Morse

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Sunday, 21 December 2014

Daylesford Summer Dispatch - Sunday, 21st December 2014





Dear Friends, with no cricket last Sunday, I had no excuse to avoid the garden, so after breakfast Wes and I got cracking. He went out and bought a short plump Christmas tree, which I decorated, while he went out again to get horse manure compost. That gave me free rein with the tree and we are very pleased with the result.

Then I brought all my potting regalia upstairs and transferred the contents of the greenhouse (which had turned into a hothouse) into large black pots sitting on the veranda within easy reach for watering and harvesting. We have a pot full of self-seeding perpetual rocket, courtesy of Nick Massaro; a pot with full-grown basil mint and chilli seedlings, and a pot with garlic chives and French tarragon. As well there is a smaller black plastic pot of Italian parsley sitting on the table waiting to be put into something more salubrious! I had enough potting mix to make up a seed tray for spring onions and they are occupying the greenhouse in solitary splendour, while all the pots of baby rocket are around the side of the house where it isn’t too hot and they seem to like it.

By the time I had finished toiling, I was quite ready to sit down with the Sunday Age and while away the rest of the afternoon doing crosswords and Logic Puzzles. Over a very yummy pumpkin & olive pizza, we watched the first episode of The Knick, until eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and am hoping that Wes will watch the remainder of the series himself. It was far too graphic and the acting was too pedestrian for me to get any enjoyment at all. We then watched an episode of The Fall and found ourselves wishing we were seeing Vera instead. Brenda Blethyn would have sewn up this puzzle in one episode and it would have been much more realistic!

I had decided to go to gym on Monday & Wednesday this week as the rest of the week was looking busy enough and Barry was keen as his Monday classes have been small. I walked there as I needed to deliver a magazine to Judi and to do a last check of Daisy-Lea, John & Jan’s holiday home, as it was being settled that day.  By the time it was 8.05am, there were 17 participants at gym – almost a record I suspect. Two had been there since 7am and they left shortly afterwards, another left early and a fourth was attending his first session, and left also as Barry couldn’t give him his undivided attention.

When I arrived home Wes was mowing the bottom part of the garden before the temperature reached the expected low 30s. He had to plant his latest rose Cote d’Azure, which has glorious rich yellow blooms with a lovely fragrance, and remove his daily 100 weeds before retreating inside to the cool, where Bilbo and I were already ensconced. Lunch was an encore performance of Seafood Laksa, as good as the first and he can make it as often as he likes as far as I am concerned.

Like everyone else we were glued to the ABC news with the shocking hostage situation at the Lindt Café in Martin Place, Sydney. We were so impressed with the police and their handling of this and could only hope and pray it would be resolved without loss of life. Sadly it wasn’t and two innocent victims have died – changing the lives of their families and friends forever. It also seems that Australia won’t ever seem quite such a safe place after this terrifying occurrence.

Since we came back from Scotland, I have had an ongoing project to change all our passwords, something we try to do every two years at least. Once we have agreed on the passwords, we work our way through all the sites, memberships and miscellany of activities that require security and it can take quite a while. I find I do a better job in the mornings and can only last an hour or so in the afternoon before my head is whirling. As we keep all our passwords safe in our e-Wallet, it is a simple matter to run down the listed categories and keep track of where I am up to each time I have break. I am not a procrastinator by nature, but it did take me a good 5 weeks to get started!

The next morning I drove to Ballarat early to change the pin numbers on our credit & debit cards, which can only be done at ATMs and as there is no NAB in Daylesford, Ballarat was the next best place. I chose the branch with two ATMs as I needed about 15 minutes or so to complete the task, but as luck would have it, one of the ATMs was out of order, so I stopped every time someone else came along to use it. Then off to Bridge Mall to find the ABC shop in Collins Bookstore, as I had been totally unsuccessful in finding an ABC Cricket book this year, either here or in Melbourne. They didn’t have any copies at the ABC shop, but were able to explain that the new distributors preferred to have customers buy them at the cricket grounds, rather than at the newsagents, which we have been doing for years. At least I know why it has been so hard. It seems like a short-sighted move to me, but perhaps sales have sky-rocketed...I’d love to know.

Back home I tackled a few more passwords before it was time for yummy fish pie with three varieties of fish and lots of chillies while we watched Our Zoo, which has been a most delightful antidote to my steady diet of crime. Wes had decided to have a quiet day in front of the computer as he was going to be busy the next day, and I think Bilbo enjoys having both of us at home and being under our feet. Duke Street was without power for a while and we couldn’t reconnect to the internet once the problem was sorted. Wes eventually worked out that our modem wasn’t recognising our new password and solved the issue, as well as discovering that our Guest password had been changed, which was why our visitors had been unable to easily connect to our internet.

