinks and we all enjoyed catching up over Pimms in Gillie’s lounge as it was too cold to be outside on the decking.

Sadly that was the end of my Christmas celebrations and I have spent most of the week in bed with exhaustion & asthma. I was particularly sorry to miss dinner with Jan & John at Mercato, the Rotary Christmas Dinner & the Christmas Cheer volunteer opportunity. Wes was auctioneer at the Rotary dinner and enjoyed his role while catching up with members & guests, as it has been quite some time since either of us has been able to attend a Rotary meeting.

Yesterday Wes did a four hour shift helping distribute food & gifts to the less fortunate families and single people living here. It is aptly named Christmas Cheer and is a sobering glimpse into the reality of life for some who somehow fall under the radar here. He invited one lonely woman to lunch with us on Christmas day, but she wanted to stay at home in case her daughter, who lives in nearby Creswick, came to visit. The chances are very slim, but she has to hold out hope.

We had hoped to visit Viva this morning, but the heat is too much and she asked us not to come. We have to go to Melbourne for a play this afternoon, so will drop a present for Smokey and some eggs from Gillie at the front door on our way. My next chance to see her will be while I am in Melbourne for the cricket.

Here is the Christmas photo of John & Dannielle Anderson’s handsome foursome – Iris, Dublin, Kalarni & Malachi – Irish, the youngest, will be 5 on 2^nd January & Malachi, the oldest, turns 11 on 25^th February. Where have those years all gone to?

I have been enjoying an amusing email conversation with cousin Leigh in London along the lines of the following:

Leigh: Karen, what is your postal address so I can send you a Christmas card & wedding invitation?

Me: Our address is on the bottom of every email we send you

Leigh: Oh, I’ve never noticed. I just wanted to get everything posted before Christmas.

Two weeks later:

Me: Leigh, I keep checking the PO Box and there is no card or invitation

Leigh: Next week Simon and I are setting aside a day to do it all

Me: Next week is Christmas

Leigh: Don’t worry we will find a day

Me: You are spending the weekend with your parents in Lincolnshire, Christmas day with Simon’s family, Boxing Day with your brother in Berkshire and then you & Simon are going away for New Year…. which day will it be again?

The culprit & her fiancé taken this month

On Wednesday this week we needed to go to the National Australia Bank, so drove to Castlemaine, conducted our business and went to Saff’s for a cuppa. While we were there I visited their Mega IGA (eek!) because I was hopeful of buying something that I have been unable to get for a few years and I was successful – Silver Star starch, I bought two boxes to tide me over for the next year or so. The product is now under the McKenzie label and they very kindly tell you on their website where you should be able to find it. Our little, friendly IGA doesn’t stock it of course and why should it, as I am the only person I know who still starches tea-towels and I am not about to stop.

We have enjoyed catching up with lots of long-lost friends through Christmas cards this year and there are promises of visits to Daylesford etc. One such friend is Helen, long-time widow of our very dear friend, John Hanrahan (of Bungaree), who left the priesthood just before we were married much to our chagrin. She & her eldest daughter, Brigid, will be in Daylesford in early January and we hope to catch up with them for afternoon tea on our decking.

We’ve also reconnected with Andrea Spencer, aka the Bilby, who we met many years ago when we visited Alice Springs. We will probably meet again at the MCG or else at Lords, unless she can be persuaded to drive up here soon. When we first moved to Daylesford she was an occasional visitor.

Finally we had hoped to have spent time with Cilla Compton aka Lucie (but we’ve known her forever as Cilla), but as she will here this weekend, I suspect it is going to be too hard as we are off to Melbourne soon & I will probably be too tired after the Sunday Market shopping & Breakfast with ten others at the Food Gallery. Last Sunday, the owner, Toni, gave us all a copy of a wonderful book about Daylesford & surrounds, which features them and has some magnificent photographs.  It is called Produce to Platter – the food & wine lovers guide to Macedon Ranges, Daylesford, Ballarat & Pyrenees.

 

Happy Christmas & a very safe & healthy New Year to you all.

Daylesford Dispatch Saturday, 15th December 2012

Dear Friends, I can’t wait until tomorrow to let you know the good news that Heath & Sarah are parents at last. Charlotte Mary was born yesterday – she was originally due on 5^th December, so it has been an anxious wait for everyone. She looks quite alert & more than ready to tackle the world. Viva reminded me yesterday that Heath loved to smell the flowers when he was a young boy, whereas Wes & I remember him more for two things – he played cricket on his own in the backyard taking it in turns to be bowler, batsman & umpire, and he decided to barrack for St Kilda to get up his father’s nose. Now the joys of parenthood await him.

As well, our good friends, Tom & Deborah have returned from a grand tour of South America which they loved, although it involved lots of travelling.

