Daylesford Mothers' Day Dispatch - Sunday, 12th May 2013

 

Dear Friends, I do hope you are enjoying this special day. I’ve put a call into Viva, but the phone was busy so I’ll have to try again. We’ve just returned from a lovely breakfast yet again at Food Gallery, where the only hassle was paying them enough. The boys are snoring after their hectic schedule of eating, and we are planning to see the film, Performance, this afternoon in Ballarat as my treat.

Last Sunday we had a very good visit with Viva who was in hospital for a few days in a successful attempt to stop her bronchitis turning into pneumonia. She was in good spirits in a single room with a lovely view towards the Melbourne CBD. We decided not to stay on for the footy, so drove back home and arrived in time to watch the game on TV. Carlton won easily, but the standard was so poor initially that we were both pleased not to be at the game.

The whole of Daylesford has been plunged into sadness over the past 2 weeks with the sudden death of Roz Moynihan (ex-postmistress & wife of Rotarian, Danny) after a massive stroke. Roz was a wonderful character who never stopped volunteering, taking risks, smiling & talking…usually all at once. She didn’t recover from the stroke and died peacefully

Her funeral was on Friday morning & it was huge. There were 700+ of us present and it was held in the ARC in Smith Street. The ARC is a community recreation centre built entirely by donations and was probably the only place other than the Town Hall big enough to hold us all. As her red coffin was driven away we all released brightly-coloured balloons – it was a beautiful sight & she would have been delighted. Quite a few local shops closed for the duration, which was a sign of the esteem in which she was held. Without Roz & Danny selling raffle tickets each year for the Art Show, we would not have made our profit goals as she was the best, most persistent raffle ticket seller anyone has ever met!

I finally managed to catch up with Sheila Hollingworth this week and discovered she & Vaughan have sold their home and will be homeless from July. They are looking forward to doing lots of travel and won’t be back in Daylesford again until January 2014. I am so pleased to have spent some time together before she left for London & the US next weekend.

I also had a massage with Ann Holden and found that she is feeling so much better since her mother has died and is no longer in pain. It was lovely to have a relaxing hour in her company after having to cancel the past 3 massages for various reasons

We were a foursome on Wednesday at Mah Jong which is always good, and enjoyed a fun morning. Dot & John have now gone on holidays for a fortnight to Lakes Entrance. After lunch I spent some time in the garden and now have all the vegetable beds in the front looking good again, with spinach & beetroot planted.

Meanwhile Wes has been very busy on the computer with sorting out the details of our Ashes trip – we are spending three weeks in Scotland beforehand & five days in Iceland afterwards. I’ve booked four shows which we will see with our friend, Terry McDonald, and we will have lunch with Jeff & Kev and at least one meal with Leigh & Simon. I’m expecting the cricket to be relaxing so I can cope with all these extra-curricular activities!

On Tuesday, Wes joined Barbara at Ballarat for hydro, which he said went well. The next afternoon he played golf at Hepburn Springs with John Smith & Jeff Bain and to his great delight hit a birdie on the first hole. He was thrilled with his game, especially as it had been too cold for us to play on Monday morning as usual.

We drove to Melbourne on Thursday morning straight after my gym class, as Viva was back home and Leanne had a number of chores to do and didn’t want to leave Viva for the length of time they would take. So we spent three hours there and were pleased to see that Viva was improving and that the bronchitis, although not completely gone, was under control. We gave her & Leanne the gifts we had brought back from London, and those from Jeff & Kev. In return Leanne had bought dog sausage rolls & made some chutney for us as a thank you.

That afternoon we went to the Members’ Opening of the latest Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria – Monet’s Garden. It is a very well curated and designed exhibition & we really recommend it.

 

Yesterday was a big day for Wes, Barbara, John, Jenny & Eddie, as they had been invited to be part of the 150^th birthday celebrations of the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens. They interviewed people about the gardens as part of their project, Hepburn Voices. Wes & Barbara stayed on for the official ceremony with the Governor of Victoria, Alex Chernov, but eventually had to leave before it was over as everything was running an hour late and Wes & I were due at Glenn’s place at 3pm. We spent a lovely couple of hours sitting over cheese & red wine with Glenn & Denise.

Wes was exhausted when we got home, but while I fed the boys, he made us pizzas and was in bed well before the footy began. I had offered to help at the Gardens, but wasn’t needed, so I had shopped, started work on the back vegetable beds, cleaned windows, washed & ironed & listened to the radio. By the time the first quarter of the Freo-Collingwood game was over & we had only kicked 8 points, I was ready for bed and watched the second quarter there. Fortunately the TV was disturbing Wes, so I turned it off altogether and found out the result this morning. EEK! How will we beat the Ladder Leaders, Geelong next week after that performance?

 

              Our newest rose, a pink Iceberg – isn’t it pretty?