Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 29th March 2015

 

Dear Friends, at breakfast last Sunday there were five of us and the conversation centred round treatment of older people, especially by institutions. We discovered that Margo, in her eighties, plays the piano at Lumeah Lodge, which is where some of the Daylesford oldies find themselves when they can no longer live alone. She is disappointed that there is very little mental & physical stimulation and is determined she won’t go there when her time comes. Bilbo and Molly love Margo, especially when she brings them leftover toast, which on that morning came spread with Vegemite! Barbara told us a very funny story about local identity, John Bohn, and did a creditable impersonation of his voice, which had us all amused.

In the afternoon there was a concert by the Zelman Memorial Symphony Orchestra at the Daylesford Town Hall. I was really keen to attend, but couldn’t face the numbers of people I would know and with whom I would have to interact. At gym on Monday, friends Bill & Steve, assured me there had been around 150 at the concert, which is a wonderful attendance – the Town Hall would have been packed.

After gym on Monday Nick Massaro came to give me a very welcome massage. Bilbo is always excited to see Nick, who usually brings a treat for him. I spent most of the rest of the day washing and ironing, including two visits to Gail & Terry White to use their giant washing machine which holds our underlay or doona and which they are happy for me to use every now and again. Gail had been unwell during the week, but was looking OK when I saw her. I briefly met their new 12-year old cat, Bobby, who was avoiding the cage and a visit to the vet.

During the afternoon I realised that the underlay wasn’t turning around in our dryer, so I put it in the drying cupboard, turned the heater up to 24°, closed all the heating ducts except the one in that cupboard and took off most of my clothes. Wes did the same when I let him know why downstairs had suddenly gotten so hot, but within an hour the mission was accomplished and we could go back to normal.

I had planned to play golf at Trentham on Tuesday morning after walking Bilbo. However, Wes got up and did the walk, so I set off just after 7am and found myself driving through ever increasing rain and wind. It was wettest at Trentham, so I drove on to Tylden in search of manure, which I found, and came back via Trentham to see if the weather had improved. The flags were slapping wetly against their poles at every green I could see and, if anything, the rain was heavier, so I came home to the warmth and a pot of tea instead. Wes went off to show ‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ at the 10am session and was hoping for a good turn-up. Barbara made her first visit to the cinema, and hopefully she feels she could go back again with friends.

Afterwards we met for scones, jam & cream at The Food Gallery. Wes had posted on FB that it was the 46^th Anniversary of our engagement, and he attached a link to Kenneth Branagh reading John Donne’s poem, ‘The Good- Morrow’. Many friends told us they don’t remember their dates, but we know when we met, when we decided to go steady (for want of a better word) and the date Wes asked me to marry him. It is fun to reminisce and think about all that has happened in that time.

1968 at Melbourne Uni – love those curls!

Sadly I have been unable to keep up the 5 + 2 diet – more than anything I missed the structure of stopping for a good meal in the middle of the day and I didn’t really investigate what else I could eat apart from fruit salad, so I was very hungry indeed by the end of each day. Wes is lasting better than I am and is very keen to keep off the 5kg he has lost.

Judi had invited me to go with her to Castlemaine on Wednesday as there was no Mah Jong, so after gym I came home, changed quickly and walked to their place where we had a cup of tea and picked some pears for Bilbo before heading to Castlemaine and art. We visited upstairs at ‘Run, Rabbit, Run Café’, which had an interesting display of local artist, Catherine Tait’s work, much of which had sold; then off to ‘Tog’s Café’ to look at a colourful series of nests and still life paintings by Daylesford artist, Roger Roberts, and finally to a display in the Information Centre which was a tongue-in-cheek send-up of the spate of celebrations by small towns in the Goldfields area. We didn’t realise it at the time, but on reflection, decided that the stories were too silly to be true!

We decided to go to the Castlemaine Art Gallery as well – it is a small gallery, but has at least one painting by all of the artists of the Heidelberg School as well as a stunning Fred Williams and a John Brack. There was a special display by an aboriginal artist, but neither of us was able to appreciate his colourful, naive work.

We went back to ‘Run, Rabbit, Run Café’, which had intrigued us earlier and enjoyed a very yummy and well-priced lunch – quiche for Judi & salad with tuna for me. This description doesn’t do the food justice – it was fresh, served with a big smile and they remembered us from earlier in the day. Finally we went to ‘She Sells Seafood’ where I bought some Ocean Barramundi for Wes to do something creative with for dinner that night. And he did – marinated the fillets in sherry & garlic and cooked them to perfection with our own beans and caramelised onions.

Meanwhile Wes spent the morning in our garden widening borders, and then worked across the road at Barbara’s place before grabbing a quick bite to eat and driving to Newlyn with Eddie Beacham to interview John Hungerford of Newlyn Antiques again.

It was my turn to walk Bilbo early which I enjoyed doing on Thursday and then we did shopping at Coles to let Wes have a well-earned sleep in. I bought 4kgs of cooking tomatoes from Tonnas and made some more pasta sauce, so we should be right for Winter! We spent the afternoon and evening watching Australia vs India at the SCG. Sadly this game wasn’t as exciting as the NZ vs South Africa match, and after about 30 overs, only Australia could win, which they duly did.

Not everyone was riveted to the broadcast of the cricket!

On Friday we all slept in as it was wet and cold. I decided not to join the Bushwalking Group as it was still raining at 8.45am, so Bilbo and I walked around town an hour or so later. We met Wes who had been helping out at the local cinema and had a cuppa together sitting outside The Food Gallery Café. Wes went on home but we finished our walk and arrived back just before the rain settled in again. One of the big pleasures of not getting up early on Friday was doing DA’s crossword before breakfast. It was a most enjoyable and satisfying puzzle which centred on Sherlock Holmes.

In the afternoon I joined the U3A Flicks on Friday group to see ‘Words and Pictures’, a Fred Schepsi film starring Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche. It was a wonderful, inspirational film, set in an American High School, where two teachers argued over whether Words or Pictures were more powerful. I didn’t stay for the afternoon tea, but everyone else was very keen to hang around and chat about the thoughts that the film had provoked.

Yesterday I walked Bilbo early as Wes had to leave to spend the day at the ALP State Conference, where he was an FEA delegate. I met up with Glenn Mack by chance when I went to the Nursery, and we enjoyed a cuppa and catch up together at ‘Cliffy’s Café’ next door. Back home I pulled out the bean plants and tidied up the tomato plants before retiring with the latest Wexford by Ruth Rendell and a quiet afternoon. Wes meanwhile heard an inspirational address by Premier, Daniel Andrews, where he promised equal representation by males and females on all boards that he could influence. This was a very popular pledge and set the scene for the rest of the Conference.

This morning we are off to the MCG to see the ICC World Cup Final between Australia & New Zealand and looking forward to a good match in front of a huge crowd.