Morse

Morse
Morse & friend

Sunday, 25 October 2015

Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 25th October 2015


Dear Friends, we enjoyed a very chatty breakfast last Sunday. As well as Kathy & Gerard, who were staying with us; Mary Goodall is in Daylesford again, dog & house sitting for the Anglican Minister, Jeff O’Hare, and Janine Hawker brought her son, Paul. We talked in small groups early on before breakfast arrived.  Then we moved to table topics, such as the superiority of Labradors as a breed (surprise, surprise); dairies & Clydesdale horses, and other delights of our childhoods, and finally, Margot amazed us by telling of her friend, Adrian, who feeds a magpie family with pieces of meat every day and has been rewarded with three witchetty grubs from the father magpie!

After breakfast, Wes met Barbara at Coles Supermarket to help her do a large shop, while Kathy, Ged, Bilbo & I all walked around the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, where the azaleas and rhododendrons are in full bloom. Kathy & Ged then headed home via the Garden of St Erth at Blackwood, and Bilbo and I strolled home to spend a quiet day with Wes after a very busy couple of days.


Ebb Tide - our very first rose to bloom this Spring

We both had busy mornings on Monday – I set off for gym, but was home again shortly afterwards. Poor Barry had mistakenly put on his very best aftershave, and I was so asthmatic it was impossible to continue. Instead, I collected Bilbo and we went for two circuits of the Botanic Gardens, which got plenty of fresh air back into my lungs and exhausted him for the day.

We were back in time for me to have a massage with Nick Massaro, who doubles as our handyman. After the massage, while I washed the Mazda 6, he mended 4 chairs and fixed our bedroom door, which hasn’t closed properly since the floating cork floor was replaced when we had the fire in the dishwasher three years ago. It wasn’t an issue until Bilbo started opening the door and getting comfy on our bed whenever he felt like it! Meanwhile Wes went off to a meeting of an informal Writers’ Group, which meets at ‘Wombat Hill House’ in the Botanic Gardens.

Margot had invited Bilbo to lunch with her at ‘The Glenlyon General Store’ and we were allowed to tag along. We picked Margot up at her home in Hepburn Springs and drove the 10 minutes to Glenlyon, where we found a table with umbrellas in the shade. Margot had brought a big bowtie for Bilbo to wear and surreptitiously fed him titbits from her lunch. We were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food we ate and I was especially thrilled to discover they stocked jasmine tea.


We sat chatting for a couple of hours before returning Margot to her home and the three of us to Daylesford – Bilbo without his bowtie, which will no doubt emerge on another occasion.


Yummy meals & lovely teacups

The next day Wes got up early to walk Bilbo around Lake Daylesford before heading in to show the immensely enjoyable film ‘A Walk in the Woods’ based on a Bill Bryson true story, starring Robert Redford & Nick Nolte & Emma Thompson. We laughed and cried our way through this with about a dozen other patrons. Afterwards we came home to special fried rice and Wes put in another afternoon writing, while I did various household chores before settling down with The Age and cryptic crosswords.

On Wednesday, Wes drove to Brunswick to have lunch with Kyahl Anderson, oldest son of his nephew, John, at our favourite Sydney Road eatery ‘Foxtrot Charlie’. He also visited Peter Russo before driving out to Malvern to meet with his cousin, Amanda, at Joan Testro’s home to see what needs to be done before settlement next month. Meanwhile I went back to gym, where no one was wearing perfume or aftershave. Valerie, Dot & I met for Mah Jong at ‘Muffins & More’ until Dot left early when her husband, John, wasn’t feeling wonderful and decided he needed to see a doctor. Fortunately, he was diagnosed with a throat infection, so we are all relieved.

Back home, I collected Bilbo and we went for a long walk in the Botanic Gardens before settling down to a quiet afternoon with ‘The Age’ and crosswords. It was a lovely day, not too hot, with a pleasant breeze that removed the sultriness of the previous 24 hours. We even got 3.5 mls of rain, which was very welcome indeed. Wes arrived home while it was still daylight – one of the very good things about Daylight Saving.

Thursday was cold and windy, so there was no early walk for Bilbo. He was very happy to come back to bed after his bone and kept me company while I did the crosswords in The Age. Wes and I headed off to Ballarat through the rain and mist to see the Archibald Exhibition. We were most impressed with the way the Ballarat Art Gallery showed these finalist portraits for the Archibald Prize and Wes had no hesitation in voting for the Michael Caton study, while I loved the painting of Jenny Kee. We both thought the winning entry was much more impressive than it had seemed in the media. Afterwards we sat and chatted over cuppas in the coffee shop before driving home.




On Friday, when I woke, I realised I wasn’t able to cope with all the walkers who would be doing the Swiss Italian Heritage Walk that morning, so was very grateful that Wes took Bilbo for an early stroll around Lake Daylesford. I did the shopping and came home to struggle with DA’s Friday Cryptic, (which I was pleased to solve by mid-morning) before we drove to Trentham to have lunch with Jane Barrett & her husband, John Webster, at ‘The Plough @ Trentham’. We enjoyed a three-hour lunch together where the service was excellent and the main courses even better. I had skate, which was perfectly cooked and served on a bed of asparagus and couscous with tahini pillows on the side. Wes and John raved about their slow-cooked goat, and Jane tucked into a perfect duck dish.


From left to right – goat, duck & skate with another goat in the background

We drove home via Kyneton and spent the rest of the day very quietly indeed with glasses of water and nothing to eat!

Yesterday Wes got up early again and walked Bilbo. He then spent the rest of the morning doing weeding and clearing the gutters, as well as planting our new dogwood & placing our new Japanese Maple, which we have bought in honour of Joan Testro. Bilbo and I drove to Hepburn Springs, parked near Second Street and walked down to ‘Bellinzona Grange’, where we settled in the shade to watch the Annual Swiss + Italian Festa Grande Parade.



Four town criers leading the parade & Bilbo sitting patiently watching it all go by.

The rest of the day was spent quietly watching the races from Moonee Valley on Cox Plate Day. Sadly we gave back our winnings of the previous Saturday, but enjoyed some great racing, including a stunning win in the main race by Winx.
Bilbo and I are heading off shortly to pump water at Leitches Creek, then to the Sunday Market and after a short impatient interlude at home putting our fruit & vegetables away, we three will get back in the car and go to breakfast at ‘The Food Gallery’.


No comments:

Post a Comment