Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 20th January 2013

Snow Snoopy courtesy of Jeff Hoolihan

Dear Friends, finally a Dispatch on a Sunday again. I was tempted to write yesterday, but decided I would be fresher this morning post breakfast & I am. So here goes. We had a lovely time sitting over breakfast at the Food Gallery, where our friendly waitress, Kerry, has memorised all our names & hot drink orders. She is about to go to Japan for a skiing & sight-seeing holiday – it must be the season, as Jane tells me she has booked a similar trip for herself & David in March. The boys and I went to Leitches Creek to pump mineral water, but the spring there is closed so we drove to Hepburn Springs instead & joined a short queue (at 7.30am) for Sulphur Spring, before heading to the Sunday Market, where they disgraced themselves by rejecting the cabbage leaves John gave them!

When I last wrote we were looking forward to catching up with Helen & Brigid Hanrahan and they duly visited for afternoon tea. Brigid was apprehensive of us and the boys, but Warren settled her down and she tucked into cheese and coke, while we chatted with Helen and tried to range over what we had all been doing for the last 15 years or so. For those of you who remember John & Helen & their family, here is a photo taken at Sheena’s wedding in 2009.



Michael, Helen, Sheena & Brigid Hanrahan

The next day we had arranged to have lunch at Mercato with John & Jan, who had kindly given me a generous Gift Voucher there to thank me for looking after their mail while they were away for an extended time last year. We enjoyed a wonderful meal together, ranged over lots of topics and had great service as we were the only ones there. Mercato’s Friday lunches are a new thing and not everyone knows about them yet. While we were still at lunch we saw fire trucks go roaring past & realised there was a fire somewhere near.

We heard there was a fire in Blampied, which is 10 minutes away from us, but as we couldn’t see any smoke or fire and as the CFA suggested Watch & Alert, we decided to stay put, although some of our friends preferred to leave. During this time, Barbara’s father, Bob, died, so Warren went over to comfort her. We eventually discovered that the size of the fire had been greatly exaggerated and that it was actually in Kangaroo Hills Road, about 17 kms away in front of Rutherford Park, a large accommodation place that had been the site of one of our Murder Weekends many years ago. The fire was quickly contained, the wind didn’t change and there was no loss of life or property except for a couple of sheds.

Lovely photo of Bob & Barbara

I had been due to visit Viva the next day, but she & Leanne decided it would be better if I stayed in Daylesford in case there were any more fires & we had to evacuate.

I discovered I was quite exhausted & spent the day in bed reading the Saturday Age, (such a treat), and catching up on old episodes of Morse & Miss Marple. Gillie very kindly arranged flowers for Barbara on behalf of the Breakfast Group, which we gave her the next morning at breakfast.

On Monday afternoon we went to Ballarat to see Hitchcock, which is a must-see film for those of us who were scared witless by Psycho when that film came out in the 60s. We were a little underwhelmed by the film, blamed it on the writing & direction, and chatted happily all the way home about the things we learned about Hitchcock himself & the making of Psycho.

We played golf with Jan & John on Tuesday – and had breakfast at the Food Gallery afterwards. On the previous Sunday they had refused to take any payment as some of the Boite Singers had taken over the downstairs of the restaurant and refused to let them use the coffee machines after 9.30am, so none of us could have a second hot drink. We were embarrassed to be given a free breakfast, but decided to give them a generous tip today to make up for their goodness.

That afternoon Wes took Barbara to see The Hobbit, which she knew nothing of, but was keen to see the beautiful NZ countryside in which it, like Lord of the Rings, was shot. I am rereading the book, which I bought in 1973, and have read every few years and enjoying picturing the characters as they have been portrayed.

On Wednesday we went to Melbourne to see War Horse at the 1pm matinee, along with all the Probus Clubs of country Victoria! Wes was totally underwhelmed – ‘Skippy goes to war’ was his summation of the storyline. I loved the horses and felt they didn’t deserve the cast around them. With the exception of Nicholas Bell, an excellent actor, & the puppeteers, the cast was very ho-hum.

The next day was the long awaited visit to Daylesford by our dear friend, Terry Borg. We whisked her away to Tuki Trout Farm shortly after she arrived, where we met up with Cathy O’Toole & Peter Widdop. We had promised Peter lunch at Tuki for his 70^th birthday, which was in May last year, and we thought they would enjoy Terry’s company, which they did.

Terry with her competition-winning fish at Tuki

We’ve had a wonderful time showing Terry around – on Friday morning we took her to Lavandula Swiss Italian Lavender Farm. Wes spent two hours with Barbara while Bob’s funeral was being held, so Terry & I had a catch-up cuppa at Gracenotes Café, and then spent a pleasurable hour or so at the Convent Gallery. I was interested to see that the number of artworks was about half what I would have expected. Terry was impressed by the garden especially.

Later that afternoon we headed off around the hamlets of the Shire, stopping at the Chocolate Mill for an ice-cream mid- afternoon. Terry was very appreciative of everything we showed her and it was a pleasure to share our love of this area. After a rest, and a couple of games of introductory Mah Jong, I settled down with a G&T for a quiet night, while Wes & Terry hit the high spot of Friday night – Farmers Arms Hotel, where they met Glenn & Denise among others.

Yesterday Terry took us to Gracenotes Café for breakfast to say thank you, and she & I walked around town wandering in and out of shops to her heart’s content. She recognised people she had met the night before, which was amazing. We were sorry to see her go in the afternoon and hope she will return soon.