Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 22nd November, 2015

Dear Friends, last Sunday’s breakfast was small in attendance, but we ranged over a wide variety of topics including the Paris massacre, parental denial, the IRA and briefly, cricket. We came home and Wes went straight into the garden while I composed and printed this year’s Christmas letter, and tried to get started on cards as we are off to Adelaide on Tuesday week for 10 days, and I will have lots to do when we get back! We have tickets for the first 4 days of the 3^rd Test, which is the first Day/Night Test Match in Australia. Jane & David Knox will be there for days 1 & 2, so it will be fun to catch up with them.

View from our study early on Monday morning – it pays to look up from the desk every now and again!

We’ve had a mixed week with George’s funeral on Warren’s birthday; early morning walks; gym; Ancestry.com; rose picking; a visit from Terry Borg, and the aftermath of the Paris atrocities to digest.

We are both thrilled that Australia is finally welcoming the first of the Syrian refugees, and we hope it won’t be long before more arrive. We live in such a big country with so much land to spare & so many of us willing to help refugees assimilate into our communities.

I drove to Ballarat on Monday for my annual check-up and, post x-rays, was given the all clear. A trip to Ballarat isn’t complete without a quick visit to the Golden Nugget Bakery for the perfect vanilla slices, which I duly did. Wes attended another Writers’ Group meeting at Wombat Hill House, where he and Fiona spent a useful 90 minutes or so chatting about their projects. That night was the AGM of the Daylesford Cinema, which Warren attended. It was a good, successful meeting with some positions on the committee changing and everyone very positive about the future of the cinema here. Of course, it all depends on volunteers, and as long as there are plenty of those, the cinema will survive.

Wes turned up to set up at the Cinema before the funeral on Tuesday and was greeted with a cake & candles organised by his lovely co-workers, Lauren & Jeanette. Judi dropped by with a gift as well, so he was feeling very loved by the time I caught up with him.

George’s funeral went well. It was a great celebration of the life of a very interesting, but simple man. At least half the mourners were past and/or present members of the Bushwalking group and all the males bar one was wearing a jacket and tie in his honour. Vera, Jane & Paul would have been very proud indeed of the turnout and they had put much thought into making his service memorable.

Afterwards we came home here, where Wes cooked a seafood pasta dish which we washed down with a bottle of Charles Melton ‘Rose of Virginia’ his favourite rosé, which I had managed to track down in time for his birthday. We were both feeling quite flat after the funeral and it was good to sit quietly together and raise a glass to George.

On Wednesday, Wes took Barbara on a big shop at Coles to tide her over while we are away, and did some garden chores on their return. Dot, Valerie and I enjoyed a fun morning of Mah Jong as usual. During the afternoon, Jane Knox sent me a lovely photo of herself and Terry McDonald, when she made a surprise visit to his local pub.

We were quite busy on Thursday – early morning walk, followed by our own shopping, then I had a haircut and a facial, while Wes did pruning in the garden and managed to fill the green bin before it was emptied. We had an unexpected visit from David Castles, who had driven to Daylesford to sign a contract on a property in Porcupine Ridge that he and his wife, Sandy, will use as a weekender to begin with. They are both very excited and we will enjoy their company as I am sure they will become regulars at Sunday Breakfast.

During the afternoon, our friend, Terry Borg, arrived to spend 24 hours with us. She had also enjoyed a facial with Emma, so we had matching shiny faces for the rest of the day. Wes went to visit Warren Pengilley aka Secundus, while Terry and I drove to Spring Park Nursery, as she was keen to pick up a couple of their roses which she had sourced from their catalogue. Ken was very helpful and she came away with five plants in total. That night Wes made his seafood pasta and we watched the excellent BBC programme entitled ‘P G Wodehouse in Exile’, starring Tim Pigott-Smith & Zoe Wanamaker.

On Friday, Wes and I were up early – he to walk Bilbo and prepare lunch for eight, and me to do all the things I had planned to do before our unexpected visitor the day before. Wes, Bobby, Tom & Danny all met at Hepburn Golf Club to play nine holes on a lovely cool morning.

