Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 25th May 2014

Dear Friends, when I left you on Monday we were eagerly awaiting news that our cousin, Michael and his wife, Kelly, in Berkshire, had become parents. Amelia Hoolihan arrived on time, safely and is the apple of her father’s eye already. Jeff & Kev are very proud grandparents again, and Leigh is a very thrilled aunt, who is busy looking after older brother, Archie.

Very special moment as Kelly & Amelia sleep....

The next morning while I spent time being pampered at EKO with Emma, Wes and Glenn Mack tackled the greenhouse, which had arrived in a flat pack of course. Lunch didn’t get served until 5pm by which time the workmen were in need of a glass or two of a good red! Next year I believe I am being given a new front door mat instead. The funny story out of this is that Glenn brought every tool he owns to our place and after 2 hours he and Wes discovered that the small tool, called 102, in the flat pack, actually worked and was the only thing that would get the bolts etc in position!

Here is Bilbo minding some of Glenn’s gear

And here is the finished product with the proud workmen inside!

Wes produced a very yummy pasta dish for lunner (or whatever you call a very late lunch/early dinner) with broccoli, mushrooms, handmade pasta, chilli, parsley and prawns. And a very early night was had by all....

On Wednesday there was a frost early, but it turned into a beautiful Autumn afternoon yet again. I spent the morning playing Mah Jong with Dot & Valerie. Valerie’s friend, Paula, who shared her birthdate but was 15 years older @ 96, had died the day before, so Valerie was feeling very sad. This didn’t improve when I told her that Peter Curtin, actor, married to Ailsa Piper, actor & writer, had died suddenly on Monday. They lived in Glenlyon when Valerie did and she knew them both very well and was quite shocked.

Barbara hadn’t been well all week, but Wes was able to take her to lunch at Gracenotes Café, their usual Wednesday date, and spend some hours with her before coming home to relax. He had mowed everywhere in the morning and filled the bins with garden waste.

After gym on Thursday I had promised to focus on the greenhouse so we found some green shade-cloth, discovered it was exactly the right size to provide the backing for the greenhouse and went to Jenkin and Thomas to buy double-sided tape and bungees, with the help of Lyndall Jenkin. Amazingly we were able to do all this and Wes even found a perfect stand to put inside with a couple of shelves to hold the plants. After yummy fish pie for lunch, I spent some time moving French tarragon, parsley, rocket & chives from the front garden beds into the greenhouse.

Wes managed to walk Bilbo early on Friday morning before the rain bucketed down and golf plans were cancelled. I set off to Ballarat for my bi-annual breast screening, buoyed by the knowledge that my reward was lunch at Kazuki with Wes, Di Lyttleton & Jeff Bain. And what a lunch it was! We enjoyed three magic courses, demolished four bottles of wine, and shared a cheese platter with Sandy & Donny Breen, who were having a quiet lunch in another room. I spotted them when I went to use the toilet, so Jeff invited them to sit with us for a while.

Di and I met many years ago, when I was on the U3A Committee and she was keen to be involved but wasn’t living here permanently. Our friendship was firmly cemented when we had a golfing week together at Golfers Resort, Yarrawonga about 3 years ago. We had very wisely shared a taxi to Kazuki and back. I don’t know about Di & Jeff, but we weren’t good for much for the rest of the day and had a very early night.

Jeff and Di enjoying Kazuki with us

Yesterday was frosty, but the sun emerged after a while, so both of us did some gardening. I went shopping early, did some chores and listened to the Coodabeen Champions while Wes planted bulbs galore in Barbara’s garden.

Here is another of Danny’s photos from the lily pond house at Adelaide’s Botanical Gardens – there was such a response to last week’s photo, I thought I should share this one as well.

 We drove to Melbourne for the Collingwood vs West Coast game, and we are so pleased we went. Wes wanted to come with me, so I booked seats under cover in the MCC, and we had a good view on the wing, out of the wind. The game was one to remember with great goals, individual brilliance, one on one contests and an amazing win by the Pies after we lost Nathan Brown in the first quarter & Jack Frost in the second. Part of me would have liked to see the Eagles win as that would have cheered our dear friend, Norma, who continues her battle against ovarian cancer with immense bravery and spirit.