Wednesday was another cool morning which gives us all a chance to open windows and doors and let the fresh air in, before it gets hot again. I headed off to gym before coming home to get changed for the last Mah Jong of the year. Dot, Valerie and I had a fun morning and each of us won a game, which seemed very fair. Dot’s husband, John, joined us for lunch afterwards.
In the afternoon I had an appointment with Greg Stewart to find out the results of my blood test. He was thrilled with everything, including my current blood pressure and told me I had a less than 2% chance of a stroke or heart attack in the next 5 years...not that I had contemplated either of these events as there is no family history of them. I suspect I’ll trip over a large recumbent Labrador instead!
In the meantime Wes was having a very busy time – he started by filling up the garbage bins with weeds from the front garden, and then hosed everywhere before heading over to Barbara’s place. They spent the afternoon at Mooltan and the RSL doing interviews of old diggers. Wes arrived back here in time to get changed, collect Janine Hawker and go to the Daylesford Rotary Christmas break-up at the Daylesford Cidery. I was well and truly asleep when he arrived home, but had left him a note suggesting he sleep in and that I would walk Bilbo.

He took advantage of my offer, so Bilbo and I had a lovely, but dark early morning stroll around the Lake. It was cool, so there was mist rising, which is always magic. The Boathouse Café has finally opened again this week, and it looks lovely with a few lights on so it is visible from wherever you are walking. It is probably 2 years since it burnt down and early reports from the new place are very encouraging.

Inside looking out

Wes decided a very quiet day was in order after his busy day, so spent time at the computer and reading. Meanwhile I had lunch with friend, Sheila Hollingworth, at Gracenotes Café. Sheila & Vaughan have bought a house in Clunes and have been living there for the past 6 months after a year of so of travelling. Originally I was to drive to Clunes, but Sheila decided she would like to visit Daylesford and I was very happy to meet her locally. She and Vaughan both find Daylesford very busy these days after living in the sleepy hollow that is Clunes and we made plans to catch up with them both over there post New Year. Later on I had a haircut with Lyndal at The Cutting Studio.

On Friday I woke up feeling quite exhausted and realised I would be unable to do the final Bushwalk for the year. This was a shame as Wes was joining us all for lunch afterwards at Ian & Josie’s home in Musk. I stayed in bed until 9am (in the past I wouldn’t have been able to get up at all) and spent a very quiet day at home mostly watching the cricket. Wes cooked poached ocean trout which we ate with a small amount of the huge potato salad I had made the day before for the shared lunch.

Yesterday I felt much better when I woke up and knew I had made the right decision, as we were off to Strathmore to have a low-key Christmas lunch with Leanne & Smokey.

We were in charge of bon-bons, salad and bubbles, while Leanne provided a lovely meal of roast pork & turkey with bread sauce and baked vegetables. Wes had bought some smoked salmon for me and sweets was a gigantic trifle that Leanne had made. We exchanged gifts for Smokey & Bilbo and Leanne gave us a beautiful star for the top of the Christmas tree, while we had brought her a Darrell Lea Christmas pudding and some chook manure!

We drove home listening to the wickets fall at the Gabba and were able to see the end of the match and Australia’s unlikely win. Bilbo had slept for most of the time we were out and was thrilled to bits with his new friend courtesy of Leanne. We were all in bed early and watched the Hobart innings in the Big Bash, but were asleep by the time the Melbourne Stars failed to match their score.

Today Bilbo and I are off to pump mineral water, to visit the Sunday Market, and then we three will head to breakfast at The Food Gallery for the last time with year. It is a perfect morning here, so Wes and I will both do some gardening before it gets too hot.

There won’t be a Dispatch next Sunday as I am off to Melbourne on Boxing Day for the Test. As usual Wes will very kindly drive me there early, we’ll stop at the MCG for me to get a seat ticket, then have breakfast with Peter and Anka at the European Café before Wes drops the three of us back at the ground and checks me into my room at Rydge’s Hotel in Exhibition Street. Jane and David Knox are joining me at the MCG and the hotel for Days 2 & 3, and I expect to catch up with Gayle Gibson, John Webster & David Lazzaro over the match as well.



Happy Christmas to you all and thank you so much for sharing our lives over this difficult year. We hope you enjoy a wonderful Christmas Day with family and/or friends and that 2015 is a safe, happy, healthy and peaceful year for us all.


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