Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 23rd September 2012

 

Dear Friends, as I write this we are enjoying a hailstorm after a lovely sunny, but chilly morning. Wes had been out gardening, but has beaten a hasty retreat inside with a couple of bedraggled labradors who were helping him with the compost bins.

We had a lovely morning at breakfast – someone had provided Harvest Café with a smallish dog cushion for any dogs whose bottoms were coming into contact with concrete while they sat outside. Eventually the boys worked out they could both sit on it if they draped over each other and we think they appreciated the gesture. Judi was looking good, and counting the sleeps until she finishes her second year as U3A President and gets her life back again; Gail had underdressed, and huddled under her overcoat until she warmed up; Aileen and I had been comparing daffodil bunches at the Sunday Market; Kim shared a lovely story of being given Australian children’s books as a child, which made him give his nephews & nieces similar books; Gary had solved an Austar issue for John & Jan, and Barbara told us that she feels she has won the battle with her new computer and has it under control.

It’s been a big weekend of footy – congratulations to the Swans and Hawks – the two best teams this year have made it to the Grand Final, and it should be an exciting game. It was quite ironic that Sydney should beat Collingwood in Sydney to come to Melbourne to play the GF, and Melbourne Storm should beat Manly in Melbourne to go to Sydney to play their GF. I love Grand Final week, and am looking forward to the Brownlow tomorrow night and all the rest of the festivities.

 

Wes took me to brunch yesterday to recover from the end of Collingwood’s season, and we decided to try Annie Smither’s trattoria in Trentham, du Fermier. We both enjoyed a beautiful omelette with feta cheese, but the surroundings & the service let the place down. Afterwards we walked around the main street and noticed other cafes were doing much better trade. It was a perfect Spring day, which inspired us to buy punnets of pleasure at the Wombat Nursery and spend most of the afternoon in the garden. Wes mowed everywhere, including the verge at the end of the road, while I planted strawberries, coriander, basil & geraniums and tidied up the front beds.

We started the week with a drive to Castlemaine to collect the raffle tickets for the Art Show and I have been distributing them ever since. Wes took the painting to the Daylesford Community Bank, where it will be on display until the Show starts, and they are happy to sell tickets as well. We are hopeful that the local paper will find a spot for the photo of Brian Nash with it, which would be good publicity for him, Rotary & the Bank.

Wes trained a new interviewer for Hepburn Voices and shot the video for another interview, which was done by our Mayor, Sebastian. He interviewed a 92-year-old Polish war veteran who had an amazing story to tell of survival during WWII. He also took Barbara to hydrotherapy; went to Victor & Anna’s Aperitifs; attended a piano recital given by Meredith Borlin in Franklinford, and helped a Rotary Barbecue for Very Special Kids in conjunction with the Commonwealth Bank.

 

Apart from an enjoyable morning of Mah Jong, I attended an Italian Crime Fiction U3A class, where we found ourselves mostly in agreement with each other over the relative merits of the 8 writers we had read in the past four weeks. Next year we are going to concentrate on fictional female detectives, hopefully not all American ones!

Glenn has been camping with his daughter, Catherine, and her boyfriend, and he has sent me some lovely photos of their campsites, one of which is shown at the top of this Dispatch.

Wes found this delightful cartoon on Facebook and I thought I would share it with you – Kathy & Ged will certainly identify with it, and I suspect Joyce & Manny as well! At least I asked permission first and sharing one of my passions with so many others has been a very rewarding element of my life. Thank you.

You have to laugh!