We were home by 9pm and watched from bed (with cups of tea & coffee) the second half of the Port Adelaide vs Hawthorn game at the Adelaide Oval, where Port withstood a couple of Hawthorn surges to win and consolidate their spot on top of the ladder.

This morning Wes and Bilbo have been for their early walk and I’m about to go out to pump mineral water at Leitches Creek, before going to the Sunday Market to fill our fridge with yummy local fruit and vegetables, replenish the dog bone bag and perhaps pick up an exciting plant from Ken of Spring Park Nursery.

More Icelandic poppies in bloom...

Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Monday, 19th May 2014

Dear Friends, we did enjoy our Mothers’ Day, especially sharing breakfast with Judi, Glenn, Gillie, Aileen & Barbara. Judi nearly didn’t make it as one of their dogs, Major, had a seizure, but he recovered quickly and she decided to join us as Michael could look after the dogs and they would take him to the vet on Monday. However, Judi was the bearer of the very sad news that our friend, Lorelle Hall, never came out of her coma and had died the day before. Lorelle was a vibrant, clever, educated and challenging person, who left an impression on everyone she met. Her husband, David, will be devastated to have lost her. My favourite photo of Lorelle was taken at the Robbie Burns night at Gracenotes Café in 2009.

We had been invited to share Peter Widdop’s 72^nd birthday soireé, so I spent a very quiet afternoon doing crosswords and knitting until it was time to go at 5pm. We had a wonderful time catching up with Penny & David Reilly, Glenda & Joe Rozen, Linda & Ken Gillies, and Linda & Allan Straub. Another old friend of theirs, Pam, arrived later, as did Peter’s former wife, Astrid, who now lives in Daylesford as well. Peter had created umpteen yummy pizzas and the bubbles and conversation flowed. Linda had baked a beautiful chocolate cake covered in strawberries in lieu of her signature Portuguese custard tarts. We lasted until nearly 7.30pm before tiredness kicked in big-time for me.

Monday was cold early but turned into a beautiful day which enabled Wes to spend some time in Barbara’s garden as well as on the computer, where he found another cousin (6 times removed) from Leeds. I did some supermarket shopping and washed & ironed everything in sight preparatory to packing for our six days away.

One of our beautiful cherry trees celebrating Autumn in style

That night Carlton managed to score an easy win over St Kilda, so Wes was a happy boy again. It wasn’t pretty football by any means and St Kilda are depleted, but the four points are in the bag.

On Tuesday we were all up early to do last minute packing, which included taking the laptop and making sure we have backed up our own computers. It was a cool misty morning here but we set off expecting 21° in Adelaide. We drove in convoy to Ballarat, dropped off Bilbo, left the Mazda 6 at Eureka Kennels and headed off for Adelaide.

Our first stop was at Great Western for a tea, coffee & biscuit break and we fell in love with the place. We have vowed to make a trip there sometime soon and buy up on sparkling shiraz. We stopped again right on the border for more hot drinks & biscuits and apart from filling up with petrol, and changing drivers, went through to North Adelaide where we were staying at the Majestic Old Lion Apartments. I had asked for a ground floor apartment and we were impressed with the size and comfort of our accommodation, which included a full-size fridge, oven, microwave, K-size bed, washing machine & dryer. We were too tired to do anything except drink wine & eat a local pizza.

Wes at our rest spot at Great Western...sadly the Magpie didn’t bring us any luck...

We slept until 8am on Wednesday, had a light breakfast and set off walking for the Botanic Gardens. Danny Moynihan had suggested we go to the Zoo, and as it was right next door to the Gardens, we went in. What a wonderful Zoo it is – we enjoyed the Giant Pandas, Wang Wang & Funi, and spent about 3 hours in total there. For the most part the Zoo has been modernised and the animals are in great enclosures and seem very happy. We fell in love with these two otters – one has lost the sight of an eye and is very nervous, so his brother looks out for him.