        Tom & Deb in Chile

I enjoyed a good visit with Viva last Saturday before picking up Wes at the airport. He was delighted to discover he didn’t have to make dinner that night as I had already bought a quiche & salad to last us two nights. He had a wonderful time away, but was pleased to be home and Bilbo & Frodo were glad to see him as well.

Bilbo & Frodo watching the cricket with me

We’ve enjoyed a good week, starting with Sunday Breakfast, where everyone was interested to hear Wes’s stories from his week away. The Food Gallery gave us each a homemade mince pie and promised us further goodies each Sunday until Christmas.

On Monday I collected Gillie and we played 10 holes at Trentham again. We had a lovely time together, even experimented with tees to improve Gillie’s game, and gave me a few second chances to improve mine! Afterwards we decided to have breakfast at The Food Gallery as they have been trying so hard to please us. There were plenty of locals there and we were given titbits of various things to try while we waited for our meals.

That night Wes went to the Daylesford Royal Hotel where the local ALP branch was holding a special gathering in honour of John McParland, long-time branch Treasurer, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. He had a lovely night meeting lots of old and new friends, including Josh Gilligan, a young keen member, whom he had coffee with earlier in the day.

On Tuesday, Wes and Barbara went to hydro to discover it was cancelled as the pool was being refurbished. Meanwhile I joined Judi and Ann Holden at Gracenotes Café where we had afternoon tea to thank Ann for her lovely massages over the past year. Chris Sinclair looked after us beautifully and very happily split a slice of cake in half for Ann & me to share.

Wes has been cooking some wonderful meals this week – he opens a cookbook at random and searches for a suitable recipe, then makes it. That night we had flathead with olive paste, which was very yummy. We’ve been eating broad beans madly as I picked the whole crop so I could mulch that bed. We have just discovered tea tree mulch & I am a firm convert as it seems to absorb lots of water & keep the soil very moist.

The next day, Wes accompanied Barbara to Ballarat again for her spinal clinic visit, which they followed up with a Chinese meal. While they were away I drove to Castlemaine to deliver some books to Valerie (who wasn’t home) and picked up some excellent sheep manure to improve the vegetable patch soil. That afternoon I had my nails done with Michelle for the last time this year.

I’ve finally managed to spend some time on the phone again, after weeks of being too busy to do more than ring Viva daily. I was worried about an old friend, Pat Craft, who has not enjoyed good health through her life, and decided to ring her when I received a very depressed Christmas card. I met Pat & her lovely mother, Julie, during my time as Treasurer of the Ladies’ Committee at Collingwood – the 80s decade. Julie died a long time ago & Pat has been in various home ever since as she finds it hard to live independently. Currently she is in Warrnambool near her sister, but she misses her Melbourne friends. We had a good chat & she apologised for being depressed!

I also had lovely long chats with Jane Knox & Norma Hutchins, friends that we met on our first Cricket Tour. We had missed the opportunity to catch up with Jane, David, Norma & Terry, when they all went to the Brisbane Test last month, so it was good to catch up with their news. Norma tells me that she is feeling better than she was, and has put back the weight that she lost when she couldn’t swallow for ulcers in her throat. Her son, Steve, partner, Melissa, and son, Leo, are all on their way home from a posting in Melbourne, so she is looking forward to seeing them all for Christmas.

On Thursday I had my last gym class for the year – I managed to attend for 5 weeks without missing, which is very pleasing. Then in the afternoon, it was time for the last facial ever with Sarah Barby, who is closing her business on Christmas Eve, and starting a new life in Emerald, Queensland, with her husband, Mike. We had a lovely last treatment together and I walked away with some homemade biscuits & chocolate truffles as a thank you. Judi & I had sent her a big bunch of flowers in the previous week to celebrate the end of Uni for her and to thank her properly for 4 years of pampering.

Mike & Sarah Barby

Yesterday was the last haircut & henna for the year – it is always good to spend time with Nicole and we enjoy her visits. The boys love licking whatever cream she has on her legs and then lying on the sheet she puts down to catch henna droplets!

It was also the 24^th anniversary of Dot Maloney’s death & Wes celebrated her with this photo of Facebook, and remembered how she taught him to circular waltz around a sixpence when he was 12.

Wes had been very disappointed to discover he had lost a pair of his good glasses and we have pulled our house & cars apart for the last two days looking for them. Yesterday afternoon Barbara let him know that her cat, Bobby, was playing with them on the chair where Wes had dropped or placed them on Wednesday afternoon, much to his relief.