Marilyn & Deborah went in search of Art Galleries and coffee, while Terry & I did the walk around the Botanic Gardens and collected some tiny pinecones for her Christmas table decoration.

Lunch was memorable – everyone had plenty to say and was most amusing in their delivery – especially Bobby Preston, who had an unforgettable Melbourne Cup story. Wes had excelled himself with barbecued rump steaks & salmon; a huge dish of baked vegetables, and enough peas to feed an army. He then produced Eton Mess and we all agreed that cheese was superfluous and that we would move on to coffee & chockies.

Eventually, after about 4 hours, our visitors decided to leave as they all had long drives home. We set about clearing up – it was a four dishwasher load lunch, and were in bed quite early, happy to lie quietly and read after a very enjoyable time spent with old friends.

Yesterday Wes had a sleep-in, and I walked Bilbo around the Gardens once the early morning rain had stopped. We both caught up on computer work before setting off to Geof Brown’s funeral at the Daylesford Masonic Centre. There was a big turn up as Geof was a much-loved very popular man. Interestingly, the service was led by Fr Kevin Maloney, who used to be the parish priest here at St Peter’s Catholic Church, which hosted a huge non-Catholic funeral this week, as there was nowhere else in town big enough to hold everyone. We live in a very ecumenical town!

A lovely recent photo of Geof & Theo

We popped into ‘The Food Gallery’ afterwards, as we needed a hot drink and the chance to think about Geof and what he had meant to us, especially when we were new arrivals to Daylesford. We had enjoyed dinner parties with Glenda & Joe Rozen that he and Theo threw when they owned ‘The Balconies B&B’; I had shared shifts at the Info Centre with him, and whenever we bought a special gift for someone, we always asked Geof to wrap it, as he was a master in presentation. This probably went back to his days as a florist in Camperdown and later Port Melbourne. Geof had also taught me the best way to mulch garden beds and helped me turn a patch of grass into a flowerbed when we first moved across the road to no 77.

This morning Wes has walked Bilbo early, put a henna on my hair, given Bilbo a bath, and is now enjoying a cup of coffee while he catches up with emails and Facebook. As we are leaving for Adelaide on Tuesday, I won’t be doing the Sunday Market (much to Bilbo’s disgust), but we are going to breakfast and Gillie has promised to turn up, which is a lovely surprise as we don’t see her very often these days.

If I don’t get time to post on Facebook while we are away, I’ll catch you up with our trip in a fortnight’s time, as we should be home sometime on Friday, 4^th December.

Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 15th November 2015

Dear Friends, last Sunday’s breakfast was one of the most entertaining we have attended this year. David & Sandy Castles joined us as they were spending the day in this area looking at houses for sale. They are very keen to buy a weekender here, and are looking at properties of all shapes and sizes. David was delightfully vague and we did enjoy a few laughs at his expense. Janine had brought her lovely son, Paul, with her again, and he participated wholeheartedly. Margot was back after her cataract operation, and Bilbo got enough food to keep him happy for 24 hours. David & Sandy’s dog, Bam Bam, joined Bilbo.....fortunately he isn’t greedy and was happy to nibble on a piece of bacon.

On Monday, I went off to gym and returned the car in time for Wes to go to his Writers’ Group at ‘Wombat Hill House’ in the Gardens. Nick Massaro and his wife, Robyn, were there with other friends from Woolnoughs Road in Porcupine Ridge, enjoying their monthly breakfast get-together.

Afterwards Nick came to give me a massage, which we did while listening to and watching the cricket. Nick then fixed two of our doors, which refuse to lock and planed the bottom of the front door where it has been sticking. He managed to make those jobs last until the cricket was finished and Australia had won the 1^st Test against a depleted and injured Kiwi side.

It was a big weekend for sacraments – on the top is my cousin, Michael Hoolihan, with his wife, Kelly, and their children, Amelia & Archie on the occasion of their christening.