Wes remembered we had enjoyed a stunning long lunch at the Jolley Boathouse about 20 years ago, so we walked around the river until we found it. Sure enough it has the same owners, better chairs, a great wine list and stunning food. We shared 3 different types of oysters before Wes settled on kangaroo tail with Chinese dates and jasmine rice, and I had a perfectly cooked piece of barramundi. We drank a bottle of Prosecco, which was the perfect accompaniement.

Then we walked to the SA Art Gallery, which has an amazing array of artworks, including many Australian paintings we have never seen before. The building is splendid and the paintings are hung up nearly to the ceiling. We walked back to our apartment and had a very quiet night.

On Thursday we met Danny Millman at the Adelaide Central Markets, where we strolled and chatted for a while, before making our way back to the Art Gallery and a cuppa at their lovely café before spending time at the Museum, which has a particularly good permanent exhibition celebrating the achievements of Sir Douglas Mawson.

We ended up having lunch at a stunning Italian restaurant called Pranzo, where the waiter was brilliant and gave us some suggestions for wineries to visit in McLaren Vale. We walked through the Botanic Gardens and Danny took the brilliant photo below in the lily pad house. Then off to the Australian Wine Centre, where Ben Lazzaro joined us for a drink. He was in Adelaide for an Australian Made Board meeting and was going to the footy that night as guest of the chairman.

After a rest that afternoon, we set out for the game, along with most of the other visitors in our accommodation. There was much excitement in Adelaide with the first night match at the refurbished ground and over 50,000 of us crammed into it. We were up on the fifth level, but in comfortable seats with a good view. The Crows were easily the better team and it was obvious from the start that we were going to struggle to beat them. The result was exactly what the AFL would have wanted and guarantees good crowds for the remaining games at the Oval.

The next morning we picked up Danny from his hotel on North Terrace and drove to Victor Harbor as we had never been there and it was over 30 years since Danny had visited it. We had a long cuppa break at Port Noahlunga, which was a pretty little town. At Victor Harbor we were amazed to see a Clydesdale drawing a tram over the bridge to Granite Island. We walked over the bridge and would love to go back as there is a penguin colony and some wonderful walking paths to take and explore.

We had lunch at one of the local pubs and then drove home, running into Friday afternoon traffic as we got close to Adelaide. We spent the evening watching Freo beat Geelong and enjoying the celebration of Matthew Pavlich’s 300^th game & 600^th goal.

The next morning we checked out and set off for McLaren Vale, where we had booked a B&B for the night. We visited the Info Centre, where we were armed with a large map and very helpful advice. We were amazed at the size of the area (once again we had never been there) and started at Alpha Box & Dice Winery, which came highly recommended by our Italian waiter. There are no grapes growing here, but the young interesting winemaker experiments with blends and names them after letters of the alphabet. We didn’t like their white, but bought a mixed dozen of their 4 reds.

They recommended another winery, which our waiter had also mentioned, Battle of Bosworth, but the young woman looking after the cellar door, made a disparaging remark about Alpha Box & Dice, which put us offside from the beginning. She was very busy with an unexpected group who walked in behind us. We tried some of their wines and bought a couple of their yummy shiraz. Then off to Samuel’s Gorge, which everyone recommended, but it was shut, as was Chapel Hill next door.

The lady at the Info Centre had suggested we include Angove’s Winery in our list so we headed there, and are we glad we did. They even make a passable rosé, but their reds are something else and we quickly became Friends, and ordered up big. The last time I was this excited about a winery was the day we walked into Cofield Winery in Rutherglen about 3 or 4 years ago, and we both love all their wines.

We ended up having a very late lunch at Fino, in Willunga, where we kept the Richmond supporter waitress up to date with the scores from that game. Wes tried the Angus Scotch fillet, while I enjoyed Coorong mulloway, with a glass of local cab sav. We couldn’t resist the Rocquefort and Italian goat’s cheese afterwards. By the time we had driven along Aldinga Beach, we were ready to check into Bellevue B&B, where we were greeted warmly, given hot drinks & home-made cake and allowed to settle in. Our room was very comfortable and unlike many B&Bs, suitable for a long stay, as the two bedrooms have been purpose-built. We retired to bed to watch the footy and get a good night’s sleep before our long drive home.

