Karen Maloney's Dispatch: Daylesford Mothers' Day Dispatch

Dear Friends, last Sunday was the most perfect day – after breakfast I spent two hours in the garden pulling out the tomato plants (I had given them fair warning), picking our cucumbers & green peppers and planting baby spinach in pots on the decking. We also have lots of little chillies and a tray of dill that is going very well indeed. Bilbo doesn’t seem interested in the figs at all, so I am able to pick them when they are nearly ripe and finish the process off inside in the light.

This beautiful photo was taken by Frank Page at Wombat Park Estate last Saturday during the Open Garden weekend.

We were spoilt for choice in Daylesford over the weekend with a Farmers Market, the Open Gardens, Spudfest in Trentham, Booktown in Clunes, a Women’s Walk around Lake Daylesford, the Sunday Market and a cooking exhibition at Lake House.

On Sunday night, we decided to watch ‘The Water Diviner’ with Russell Crowe. It started promisingly with a seeming understanding of the Turkish position at Gallipoli, but after a while, you just had to suspend belief and go with it. I had trouble with the perfect English spoken by many of the Turks, the use of the term ANZACs, the deployment by Russell Crowe of a cricket bat to single-handedly wipe out a Greek sortie and the impossibility of his character being able to pinpoint exactly where his sons had died, among other things. The acting was very uneven, some characters changed personality during the film and we detected more than a faint American twang a few times. Glad we didn’t pay to go and see it!

We both worked very hard on Monday, which was one of those perfect Autumn days – I put in one of my best days in quite a long time – gym, massage, planted cabbages, broccoli & curly leaf parsley, rearranged drawers, did the big Monday wash & even starched the tea-towels & pillow cases. Wes spent the morning in the garden after walking Bilbo and broke the back of the worst weeding (the bed is full of prickly roses and it is hard work). He also wrote his eulogy for Joan Testro, washed & vacuumed both cars and cooked whiting for lunch. We decided to watch another episode of ‘Wolf Hall’ over lunch and what a stunning production this is. I have just ordered the first two books, as the writing is superb, the acting sublime and the setting perfect. We are spellbound by this series, which is one of the best we have ever seen.

Our elder niece, Jessie, with her husband, Anthony, and children, Dante & Chiara

As is sometimes the case in Victoria, the rain sheeted down Tuesday morning, so all thoughts of a walk with Bilbo were scrapped and we had a sleep in, which was very enjoyable. Wes polished off his speech, while I read The Age and then I dropped him off at The Rex to prepare for showing the film, ‘Still Alice’ (about early onset Alzheimer’s Disease), which I also saw. We were both so pleased we did – great acting, excellent writing and amazingly, for an American film, it managed to let us fill in the gaps and finished at exactly the right time.

Immediately Wes had completed his tasks, we set off for the Studley Park Boathouse and Joan’s wake, which was well attended in spite of the cold and rain. Amanda did a wonderful job as MC and gave a brilliant speech about her mother; Lexie’s younger daughter, Marnie, had flown in from New York in time to attend and say a few words; Stacey spoke briefly; her daughter, Gretchen, told three wonderful stories about her grandmother, and finally, Wes delivered the eulogy. As is always the case when someone dies, not everyone knows everything about the person, and he filled in the gaps especially for those who only knew her later in life. It was a fine speech and I was very proud of him – Joan would have loved it. Amanda’s daughter, Eadie, had put together some photos and videos of Joan’s life and we felt she was in the room with us especially when she was singing. The afternoon ended with Amanda & Eadie doing an unaccompanied duet of one of Joan’s songs.

We were thrilled to see all three of Keith Testro’s sons there – Wayne, (the new grandfather), Glenn with his son, Tyson, who is loving their move to Trentham, and young Keith, who we very rarely see. All the other cousins were unable to be there, either because of prior appointments, or in the case of Ronda, (Bon’s daughter); she was too far away in Caloundra.

We drove home through better weather and as we arrived at Daylesford decided we had earned a breakout meal of fish & chips, which were very yummy indeed from our excellent local fish shop. Wes had hoped to spend the evening working at his computer, but we both found we were emotionally exhausted after the morning’s film, followed by the afternoon’s outpouring of grief and remembrances, so we opted to watch an episode of ‘Scott & Bailey’ and have an early night. Bilbo had been left a big bone to chew, but I had also forgotten to close the laundry door, so he had spent the 7 hours or so we were away with the run of the house. Fortunately, he had done nothing wrong at all – not even been tempted to recline on either of the couches!

Lovely & Malcolm at ANZAC Cove this week

On Wednesday, it was another cold morning, followed by fog, and although we all got up at 5.30am, we decided Bilbo could walk later in the day when it was warmer. I went off to gym, where I love my current programme, which aims to give me endurance as well as extra strength. It is the only gym I have ever attended where there is no pressure from other attendees or from the gym instructor to do anything other than improve your own fitness at your own rate.

Wayne from Barclays, Ballarat, arrived to see if he could fix the dishwasher (yet again) and discovered a small piece of glass, which he thought might have been the problem. I set off with Bilbo to get a fringe trim and arrived back to find Wayne gone and the dishwasher going through the ‘pots & pans’ cycle. Sadly, it didn’t finish the cycle, but showed the same error message we have been getting for ages, so Wes rang Wayne and arranged for him to come back after lunch, which he did and ended up taking the dishwasher away.

