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Dear Friends, we received the news late morning last Sunday
that Joan Testro had died peacefully surrounded by her three girls, as she
would have wished. She has been a wonderful person in our lives and we are so
grateful to have known and loved her.
One of my favourite
photos of Joan with Dot Maloney (Warren’s mum) circa 1956
Judi & Michael have been away for the past fortnight and
were expected back late that night, so I visited their home to leave them some
fresh fruit & vegetables from the Sunday Market, plus some minestrone soup
that I had made that morning. I swept their path so that they could get into
the house, as there were Autumn leaves up the stairs to the front door.
I also cooked curried cauliflower, and Wes was quite
thrilled to be relieved of kitchen duties for a few meals.
Hailstones on Jane
& David Knox’s balcony after yet another big storm in Sydney last Saturday
After gym on Monday, I spent a couple of very relaxing hours
with Emma at EKO having a facial etc. Meanwhile Wes worked in the garden and
spent most of the rest of the day talking to his cousins and helping sort out
arrangements as he is sole executor of Joan’s will.
On Tuesday, he showed the film ‘A Little Bit of Chaos’ by
Alan Rickman at the Daylesford Cinema. I had invited Gillie to see it with me
and we were joined by Annie Smith, whose friends hadn’t turned up. Judi also
arrived to see it and we were all pleased afterwards that we had made the
effort. The photography was excellent and I liked the acting, costuming and the
storyline very much indeed.
Immediately afterwards Wes drove to Melbourne to meet up with
Lexie, Stacey & Mandy at Arcare, Caulfield, where Joan had been living over
these past few months. When that meeting was over, he rang Tom Tyrrell to catch
up over a drink, which turned into dinner with Tom & Deb and a very late
arrival home here. Meanwhile I had chatted with Gillie over a pot of tea after
the film, and then took Bilbo to the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens for a long
walk in the afternoon sunshine.
Lovely &
Malcolm enjoying a rooftop dinner in Istanbul at the start of their holiday
On Wednesday morning, we woke to the very sad news that
Indonesia had executed 8 of the 9 on Death Row. The lack of clemency,
compassion or understanding by the President has been breath-takingly arrogant –
I am reminded of Henry Bolte and the hanging of Ronald Ryan, which was equally
upsetting at the time.
While Wes worked on the computer, I played Mah Jong with Dot
& Valerie, before arriving home again to meet with Wayne from Barclays to
see if he could repair our once again faulty dishwasher. He thought it was a
mouse that caused the latest damage. We have so far caught two mice in the kitchen,
one under the sink & another in the pantry. However, after Wayne left the
dishwasher was unable to complete its cycle, so we are back to square one with
him visiting again this Wednesday.
Thursday was a beautiful day after a cold morning – the boys
walked early and I went supermarket shopping, where I discovered that Wendy,
who is always smiling and helpful, had spent an awful 24 hours not knowing if
her daughter was alive or dead in Nepal after the earthquake. We can’t believe
how many Daylesford residents were there – a family of four, a young man and
now a young woman. Luckily, all of them are safe and Wendy’s daughter arrived
home on Friday. She had taken time off from her job to do volunteer nursing and
was one month into her year of duty.
Our first cucumber
– going into the Hendricks G&T – very exciting and easily the best cucumber
taste ever!
I set off then for Ballarat as I had an appointment with my
podiatrist, Victoria Armstrong, who used to operate from a beautiful old
Victorian home. She is now in a large medical centre and it was a very
different experience going in to see her. She told me that she had to sell the
lovely home as one of her employees, who was also her tenant next-door, was
murdered there last year and she couldn’t face working from there ever again.
Victoria is heavily involved in rescuing thoroughbred racehorses that have been
mistreated and one of them had bitten her yesterday, so she was in some
discomfort. It makes you realise how lucky you are – what’s a bit of asthma
& chronic fatigue – at least I am alive! We had a good chat about my
cousin, Bernard Saundry, and she was very complimentary of the job he is doing
as CEO Racing Victoria, especially his support for Country Racing.