Breakfast was stunning – fresh fruit and cereals, toast with home-made jams, crepes with home-made apple pureé, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon and endless cups of tea and coffee. The owners, Kieran & Ros, pride themselves on setting their guests up for the day and they certainly did that for us.

We had a lovely drive home through countryside and Wes had a delightful surprise for me – at a little town called Wellington, there is a free ferry which travels 24 hours every day and takes about 4 cars at a time across to Tailem Bend. We thought that was just perfect and so unexpected! When we arrived home here last night we discovered our Icelandic poppies had started to bloom, and our lemons, which are now in the Lemon House for the Winter, were yellowing very nicely indeed.

This morning we drove to Ballarat to collect Bilbo. I drove him back here, while Wes went to Bunnings to pick up my Mother’s Day greenhouse. Bilbo didn’t say a word on the drive home, leapt out of the car, checked out every room in the house and then waited at the front door until Wes arrived back, whereupon he wagged his tail madly and hopped into bed for a serious sleep.

Wes cooked us a yummy pasta dish for lunch and he has done a quick mow of the longer grass in the backyard, so everywhere is looking fabulous. I’ve been washing and will tackle the ironing after I finish this. 

We’ve had a wonderful time away and highly recommend Adelaide, Victor Harbor and McLaren Vale if you are thinking of a short break or planning on going to the footy.

Daylesford Mothers' Day Dispatch - Sunday, 11th May 2014

Dear Friends, after an enjoyable breakfast last Sunday, Wes and I drove to Clunes in the sunshine to visit Booktown. We haven’t been for a couple of years and were most impressed with the changes and improvements. There were lots of things for kids and lots of kids’ books for sale; plenty of inexpensive hot food & drinks; books galore; bands playing, and a very busy main street. We enjoyed walking around and picked up a handful of books. Catherine King and her husband, Mark Karlovic, were there with their son, Ryan – they spent the Saturday at Spudfest, like us.

We came home to a quiet afternoon and just as Wes thought he would get out into the garden, the rain came down. We’ve had over 40mls during the last few days and everywhere is looking very green and healthy.

On Monday it was too wet underfoot for golf, so I went shopping early, while Wes worked on the computer and planned an assault on the garden at 9am, by which time it was raining steadily again. We had quite a busy day – John Scarffe came back to drink coffee, eat biscuits, discuss Ancestry with Wes and sand the kitchen ceiling. After a yummy fish lunch, I visited John & Dot Smith to see if the back of his jumper was the right size and it is! While I spent a quiet late afternoon in front of the fire with Bilbo, Wes had a meeting with Kate Redwood, Jenny & Eddie Beacham planning a meeting to change the ALP’s mind about treatment of refugees. That night we received the worrying news from Judi that our friend of 15 years, Lorelle Hall, was in emergency in Ballarat.

Wes with Nick Massaro at Porcupine Ridge

After gym on Tuesday, I had my nails done; John Scarffe came back to finish sanding the kitchen ceiling & fix the bathroom basin; Wes filled a bin with weeds; Glenn Mack dropped in some King Island cheese wedges and Nick Massaro came to give me a massage.

Leanne’s cat, Smokey, had been in Lort Smith Hospital since Saturday night and she received the very welcome news that she could bring him home that afternoon. It is very worrying that Smokey continues to suffer from this problem of being unable to urinate...we can only hope that the issue has been sorted this time.

It was very cold again on Wednesday morning, but Wes and Bilbo went off walking at 5.10am and arrived back an hour later – cold, but invigorated. Wes usually works on the computer for a couple of hours after the walk, and then spends an hour or two in the garden. The chore this morning was trimming the rosemary. We must have at least 50 rosemary plants, so it was quite a big deal. Sandra came to clean and I went off to play Mah Jong with Dot, Valerie & Gail.

