Daylesford Dispatch - Saturday, 3rd March 2012

Welcome to the first Autumn Dispatch. I hope you enjoy the change of colour in the layout. This is easily the most beautiful time to be in Daylesford, so I am not sure why we keep going away in Autumn – must be something to do with footy. Anyway, we are off later today for a month – first stop Istanbul with two weeks in Turkey followed by a week each in Florence & Rome. Wes has arranged a very sensible holiday with morning activities where possible, which gives me the chance to rest in the afternoon. I hope he will be able to make use of those afternoons to see more than we have planned to do together. As usual, I’ll try to send newsy Dispatches while we are away.

We’ve had an incredible amount of rain since I last wrote – 150 mls so far this week, which has meant no golf & very little dog walking during that time. So long as the boys get their early morning bones, they seem to cope very well.

Last Sunday was our last breakfast at Café 3460 – the Café will be closing on Monday and the rest of the Breakfast Group will have found a new home for us all by the time we get back. As Barbara, Gail & Terry will be away in NZ during 2 weeks of March, it may be left to Judi, Michael, John, Jan, Gillie & Glenn to find the perfect spot. Kim’s will be a very hard act to follow and we are grateful to have spent so many wonderful hours there.

Wes & Denise enjoyed their trip to Cohuna and back & especially to be part of Malachi’s birthday which was brilliantly organised by Dannielle, as usual. Wes couldn’t stop talking about all the wonderful things that happened & how happy everyone looked. He was most impressed with the backyard, which is every child’s dream playground.

We have spent most of the week packing slowly so that we are feeling very organised and hope we haven’t forgotten anything important. Wes has rehung all the paintings, which look great on the newly painted walls, and we are enjoying the lovely new floor.

On Wednesday, the kitchen cupboards were repaired, so apart from the lounge suite, we are back to how we were. We suspect the lounge suite will be an ongoing saga.

Wes & I visited Viva on Thursday – we drove there and back in pouring rain, although there was no hint of that weather in Strathmore as per usual. I can offer drive to visit and have encountered amazing weather conditions, to find that it all magically disappears as I come off the Calder Freeway at Bulla Road. Viva was looking good & thrilled to see us both. We spent two hours there which was the absolute limit, as she was very tired by the time we left. Leanne continues to look after her wonderfully well, for which we are all very grateful. Sadly we won’t be here when Viva turns 90 on 8^th March which is International Women’s Day. We had to bring our holidays forward a week, when Eureka Kennels couldn’t fit the boys in over Easter. However, Peter & Anka will be down for the long weekend, which will be a thrill for Viva.

It is raining gently here as we do our last minute chores – our laptop died on Wednesday so we had to buy a new one and we have been busy putting all the programmes we need onto it. Good thing we discovered it before we went away & not during our break!

Lots of love to you all & I’ll be in touch again very soon.