Below them is my niece, Jessie Mammino, with her husband, Anthony, and their children, Dante & Chiara, on Chiara’s First Communion Day.

I ended up spending Tuesday in bed – a combination of a bad asthma attack and chronic fatigue. This meant I missed out on the 10am film, which was ‘Everest’. There was only a small audience, but they all enjoyed it. Judi returned our car as Michael was arriving home from Blackheath later that night. Bilbo kept me company all day and we both managed a sleep in the afternoon, which was very good indeed.

Wes went off to a meeting at the Daylesford Book Barn that evening, where he and one other listened to an ‘African Coaching Talk’, which turned out to be a couple trying to dissuade Vietnamese from using powdered rhino horns. Apart from everything else, with Australia’s appalling treatment of refugees, we can hardly be critical of other countries just at present.

I was feeling much better on Wednesday, but decided not to risk gym, where I had been so asthmatic. Sandra came to clean at 7.30am and I headed off to play Mah Jong about 90 minutes later. Wes had been asked to lay a wreath for Catherine King at the Remembrance Day ceremony at 11am and afterward he headed off to visit Margot and help her with her computer, which has been playing up again.

On Thursday, I went to gym, where Ian McKenzie let me know that our friend, George Killingback, had died peacefully at Daylesford Hospital. I am so pleased that I was able to visit him at home last week, as he went into hospital the next day and deteriorated very rapidly.

It was good to have something to get my teeth stuck into for the rest of the day. We had bought one of Joan Testro’s bookcases to put in the guest bedroom. It is honey-coloured and fits perfectly and we both think it makes the room look more welcoming.

As a result of moving books into it, I then had to tackle the main bookcases downstairs, one side of which was in a bit of a pickle. Wes helped me by adjusting some of the shelves then he headed off to spend the day with Barbara in Ballarat at the Spinal Cord Meeting & lunch. Afterwards he hosted the local ALP’s Q&A session with our immediate past Mayor, Kate Redwood.....and received rave reviews for his efforts.

Kate & Warren at the Daylesford Hotel

I spent the day reorganising the books, putting some that had avoided the Inventory into it, labelling those that weren’t already and getting it into some sort of order. The small books are in alphabetical order, but the large books are a dog’s breakfast and need quite a bit of work. However, I now have them standing upright, instead of in piles and I can begin to classify them – whether alphabetically or by subject I have yet to decide.

On Friday morning, Wes headed off to Brunswick early to sign all the papers needed for a smooth settlement on Monday of Joan Testro’s home. Meanwhile I took Bilbo shopping with me before we joined the Bush Walkers doing the lovely Wombat Trail in Trentham. We last did this walk when it was Winter, and everyone enjoyed the dry track and the beautiful rhododendrons, which are only now showing their best.

One of this week’s vases of roses with Big Purple making good its boast!

We arrived home in time for lunch and the first day of the 2^nd Test at the WACA, where Australia was lucky enough to win the toss again and bat well during the first session.

Yesterday while Wes spent time in the garden and at the computer, I drove to Strathmore to spend time with Leanne. While I was there, the shocking news from Paris came through on my phone, so Leanne turned on the TV and we watched the dreadful events unfolding. All I could think about were two Australian friends, Viviane Vagh and Alan Austin, hoping against hope that they were both all right.

On my return home, Wes was able to tell me that both were OK and we decided to have lunch at ‘Jackie’s on Vincent’, where Jackie & Lisa welcomed us very warmly. Old friend and wonderful artist, George Jackson, was there having lunch with his friend, Peter Holthouse, another good artist. Another friend, Joyce, told us that yet another old friend, Geof Brown, was in Daylesford Hospital and not expected to survive the weekend. We were quite shocked and sad, but so pleased we had found out from Joyce, rather than read a death notice in the local paper.

Gayle Gibson’s father, ‘Mick’ Dennis, died aged 96 in Sydney last Monday. He was a former Commando during World War II, and was awarded the Military Medal for courage under fire. He had a great sense of humour, was a champion swimmer & wrestler and will be very much missed.