We spent a very happy morning together at Muffins & More and Valerie & I had lunch together afterwards, while Wes took Barbara to Gracenotes Café as part of their usual Wednesday date. The sun was shining that afternoon, so Bilbo and I walked up to the Post Office and back. As the weather for Thursday was expected to be 0° in the early morning, I harvested all the remaining chillies and pulled out the plants as they wouldn’t have survived what turned out to be quite a frost.

After gym I had a fringe trim with Morgan at Spice then Wes and I drove to Bendigo to see the Genius & Ambition Exhibition on loan from the RSA. For the past few years Bendigo has managed to stage an important and interesting exhibition around this time and this was no exception. We did enjoy seeing some paintings we had never seen before as well as revisiting some Australian art that was included in the final room.

This was my favourite – ‘On the Scheldt’ by W C Stanfield AKA C F Stanfield

Wes and I were in agreement with the paintings we loved and thought the Australian section more than held its own, including the painting below by G V Cole, entitled ‘Autumn Morning’ ....when you were looking at this you could feel the mist rising.

Outside the Gallery was a very friendly woman manning a pop-up Information Centre and she directed us into town where we found Khong, an adequate sort of Chinese restaurant and enjoyed chilli prawns & ginger scallops with tea. Every time I have been to Bendigo for one of these special shows, the Info Centre is there and it is such a great example of a city working together to give visitors the very best experience.

Many years ago when everyone went to Bendigo for the pottery, there was similar vibe – you felt the whole place was proud of the pottery and keen for visitors to experience as much as they could of this beautiful old city.

We came home via Malmsbury, which was decked in Autumn splendour as well as Glenlyon. I was quite tired on our return as I had done all the driving to give Wes a break and by 4pm I was in bed and struggling to keep awake. We both ended up having a 12-hour sleep, which we obviously needed and felt much better the next day. Bilbo didn’t mind missing his walk, as long as he got a bone!

Wes had a meeting in Trentham which took most of the morning and then went to Ballarat that afternoon to see if he could buy us a small greenhouse, which is my Mother’s Day present from Bilbo. He arrived back having ordered one and we have decided it will live on our decking, which gets plenty of Winter sun. That night we were able to stay awake for the very exciting Swans vs Hawks match, which the Swans won when Buddy Franklin finally got his kicking boot on and slotted a couple of goals after seven straight behinds.

Recent photo of Barbara in the Anzac Day march

We woke to another rainy morning on Saturday, so all gardening was postponed and we spent the morning sitting at our computers. At lunchtime we attended an Afternoon Tea celebrating World Lupus Day, as one of our friends here suffers from lupus, as do several other non-Daylesford friends. We arranged to meet up with Gillie at the local footy, where Pink Day was being celebrated. Daylesford beat Creswick in an entertaining game, and we enjoyed spending time with Gillie, and lots of other local friends.

Pink afternoon tea for Breast Cancer at the footy

This morning has been much quieter than usual. We are off to Adelaide on Tuesday, primarily to see Collingwood play Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday night, where we will be joined by Danny Millman. We are taking the opportunity to spend a few days in this beautiful city, and will go to McLaren Vale on Saturday, stay overnight and head home on Sunday. I’ll be in touch with you as soon as possible after our return.

So, no trip to Daylesford Sunday Market this morning, but we are sharing breakfast with Judi, Gillie, Aileen & Barbara, and later in the day we have been invited to participate in Peter Widdop’s birthday celebrations, which will be just lovely.

This is my first Mothers’ Day without Viva – thinking of her and especially today. Happy Mothers’ Day to all our friends who are mothers – hope you are spoilt by your loving families.

One of my favourite photos of Viva enjoying a stay in Daylesford with Leanne, Peter & Anka

Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 4th May 2014

Dear Friends, we had a brilliant long lunch at the Massaros last Sunday with Peter & Cathy there as well. Nick had made vegetarian spring rolls, which were followed by barramundi wrapped in paper with stir-fried vegetables, pears in raspberry syrup with ice-cream and raspberry fruit cake. Thank God we all left the table for a tour of the property before sweets or we would never have fitted back into our cars! We arrived back home at 5pm to discover one member of the family was hungry.