Early this morning we went to Le Peche Gourmand (a term that celebrates gluttony), which is a French patisserie (sells cakes) & boulangerie (sells croissants) in Creswick, that Gillie had told me about. We had croissants and hot drinks which were lovely, while watching the rain come down. We drove around the Golf Course Estate while we were there and came back via Dean as it is such a pretty drive, especially when it is raining. Finally we stopped at the Nursery to pick up some more mulch, potting mix and some punnets of pleasure, which will occupy us when the rain stops or the cricket isn’t on.

Tomorrow we are off to Breakfast as usual, Wes is taking Barbara on a big shop before Christmas, and we’ll watch some cricket, he’ll visit the Ellenders’ Winery for their Christmas Party and we’ll both end up with a Pimms (Dot’s favourite tipple) on Gillie’s decking in late afternoon.

 

My cousin, Annmaree, her daughter & my aunt, Margaret Saundry, taken yesterday

 

 Only 10 sleeps to Christmas….

Daylesford Dispatch - Saturday, 8th December 2012

Dear Friends, I thought I would send you an early Dispatch as later today I am off to Melbourne to visit Viva and Leanne, before I collect Wes from the airport after his highly successful week away in Queensland. He has enjoyed everything he did, especially the time spent with Ronda, Jay, Kim & John & their two boys. He has heap of stuff for the family tree… not that he needs any encouragement to spend time on it. He decided to spend his free time in Caloundra instead of travelling to Brisbane, so Deane drove to him for dinner on Wednesday night and they ate on the balcony looking out at the sea.

With Jay, Ronda & Kim post breakfast

Wes has also enjoyed early morning swimming, seen the latest James Bond film and found a Shingle Inn in Caloundra where he partook of afternoon tea. The one in Brisbane is an institution, it has been around longer than we have and was my grandmother’s favourite spot to go for many years until she discovered cappuccino, which they didn’t serve, as they were definitely a tea spot. A visit to Brisbane is not complete without something at the Shingle Inn in memory of Doll Munro.

Meanwhile back home I have been managing my time well and coping with the early morning walks with Bilbo & Frodo, as well as exercise class & even a game of golf with Gillie. We lasted 10 holes and celebrated with breakfast at Red Star Café in Hepburn afterwards. The café was full of Strong participants having their coffees after the 9.30 class. Gillie hadn’t played golf for nearly two years and did remarkably well, managing to outdrive me easily after a couple of holes. I hadn’t played for a fortnight, but until I hit the 10^th, you would have thought our situations were reversed!

I spent most of the rest of the week putting up Christmas decorations, writing Christmas cards, weeding, reading, doing crosswords, watching & listening to cricket & playing Words with Friends, as well as wading through emails that had built up, and putting in all the sporting dates for the next 12 months. On Wednesday we had our last Mah Jong meeting for the year and Carol let us know that her old group is reforming next year and will be playing in the library. She is delighted, as she just loved playing Mah Jong with them. Dot, Valerie & I will continue meeting, but will wait until next year to decide where.

Carol celebrated her 70^th birthday on Thursday & was thrilled to bits to reach the milestone. She doesn’t enjoy good health and has coped with lots of obstacles to reaching this particular birthday. She is celebrating with a family get-together at her place today, catered for by the Belles, Bronwen & Lee.

Yesterday I had a very busy morning – after walking the boys and enjoying a glorious sunrise – a pink & gold shimmer on the Lake, we drove to Leitch’s Creek to pump water, only to discover the spring was closed. So I drove back to Sutton Spring, which used to be my favourite, walked down the steep hill & discovered that the pump had a new, easy to use handle, and that the bridge which had been washed away in a violent storm about 8 years ago, had been replaced. The boys weren’t impressed with their long wait for bones, but they love being out in the car, so I think I am forgiven.

Then I washed both cars, showered, rang Viva & drove to Gracenotes Café, for a late breakfast with Janine Hawker. Janine husband, David, is not enjoying good health, but she had found the time to send me a card when she discovered I had chronic fatigue, so we decided to meet and catch up. We both enjoyed our time together, and I felt sufficiently energised afterwards to buy a quiche & salad for our dinner tonight.

I also went to Daylesford Clothing to check out the clean-shaven Rodney Peacock, who shaved off his beard & moustache to raise $3,500. I have known Rodney for nearly 30 years & have never seen him without his famous moustache. He assured me that he is growing it back again as fast as he can! Rodney used to be a barman at Collingwood Football Club in the 80s when I was involved there and he, an Essendon supporter, had to pretend to follow the Pies. It was a lovely surprise to both of us to meet up again here shortly after we moved to Daylesford.

Today we enjoyed a lovely walk with only the ducks, geese & swans for company. Then I did some early shopping at the supermarket, with the boys in the back of the car watching everything that goes on.

Now I plan to read Saturday’s Age, grab an early lunch & head off just after midday. Let’s hope it doesn’t get quite as hot as we have been promised.