I spent most of the afternoon at Mitre 10 in Daylesford, where John Jenkin had ordered in two new LG phones with very big screens for Wes and me. The rest of the afternoon was spent learning about these new phones. I have never had a mobile phone that wasn’t Motorola, but Telstra are no longer offering plans with them, so we had to make the big jump. Samsung didn’t appeal as I have always found them difficult to negotiate when trying to help friends, and Wes absolutely hated the one HTC phone he had, which we bought because it was a big screen. So far, I think these new phones are pretty good and once we have finished personalising them, I think we will be OK. However if you should ring & we take a while to answer, you will know why!

The first photo on the new phone... Wes concentrating on his writing in our study at 78 Duke Street with a wintry vista

On Thursday, Wes walked Bilbo and the heavens opened just after they arrived home. I did the supermarket shopping once the rain had eased and everywhere was looking clean & fresh, except for the two cars that had been so lovingly washed to within an inch of their lives on Monday morning.

The night before Wes had answered the SOS call and agreed to be the projectionist for an extra showing of ‘That Sugar Film’, which attracted a small, but keen audience. I decided to turn the latest and possibly the last 2kg of tomatoes into pasta sauce, and we now have so much in the freezer I’ve been forbidden to buy anything other than necessities at the Sunday Market, something I find very hard to do. I have tried my best this morning, but can’t arrive home without apples, broccoli, celery, carrots & zucchini for Bilbo and mushrooms, leek, fennel & fruit for us.

We ended up with an open fire on Thursday afternoon and I spent time reading (Swedish writer Camilla Läckberg is my current obsession), doing crosswords and catching up on AFL 360° episodes. Wes produced a 15-page submission to Council asking for a long-term plan for Lake Daylesford and met the appropriate Council officer at the Boathouse Café to discuss it.

We all slept in on Friday until 6.30am, which worked out well as the Bushwalk that morning was the 25^th Anniversary re-enactment of the walk that the original 8 did from Neighbourhood Centre down to Lake Daylesford, on to Twin Bridges and finally to Tipperary Springs. We short walkers drove to the Lake, walked around the smaller section, met up with the rest of the group for photos down by the Central Springs, then drove to Twin Bridges and walked to Tipperary Springs where we all arrived together for another photo shoot and Robyne Laurence’s yummy celebratory fruit cake complete with boot!

After morning tea & photos, we walked back to Twin Bridges and I drove Malcolm & Shirley back to their cars, which were outside Neighbourhood Centre, and the rest of the group walked back there. Bilbo was thrilled to be given some of the cake as well as his usual apple and arrived home exhausted.

Wes’s phone still wasn’t connected to Telstra, so after a shower and change of clothes, I went back to Bi-Rite Electrical in the Mitre 10 store, to see if putting in a new SIM card would solve the problem. It did, and Wes and I spent some time getting him up to speed with the phone, which including ringing each other etc!

I had decided not to go to the footy as the train getting back to Ballan after the game would arrive at 12.30am, which gets me home to Daylesford by 1am. After the way Geelong made mincemeat of us in the first half, I am rather pleased with my choice. We did play better in the second half, but couldn’t kick straight and really didn’t deserve to win, although we got within 4 goals in the last quarter. All the Cats supporters were very happy indeed, as they hadn’t expected to be so dominant.

Yesterday Wes walked Bilbo in the early rain & fog, before making us prawn congee for breakfast. I went into Vincent Street to get a few things and back to Bi-Rite to donate our very old phones (keeping the two most recent just in case) and see if I could finally sign the paperwork. It still wasn’t available, but Keith promised to print it out for me to sign next time I visited.

Bilbo resting on our bed – note the hidden head so we can’t see him!

While Wes took the second class of his Ancestry course, I spent hours on the computer updating e-Wallet so I could transfer it to the phones, as well as photos and lists of our books. The new phones come with spare batteries, so I charged them as well before having a rest and read of the Age. The Coodabeen Champions entertained me from 10-12 as usual, always worth listening to even when your team has lost the night before.

We lit a fire at lunchtime and, although Wes made it back downstairs to work at the computer, I spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying its heat, watching the very exciting win by the Saints over the more fancied Doggies, doing crosswords, knitting and eventually feeding Bilbo, who starts getting excited about dinner from 3pm onwards.

We woke to wind and rain this morning, so there was no walk for Bilbo. I’m about to take him to the Sunday Market, then we will head off to breakfast at ‘The Food Gallery’ before driving to Melbourne to spend some time with Leanne.

Mothers’ Day, 1977 – we took Perc, Viva, Dot & Ray (in two cars) to Castlemaine for lunch at the ‘Bullboar & Yabbie Restaurant’ – it was all the rage at that time and we enjoyed a lovely lunch together.

We hope that all you mothers enjoy your special day, whatever it brings. I’ve stumbled into the kitchen to discover that Bilbo has given me 4 splits of Prosecco, which are very welcome indeed.