‘Mick’ Dennis 

and another 96-year-old, Jane Knox’s father, Frank, at Balmoral Beach this week

  

This morning has dawned cool and windy, but that hasn’t deterred Bilbo who is sitting at my feet waiting for me to finish at the computer and take him to the Sunday Market. He is positioned in such a way that I can’t move my chair without hitting him, just in case he should have fallen deeply asleep and missed my getting 

Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 8th November 2015

Dear Friends, we started last Sunday with a trip to the Market, followed by Breakfast at ‘The Food Gallery’ with Judi, Barbara, Janine, Mary & Aileen. Mary took this photo of Atticus, the dog she has been minding, and Bilbo, as they sat patiently waiting for breakfast toast.

Afterwards we were joined by Judi, Mary and Barbara at the Daylesford Town Hall, where we visited the 2015 Rotary Art Show. There were some wonderful paintings and lots of interest from visitors. In the 30 minutes we were there four paintings were sold, much to the delight of Jan Pengilley, who has single-handedly driven the Show for the past three years since we had to retire from running it.

The rest of the day was spent very quietly as we were both tired from our recent trips to Melbourne.

As there was no gym on Monday, I took Bilbo with me as we delivered old newspapers to Judi, pumped water at Leitches Creek, and collected some more seedlings and potting mix from Wombat Hill Nursery. In between, we had a walk around the Gardens. Wes also spent most of the morning at ‘Wombat Hill House’ in the Gardens, with the Writers’ Group and returned home full of enthusiasm to finish his next short family story.

While he was ensconced in the study writing, I spent most of the afternoon doing wonderful things in our garden – there are now Thai chilli & mixed chilli seedlings in the greenhouse, as well as some flat-leaf parsley on the decking. My multi-coloured little geraniums are all starting to bloom and Wes’s roses are so plentiful I imagine I could pick a bowl of roses every day from now until next May!

On Cup Day, it wasn’t too cold, so Wes & Bilbo walked early before Wes set off to show the film, ‘The Intern’, to a very appreciative audience of 12. We both thought it was worth watching just to see Robert de Niro’s acting. I liked Anne Hathaway and the chemistry between them, but Wes would have preferred someone a little more manic in her role.

We had been invited to Rob & Marg McDonald’s winery with about 40 others to see the Cup, but I decided I would be better off having a quiet afternoon at home. Daylesford is so busy, that it was lovely to be able to come back here and shut the door. We had chosen our quinellas the previous evening and started the afternoon with a modest win of $10. Wes took Barbara to ‘Sailors Falls Estate’ as she was having problems with her wheelchair and couldn’t drive herself.

These little cuties were put up on Facebook in their Cup finery

Along with most of Australia, we were absolutely delighted to see Michelle Payne smash a glass ceiling with a faultless ride on 100-1 shot, Prince of Penzance. I was crying before she reached the finishing line – I guess I never thought I would see this in my lifetime! We have followed the Payne family story for years, ever since Michelle’s mother was killed in a car accident when Michelle was 6 months old. Her father, Paddy, was left with 10 children – 7 girls and 3 boys, and all but two of them have become successful jockeys. The second youngest, Stevie, has Down syndrome, and through this victory, he has shown exactly what people like him can achieve, if they are given responsibility. Trainer, Darren Weir, trusts him utterly and allows him to exercise and strap horses, and manage the stable timetable. Stevie & Michelle have repaid this trust in spades.

On Wednesday, I went to gym, where Barry, our trainer, was the last to arrive – we all thought he had been sleeping in after a trip to Adelaide & back over the long weekend for his niece’s wedding. However, he confessed to playing with the cat and not realising the time!

After gym, I played Mah Jong with Dot & Valerie, while Wes did some gardening for Barbara & filled her car with petrol. It was lovely to be in town again after the hordes had left – Daylesford was bursting at the seams with visitors for the Cup weekend.

