Daylesford Dispatch - Wednesday, 9th January 2013

Dear Friends, we are enjoying a delightful break from the hot weather, so I thought I would catch you up on life here in 2013. And it is a very good life indeed!

We are playing golf, going for walks, seeing films, drinking G&Ts or fine whiskey before yummy meals, keeping the garden alive, the dogs happy & spending time with friends, new & old.

We have seen Les Mis and enjoyed it very much, except for Russell Crowe, who is badly miscast as Javert. Wes saw the film again yesterday with Barbara, John & Jan, and he assures me that Russell doesn’t get any better! We also saw The Hobbit, which is delightful, well-cast, beautifully shot and has amazing effects. We’ve decided Gold Class is the way to go for anything over 2 hours long and at $25 head at Ballarat, most affordable.

 

Hugh Jackman is superb in Les Mis

 

We have been walking the boys together most mornings at 5.30am, which is a wonderful time of the day. On these hot mornings we have been letting the boys paddle or swim in the Lake (firmly attached to the lead you’ll be pleased to know) and they love cooling down in the water. We’ve also been playing golf 2-3 times week, hitting off at Trentham around 7.30am to avoid the heat. Yesterday we were joined by John & Jan Smith and enjoyed breakfast together at Gracenotes Café afterwards.

Barry Spall has started holiday gym classes this week, so I have been going to them, and enjoying getting back in the swing of things. Wes thinks what I am doing is making a big difference to my strength and that I can hit a golf ball further than ever before. Now if I could just get my short game & putting under control it would be perfect.

We manned the gates for the Farmers Market last Saturday and came home laden with fresh, organic berries, which have been turned into yummy fruit salads. Wes is hoping to create brandied cherries as well, and I found an old recipe that I used when we were first married!

The Third Test at Sydney was an exciting and emotional one and I envied Jane, David & Terry (pictured) who all were there. The Sri Lankans played better and gave us the best contest of their tour so far. It was very sad to farewell Michael Hussey, especially when he was then dumped from the One Day Squad and replaced by his brother, David.

On Sunday, I enjoyed going to the weekly market, where once again, Yvonne had put aside lemons, apples & celery for me, although she wasn’t as busy as she had been just before Christmas. Then onto Breakfast, which is going very well at The Food Gallery – the staff have learnt all our names, provide hot drinks within 5 minutes of our orders being taken & breakfast arrives within 15 minutes. Bilbo & Frodo get all the leftover toast & they are quite content with the new venue, where they can see us all through the floor to ceiling glass windows.

 

Tomorrow afternoon we are serving afternoon tea to an old friend we haven’t seen in many years – Helen Hanrahan & her elder daughter, Brigid, who are holidaying here in Daylesford at Cherry Tree Cottage for a short break. We are all excited at the thought of seeing each other again – I think we last met at her husband John’s funeral, which was in 1997.

I am visiting Viva early on Saturday morning, which will give Leanne another chance to have some time out without worrying. We haven’t been able to find a suitable date that wasn’t too hot or didn’t already have too much happening on it. Gillie has just dropped in some fresh eggs for us and for Viva, which is perfect timing.

We have been very lucky so far with the fires –nothing has been so close that we have had to evacuate, but we are all prepared & the Breakfast Group members are all keeping in touch with each other and making sure that everyone is OK. Thanks to everyone who has rung or emailed or sent a text message to check that we are OK every time they read of a fire near Ballarat.

 

Martin Freeman is perfect as Bilbo Baggins