I was prompted to visit Victoria because I bought a new pair
of walking boots and decided that the old orthotics were looking very old
indeed. So I will have a new pair and my not so old pair will be refurbished,
which is perfect. On the way back I dropped into Spring Park Nursery in
Eganstown to buy up all their bluebell bulbs. I was horrified to discover you
can buy pink & white as well as the traditional blue. Wes is planning to
put the bulbs around our fruit trees as well as under our lilacs as they bloom
at the same time.
Stunning colours on
the maple by the front door – we thank Denise Robinson every year for this
beautiful gift of hers
On Friday, Wes walked Bilbo before setting off for a big day
in town. He went to John de Simone’s funeral in Preston and had planned to
attend his second funeral when he had a flat battery and had to call the RACV. He
ended up getting a haircut and catching up with his cousin, Mandy before making
the long drive home in peak hour traffic.
Meanwhile Bilbo & I enjoyed a lovely walk from Muskvale
to Sailors Falls, where we had morning tea by the spring. Bilbo loved the walk
and was most grateful for the apples that were picked for him by Malcolm Bray as
we walked back to our cars. I left Bilbo with a large bone to tide him over
until dinnertime and headed off to visit Leanne. After a couple of enjoyable hours with her, I drove to Northcote, where Danny
had invited Greta & Penny to be surprise afternoon tea guests. We had a
lovely time catching up with each other.
That night Danny & I went to the footy together at the
MCG. It was a big occasion as Mick Malthouse, (coach of Carlton & former coach
of Collingwood) broke the long-standing VFL/AFL record of most games coached
(714, held for many decades by legendary Collingwood coach Jock McHale). We
enjoyed the tributes to Mick and were pleased to see that both cheer squads
celebrated the milestone on their banners. Before the game, we had dinner in
The Terrace café, on the first level of the MCC, where we had a table by the
window and could watch the crowds walking in. We even found Loud Gayle and had
time for a brief chat with her as well.
Yesterday Danny & I went walking along High Street,
Northcote at 8am looking for an early breakfast spot and eventually found ‘Palamino’
where a Scottish waitress welcomed us warmly and we enjoyed very yummy and
interesting breakfast offerings. At least I had the eggs scrambled with Meredith
feta, dukkah & spinach, and Mate had plain scrambled eggs with bacon and
best tomatoes ever!
I arrived back here to rain falling, so cancelled any
thoughts of going to the Daylesford Farmers Market or Spudfest in Trentham and
opted to unpack, make a boiled fruit cake and have a relaxing read of The Age.
Wes had already gone to the first of his sessions on Ancestry at the Daylesford
Neighbourhood Centre and he arrived back around 12.30pm. Sadly only three of
the eight participants had turned up, but they were all keen and he has offered
to give those that missed the first session a private catch-up if they so
desire.
We had thought about going to Clunes Booktown, but both of
us were feeling tired and decided we would do it today instead after breakfast.
I was in the mood to watch the footy and saw a couple of very exciting games,
especially the win by the Western Bulldogs over Sydney in pouring rain at the
SCG.
Our friend, Carol Bruce, has finally sold her home in
Hepburn Springs and is moving to Meadow Gardens in Delacombe, Ballarat, where
she will be close to both her daughters and her granddaughter. She promises she
will still drive to Daylesford on a Wednesday to play Mah Jong with Ellis, Pat
& Marjorie.
Michael Ivanchenko about to tuck into one of Brian Fell’s big Sunday
breakfasts – at Cliff Place, Tathra
Bilbo and I are about to head off
to the Sunday Market before we meet up with Judi, Janine, Margot, Barbara &
Aileen for breakfast at the ‘Food Gallery’.
This lovely family
photo was posted on Facebook during the week – our niece, Michelle, is shown
with her husband, George, and children, Mikaela & Michael
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