Late in the afternoon, we had a visit from Jeff Bain, who was happy to sit outside with us drinking a Cofield red, as we waited for the promised rain, which pelted down so heavily we all got rather wet and had to retreat inside. The rain continued on and off all through the night and the next morning.

On Thursday, we offered Judi the use of our small car, as we were worried about how she would get around Daylesford in the rain. She was very grateful. It was a good time to be down to one car as I am spending most of my time watching the Test Cricket and Wes is very happy to be gardening and sitting with me as well. We had a few quinellas on Oaks Day and got back our outlay, which is better than not!

In the afternoon, I went to visit one of our oldest Daylesford friends, George Killingback, who is dying of an aggressive cancer. We first met when I joined the Bushwalking Group in January 2000, and he, and his wife, Vera, have been a lovely part of our lives ever since. I was very glad when Vera understood that I wanted to tell George how much I had enjoyed our friendship – not everyone is able to let you in when their loved one is dying, but she was happy for my short, teary visit. It is only a few weeks since George did his last walk with the Strollers. Suddenly the hospitals in Ballarat & Melbourne announced they could do no more for him and his life is ending very rapidly.

George Killingback & Bill Longley at the Daylesford Bowling Club for the celebrations for George’s 80^th birthday on 30^th July this year.

Wes walked Bilbo early on Friday while I did the shopping, before baking a date loaf, filling bowls with new roses, solving DA’s cryptic crossword and watching Day 2 of the Test. Wes spent time making inroads in the weeding, shifted the fountain, the bird bath & the lemon tree, before making a yummy lunch of baked peppercorn-crusted salmon with potatoes & peas.

We have gotten 23mls of rain this week, much to the delight of everyone as our gardens and water tanks were desperate for the water. We even got a few drops yesterday morning early before the wind blew the rain away and the sun came out.

Wes and I headed to the Daylesford Primary School to get some things from the Farmers Market. I needed Emu Oil face cleanser & moisturiser, and Wes wanted to buy a fragrant plant to grow on a wire tepee. Chris Rowe suggested we try honeysuckle, which has a lovely delicate perfume and is perfectly suited to this.

Lovely photo of Ben & Leanne introducing Jack to his sister, Olivia.

After the Market, we had hoped to have breakfast at ‘Jackie’s on Vincent’, but they don’t open until 9.30am these days, so we ended up at ‘The Food Gallery’, where we enjoyed different breakfasts and a good conversation.

Back home we put on our quinellas for Stakes Day, the final Spring Racing meeting at Flemington, and while Wes mowed the lawns (bugger that rain), I sat and watched the cricket as the Aussies cleared up the rest of the wickets, and batted well in their second innings.

This delightful cartoon appeared on Facebook during the week – I feel sure that Wes can relate to this – we tea drinkers can match you coffee drinkers for finickiness!

We had invited Judi to join us for dinner last night as she was still batching and Michael is the chef in their household too. Wes made a particularly good fish pie, which he followed up with Sri Lankan Eton Mess – instead of cream we had yoghurt and honey on our fruit and meringues.

Bilbo is sitting patiently at my feet waiting for me to finish writing this and take him to the Sunday Market for pats and cabbage leaves.

We keep putting Bilbo’s soft toy ‘Friends’ in difficult to reach places, and this latest ploy has him beaten. He finds himself dragging the chairs around, as he can’t seem to pull the friends out of the spokes on the back of the chairs – poor Bilbo!

Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 1st November 2015

Dear Friends, once again, we enjoyed breakfast at ‘The Food Gallery’ and once Aileen joined us, we entered into a serious discussion about her mother, who we discovered, went ‘into service’ aged 13. She did approx 6 years of school from age 7, and by the age of 16 found herself looking after two children fulltime. Warren is dying to interview Dorothy, who is 101 years old, originally from South Australia and a practising Catholic ‘without the guilt’ as Aileen explains it!

