Morse

Morse
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Sunday, 3 February 2013

Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 3rd February 2013


The long-awaited Maloney pink waterlily in all its glory

Dear Friends, it is a perfect day today – so far February has been a delight with a little rain & a need for heaters in the house and jumpers outside. We would love to get through this month without the worry of any more bushfires, so fingers crossed.

We’ve just returned from a lovely breakfast yet again at The Food Gallery. I took along one of the boys’ old food bowls and filled it with water, and they were very happy to drink water out of it, thus solving the problem of getting them to drink while they are sitting waiting for us. They don’t like drinking out of anything but their own bowls, which makes taking them out for a long time quite difficult. There were 10 of us today with Glenn & Denise joining us as a surprise, as well as John & Jan back from Mildura, Gillie, Judi, Gail & Barbara & conversations flowed.

 Due to popular demand, another early photo – this is Perc with me in the front garden at our first house - 34 Balloan Street, Coburg

John & Jan had a bad experience in their caravan park, when another resident let his two blue heelers loose and they attacked their dog, Gypsy, causing a huge wound in her back. John was hitting golf balls at the time, so Jan sought help from another caravanner, who took her & Gypsy to the vet. Gypsy was in shock, which had to be treated first, and she has survived her operation well. Unfortunately when Jan picked her up on the next morning, she must have hurt her and Gypsy responded by biting Jan, who found herself getting a tetanus injection & anti-biotics just like her dog. John will be in Melbourne tomorrow, so Wes is going to help Jan take Gypsy to Andrew, our vet, to have the stitches taken out.

We’ve had a lovely week, which started on Monday when we drove to Aireys Inlet and had a beautiful lunch at a la Grecque Greek restaurant. I had expressed a longing to see waves crashing on the shore and although we couldn’t see them from our table, we did stop in Jan Juc on the way home for thermos tea and a stunning view. (No view will ever be as good as the one we used to enjoy at the back beach at Blairgowrie in the late 80s & early 90s).

On Tuesday we played golf in the cold & wet at Trentham – both Terry & Gillie decided not to join us, so Wes and I played skins, which I was lucky enough to win, but Terry has since ruled that the result is null & void as there wasn’t a quorum for awarding the Heather Andrew Trophy (pictured below), so we are hoping to have a competition next week instead.
 
That afternoon Wes drove Barbara to the dentist in Ballarat, which was very kind of him, as she was having an injection, and may not have felt like driving home on her own. He bought some beautiful fish while he was out and cooked it perfectly that night.

Valerie and I played Mah Jong together on Wednesday and enjoyed a lovely morning. We banned all easy hands and tried to get hands we had not done before or those which are nearly impossible. It was great fun & we were sorry to finish, as Valerie will now be missing playing until after Easter. Dot was on holidays in Warrnambool and having a good time there.

Wes went to Rotary that night, at the Old Hepburn Hotel, which is where it has moved. He came home full of ideas, which he has proceeded to put into action. He is keen for Rotary to spend money on the Peace Mile, which is the walk around Lake Daylesford; to finish the Lookout at Cornish Hill, which is an unfinished Rotary project from many years ago and finally to spend Clean Up Australia Day working on the Daylesford Cemetery.

On Friday, while Wes was meeting with Steve Lamb, the chair of the cemetery trust, Nicole came to do my hair. After she was finished and I showered & dressed, I collected Judi and we met for lunch at Gracenotes Café, where we enjoyed a lovely meal and a good chat.

1983 – the new Mayor of Brunswick with his wife, and her family

Yesterday was a cool morning at the Farmers Market where the wind threatened to blow away the tent, until one of the Rotarians was able to go to the Rotary Shed and retrieve the tent pins. Garry Rodoni, who brings all the gear early in the morning never thinks we might need our sandbags or tent pins- he sets everything up and goes off to work and has no idea what happens over the next 4-5 hours! There were heaps of stalls groaning with produce; the animal nursery set up; the local Greens candidate was there in the company of Greg Barber, State M, and Chris Rowe of Spring Mount Nursery was soliciting for new members of the Daylesford Museum. Greg was a Mayor at the same time as Wes and they have remained friends. Chris is doing very well in his attempts to bring the Museum into the 21st Century and needs support, so we and Gillie joined on the spot.
  
 

 
 The first Maloney eggplant – how good is that?

This morning at the Sunday Market, it was fun to walk around & watch all the routines. I take the boys at 8am, while some stall-holders are still setting up, and I watch them torn between getting organised and finding something hot to eat & drink – they are easily waylaid by a chat, and many stalls are unmanned as their owners stand around catching up with each other. One little old lady donned a zip-up fur coat from her stall as she was cold and went in search of coffee; another put on a pair of the gloves she was selling, and a third stayed well away from his post, which is one of the coldest & windiest of the lot.

As I was untying the boys from the back of the Honey Stall, where they usually sit and wait for treats from John & Yvonne, she called me to remind me that I hadn’t bought any cabbage or lemons and did I need either? How good is that! Wes had asked Ken, Chris’s dad, for a yellow rose, so he had 5 lined up for me to choose from and then knocked $5 off the price. Geoff, the dog bone chap, hadn’t been able to get my usual bones during the week, so he had hunted around at home and found a week’s supply that he had ready for me to collect. No wonder we stay loyal to our Sunday Market friends.

 
Solero, our new yellow rose

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