Cathy O’Toole, Wes, Me, Peter Widdop & Robyn Massaro

On Monday we had an early walk, did some computer work then drove to Strathmore where we had been invited by Leanne to celebrate Smokey’s 6^th birthday. I had found a pair of cat stockings as a gift...they are bright green filled with catnip and you hang them from a door knob. Leanne had put balloons outside and we had whistles and poppers and lolly bags as part of the celebrations.

As Smokey spent Easter at the Lort Smith Hospital, came home before he was fully well and then spent another two days with Murray, the local vet, it was pretty good that we were able to celebrate at all. Things had looked very grim over Easter, but, apart from being extra sleepy, Smokey seemed very much like himself. Leanne produced two huge platters of antipasto, followed by a home-made lemon meringue cheesecake, so we waddled away from there as well and didn’t need any dinner for the second night in a row.

Leanne, Smokey & Karen with cat gift

Tuesday was wet and muggy, and by the time I got to gym I was quite asthmatic and it didn’t improve. I had planned to catch up with Rhonda for a cuppa at Gracenotes Café, in front of the fire, and enjoyed spending time with her, as always. When I got home I found I was quite tired, so lit the fire and spent the rest of the day keeping warm and reading.

The next day I couldn’t get up, and it was bitterly cold, -1°, so I was easily persuaded to stay in bed. Wes cancelled spending time with Barbara as is their usual pattern on Wednesday, while I had to cancel my involvement in Mah Jong. Ditto Thursday, where I missed gym, a U3A Piano Music class and a dinner invitation from Penny & David O’Reilly.

On Friday we woke to gentle rain and I stayed in bed until I had finished the Friday cryptic (DA) then got up, packed and got ready to go to Melbourne for the footy. My asthma was much better and I promised Wes that if I was feeling unwell at the game I would go straight back to Rydges, where I was staying overnight. Wes drove me to Ballan where I caught the train, changed at Spencer Street for Parliament and had only a short walk to the hotel. I spent the afternoon sitting quietly and reading. I decided to see Fading Gigolo with Woody Allen before the footy and found myself enjoying this delightful film much more than I had expected. As usual the shorts (far too long) had not done the film justice.

I arrived at the MCG in time to get a good seat in the Balcony, had an unsuccessful look around for Liz Smith, a Daylesford friend, who has been coming regularly to the footy this year, but did find Loud Gayle and spent a few minutes in her company...sadly not enough to discuss the Gibsons’ recent New York & Los Angeles holiday. Collingwood won the game easily although Carlton found some form in the last quarter when most of their supporters had left or the ones at home had switched off the TV. I found it hard to enjoy the victory as I knew Wes, in particular, and many of my friends, would be hurting as they hate losing to the Pies as much as we hate losing to the Blues.

The next morning I woke early and walked around to the European Café for breakfast, where I was greeted warmly and chose a new item from the menu – rice pudding with poached pears & toasted almonds to have with my Japanese quince tea. I caught the 9.40am train back to Woodend where Wes was going to pick me up so we could visit Spudfest in Trentham. There were only 3 carriages on the train and I was glad I was 20 minutes early as it was completely full by the time we left, mostly with young people going to a concert in Bendigo. The conductor apologised and promised to see what he could do – he organised two coaches to meet the train at Sunbury and that took care of 100 of them, and another coach at Macedon collected 50 more. There were still no spare seats on the train!

We had a lovely time at Trentham where we met up with Wes’s cousin Glenn Testro, who was just behind us on the road from Tylden. Glenn has bought a property just outside of Trentham and is wildly excited and keen to experience everything Trentham has to offer. We went to the Saturday Market at the train station, where both Wes & Glenn invested in beautiful new leather belts before heading to High Street and a hot drink at Chaplins. We sat at the big table and spent our time introducing Glenn to various local Trentham & Daylesford identities.

Then a walk down to the Lake where the festival was in full swing and Glenn was easily persuaded to buy a beautiful green hat from Wild Trout Downunder from the tiny hamlet of Gordon. We parted after three most enjoyable hours together – can’t wait until settlement in July when we can share many more fun times with Glenn, and his son, Tyson.