Morse

Morse
Morse & friend

Sunday, 13 May 2012

Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 13th May 2012


Dear Friends, Happy Mothers’ Day to everyone. My boys remembered and I have a lovely card & three great books to read – Adam Gilchrist’s autobiography, Jock McHale’s biography & a delightful little book of stories about the Appian Way. I have just spoken to Viva, who I visited yesterday, and Leanne has showered her with gifts, including a Mother’s Bag from Darrell Lea full of her favourite things, so she is feeling very spoilt. I took her some brightly coloured lilies yesterday, and while I was there a beautiful bunch of white roses and chrysanthemums arrived from Peter & Anka, so the unit looks lovely with vases of flowers everywhere. Viva was looking good, much stronger than when I had last seen her and with her sense of humour intact. This is best explained when she was telling me everything Leanne had given her this morning and in the middle of it all, added and ‘a set of six steak knives’, which made us both laugh until we coughed!

Me at the Pitti Palace

We’ve had a good week, although it has been cold these past few days and Wes has lit the fire, which makes for great warmth, good smells and the best atmosphere. The boys are curled up in front of it, as close as they can get without being singed. I think they are telling us that we let them get cold at breakfast this morning – when Gary fed them their toast, he told us that they weren’t happy at being out in the cold, so we put them in the back of the car and went back to our scrambled eggs.

We welcomed Aileen back this morning after three weeks away in Perth, where she found looking after grand-children, driving her son’s car and being expected to take children to the zoo more than she had bargained for, so soon after her husband, Roy’s death. She told us some great stories and Kim & Gary chipped in with some of their own, while Gail was either drawing breath or eating her breakfast. Gail & Terry are going on a cruise unexpectedly – Terry’s sister rang to say she had booked them a cabin on a 9-day cruise as it cost $490 per person – it was irresistible at that price! Kim & Gary pricked up their ears as they had been thinking about a cruise as well.

At the start of the week Wes and I spent some time designing and then sending out an advance notice for the 2012 Daylesford Rotary Art Show and we have had a good response with lots of artists acknowledging the email and Rotarians promising not to go away over Melbourne Cup weekend, so they can be around to help out.

Barbara with her family during her trip to NZ in March

By Wednesday, I was ready to socialise again, so I joined Dot & Valerie at Harvest Café, where we were made very welcome and play Mah Jong for 2.5 hours! Carol had been going to join us, but she was rushed to hospital on Tuesday with chest pains again, and has had another stent put in. She is now back home and feeling much better, thank God. We all got a terrible fright, especially as we heard nothing all Tuesday after she had rung me early to say she was being collected by ambulance. Daylesford Hospital had sent her to St John of God in Ballarat, where she had spent hours in emergency on a trolley until they found her a bed and decided what to do.

Our local window washer, Jason Olver, and a mate, came on Wednesday to wash our windows inside and out, as it has been about 18 months since that was last done and we can’t believe the difference. Wes has been busy since pruning trees and bushes so that we have uninterrupted views of the Lake again and can make the most of the weak Wintry sunshine.

Meanwhile Wes drove to Melbourne for a delightfully indulgent day – he parked in Brunswick, caught the tram into town, had a haircut at ‘Vince & Dom’s’; met up with our financial adviser, Anthony Starkins, for lunch; spent an hour in St Paul’s Anglican Church being a visitor; browsed bookstores; had a drink or two with Jon Stephens at his favourite bar, and finally enjoyed a good chat & Italian meal with Ben Lazzaro, where Carlton’s fortunes were high on the agenda. He arrived home about 10.30pm, tired, but very happy with all he had done.

Lovely photo of Carol

I started Thursday with a massage from Ann, which was lovely, but was quite tired after my busy day before, so spent most of the rest of the day sitting in front of the fire playing WWF and doing crosswords etc. On Friday I had lunch with good friend, Sheila Hollingworth, who is about to go to America for about 3 months to help a friend of hers who has cancer and a young family. We met at ‘Wombat Hill House’, which was lovely and warm and has great views of Autumn in the Botanical Gardens, but which charged me $14 for my bowl of soup & piece of bread!

Yesterday I drove early to Melbourne to visit Viva and was home again by 1pm. We packed up the boys and went to the local footy, where we were most impressed by Daylesford’s game against Clunes. However, it was so cold, that we left at half-time and came home to watch the Greater Western Sydney team register their first win in front of an appreciative audience in Canberra. I hoped that my brother, Peter, might have been there, as he gets very few opportunities to see footy live these days. We also watched in awe as Black Caviar won her 21st straight win without changing into second gear. I hope our cousin Leigh will be able to get to Royal Ascot to cheer her on when she runs there next month.

Thanks again to everyone who has stayed in touch – sorry I haven’t been able to answer all your calls yet – I will! Today I am feeling better than I have for quite a while, so will try not to do too much and fall back again.


P.S. Our dear friend, Norma’s son, Steve Butler, wrote a wonderful warts & all article about her journey with ovarian cancer in yesterday’s West Australian – please follow this link if you would like to read it - http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/13667412/inspiring-mothers-love-of-life/

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