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Dear Friends, another beautiful week has flown by. We
started with a fun breakfast at The Food Gallery Café – Wes told some funny
funeral stories, Michael joined us, Margot gave Bilbo 2/10 for manners, Gail
popped in unexpectedly, Aileen stayed long enough to drink a coffee, Judi told
us about attending a gay funeral (unexpected death of their 51-year old
neighbour) and Janine arrived late and had to fight for a seat. When Aileen finally
arrived, we had to make room for her as well!
On Monday, it was time to go back to normal – gym classes
restarted, kids went back to school, tradies were out in droves, U3A classes
began and Daylesford was emptied of most of our tourists...only a few visitors
from NSW where school doesn’t go back for another week. Wes planted bulbs in
the back and ‘messed around’ in the front garden.
Our ornamental
grape looking at its best as it starts the big climb up to the decking
Lib and her daughter, Becky, flew down on Saturday to help
Paul Tyrrell celebrate his 40th birthday. Bec was complaining about
the temperatures, as most Queenslanders do, but we think Melbourne has put on
some beautiful Autumn weather over the past week or so!
‹Lib visiting her
Dad, Doug Mathews, aged 97 & still going strong
Paul Tyrrell with Oscar & Macy
We awoke early to rain (finally) on Tuesday morning, so the early
morning walk & a game of golf were both cancelled. I got up to give Bilbo a
bone, which he toyed with briefly before coming back to bed. Wes went off to do
projectionist duties at the Daylesford Cinema and later in the morning, Bilbo
and I went for a long walk to make up for missing our early one.
I met Gillie for lunch back at ‘The Food Gallery’. We had
been going to try ‘Larder’ but there wasn’t a spare seat at midday, and we’re
not sorry as we had the seafood chowder, which was very yummy indeed. Wes
joined us after the film duties finished and reported that he had finally shown
a film that no one turned up to watch!
On Wednesday post gym, I joined Valerie & Dot for
another good morning of Mah Jong at ‘Muffins & More’ before visiting Fiona
at ‘Daylesford Aromatherapy’, where we get refills of shampoo, conditioner,
laundry powder, kitchen liquid, and essential oils. Fiona has been running this
lovely little business for 16 years and we have been patronising her for all of
that time as we bought our original weekender at 78 Duke Street in August 1998
– where have those 17 years gone to I wonder?
Last week, Joyce,
Manny & their 4 offspring, their partners & children all spent a couple
of days in Ballarat and here is the photo to prove it. We had fun finding Mark,
Grace, Mia & Lily; Shane, Melinda, Katia & Alessia; Matt, Sara,
Genevieve & Ava; and Jessica & Geoff. Manny has officially retired at
last, and it looks as though it suits him very much indeed.
The next morning I drove to Poyntons’ Nursery in Essendon to
catch up with Leanne. We had a lovely time chatting over hot drinks before
choosing her new watering can and some King Alfred daffodil bulbs for here. It
was raining as we sat looking out onto the Maribyrnong River and everywhere
looked beautiful and green.
Everywhere we look, we see gorgeous colours – yellow,
orange, red, maroon & green in so many different shades. It truly is the
best season here.
On Friday very early, Wes drove to Heidelberg to play golf
with Tom, Danny & Bobby. They had a lovely morning on the course and repaired
to the local hotel where they spent the next 5 hours chatting & catching
up. Wes had hoped to visit Joan Testro as well, but she wasn’t well enough for
that to happen.
Meanwhile Bilbo & I went shopping at Coles early before
joining the Bushwalking Group on a lovely walk around Jubilee Lake and the old
railway line there. The five of us really enjoyed the very pretty scene and
were most amused when Bilbo started crying every time we stopped to admire the
colours or the water or just to catch our breath.
When I logged onto Facebook I was greeted by the lovely news
that Emily Knox, daughter of Jane & David, is engaged to Alan Kinnear, from
the Isle of Bute. Congratulations to you both – we are so pleased for you. Wes
logged on yesterday to discover that Belinda Clarke, daughter of his cousin,
Wayne Testro & wife, Janice, has given birth to a baby daughter, Josephine.
My current project is getting ready for the next Crime
Fiction classes, which are now being held later in the year. Our tutor, Graeme
Boscoe, has asked us to looked at the ‘Purloined Letter Society’ (http://www.thepurloinedlettersociety.org/Catalogue)
website, which rates the best known crime fiction writers, and to decide if we
agree with the number of stars that have been given to writers we know. I have
decided to do this in the form of a spreadsheet, so each day I transfer the
information from the website and add the books I have read and my thoughts
about them. I am quite surprised by the number of different authors I have read
and look forward to trying a few more.
Yesterday we woke early to discover that Daylesford was
shrouded in fog and light rain was falling. Bilbo was very happy to have a bone
and come back to bed with me, while Wes worked at the computer and waited for
news of Joan Testro. (She had slept through the night and hopefully is on the
mend.) We had prawn & ginger congee for breakfast and then drove to
Trentham to meet Mick Carey, & his wife, Pam. Mike was at school with Wes
and they have stayed in touch intermittently over the years. He & Pam are
now retired and happily living in Torquay, but were spending the weekend in
Daylesford for a wedding at the Convent Gallery. Wes had suggested ‘Pendower
House’ would suit them and they were very happily settled there. We went for a
stroll around the Trentham Market with Bilbo, then put him in the car, and
spent the next 45 minutes in ‘Chaplins’ chatting over hot drinks. We had hoped
to bump into Bob White or Glenn Testro or both while we were there, but no such
luck.
Another baby, this
time Maya Skewes, very early arrival to Angela & Nathan. Angela is Glenda
Rozen’s only daughter and, like her mother, a much-loved person in Daylesford.
On Friday night, I was very relieved to find Collingwood hit
their straps again and after a close 1st quarter, were able to power
away from the improved St Kilda. It’s a long time since we have kicked a
21-goal score. St Kilda was disadvantaged by losing their inspirational
captain, Nick Riewoldt, just before the game started.
Yesterday afternoon, I took Bilbo to see Daylesford play
Buninyong at Victoria Park. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and it was a
perfect day for a local game. Wes was going to come, but Carlton was making a
fist of their game against Essendon, so he decided to watch that instead. Daylesford
played out of their skins during the first half against a very strong Buninyong
and were eventually overhauled by 6 goals.
Today we are expecting some very dirty weather, which hasn’t
arrived yet. It was cold and wet early, so Bilbo got a bone and was back in bed
in a matter of minutes. We will head off to the Sunday Market, before enjoying
breakfast with friends at ‘The Food Gallery’.
Wes is very busy getting ready to present a four-week course
on ‘Ancestry’ at the Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre next month. He is enjoying
the preparation and is hoping for a good group of people who are serious about doing
work on their family trees, and who are in need of a few tools to help them on
their way. The classes are on the first four Saturday mornings of May and it
would be lovely if Wes can pass on his passion for family detective work to
others.
P.S. I’m finally dissuading the cockies from munching the
small birdseed on ‘Fawlty Towers’ by arming myself with a long-range water
pistol. They don’t like it at all and as I sit here looking out the magpies and
rosellas are fighting over the spoils with nary a cockie in sight.
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