I was very keen to see the 2015 Swiss + Italian Landscape Art Prize, which was being shown in ‘The Convent Gallery’, so headed there around 11am and enjoyed wandering around and looking at the 58 paintings on display. Both of us know all three prizewinners and two are friends, so it was quite a thrill to see Valerie Roberts & Brian Nash take out the top two prizes. The Convent is looking good, with some interesting art, and is always worth a visit – I just don’t seem to have made my way there in the past year or so.

More photos from the Swiss + Italian Festa

On Monday, it was a cold day with drizzle – amazing to need the heater on again after the air-conditioner the day before. I went to gym and then walked Bilbo around the Gardens. Wes went to the Writers’ Group and was the only one there, so started on his next short story about ‘Uncle Bill’, who has been the subject of many of his speeches over the years.

Our roses are starting to bloom in earnest and the garden is looking superb at present. Irises are just emerging, there is fruit setting on the various trees, the rosemary is flowering, the seaside daisies are going crazy and wherever you look, little surprises are emerging. Even the ornamental grape is enjoying a growth spurt and the lemon tree has lots of flowers, which we hope turn into lemons.

Our beautiful new Japanese Maple, nicknamed ‘Miss Blake’ after Joan Testro, in whose honour this was bought

Wes and I enjoyed Tuesday morning’s film ‘Ricki and the Flash’ mostly for the wonderful acting performance by Meryl Streep. The storyline was good but suffered from poor writing, the acting fell away after the three leads and the film could have finished earlier without drumming the message into its audience quite so hard.

When we came out of the cinema and turned on our phones, we were delighted to read the news that Ben Lazzaro and his wife, Leanne Meli, have a baby daughter, Olivia May, born a week early.That afternoon Wes spent pulling weeds from the garden, while Alanna at EKO gave my fingers and toes the full treatment.

On Wednesday, I played Mah Jong with Dot & Valerie, while Wes spent the morning helping Barbara in the garden and with the computer. That afternoon he drove to Malvern to check out Joan Testro’s home in preparation for the removal of the remaining furniture and books on Friday. In the evening, he attended a dinner meeting of our financial advisors, First Samuel, at ‘Quaff’ restaurant in South Yarra and arrived back here around 9.30pm. Bilbo and I had been for a walk in the Gardens in the late afternoon, so Bilbo was too tired even to get up when Wes walked in the door.

We had a busy morning on Thursday – Wes and Bilbo walked early, then an electrician from Fells arrived to put in some more power points and replace two fans – one the exhaust in the downstairs bathroom, and the other, the ill-fated ceiling fan in our bedroom that has never worked properly and now doesn’t work at all. Colin is a very pleasant man, who listened and then did what was wanted. While he was working, Glenn Mack arrived with morning tea, for a catch-up with Wes and me.

I had to leave in the middle of his visit as I had a fringe trim booked with Lyndal Conroy at ‘The Cutting Studio’. Much to my amazement, 29-year-old Lyndal is besotted with Glomesh and is buying up handbags and purses like they are going out of fashion...perhaps they are on the way back in!

Wes spent his afternoon pottering away in the garden as it was a perfect day here. I was quite tired after all the socialising in the morning, so I spent time on the computer with Bilbo at my feet.

On Friday Wes left early to drive to Malvern to do what he hoped would be the last cleanout at Joan’s place. Her piano is going to her great-nephew, Kyahl Anderson, and that was picked up on time, which gave Wes a chance to grab a late breakfast before helping the people from Ballan who were collecting the rest of the furniture and books for the Community Shop attached to the Ballan Hospital.

Bilbo and I joined the Strollers for the shorter bushwalk around Sailors Falls, which was very ably led by Rob McDonald. Most of the walkers were staying on for lunch, which they had brought to share. Rob & Marg are very generous hosts as well as being excellent winemakers.

In the afternoon, I planted 25 tomato seedlings, which were more than ready to go into the ground after being nursed through the frosty mornings in our little greenhouse. That took me about 90 minutes, which was the longest I’ve spent gardening for ages and necessitated quite a rest before I tackled the ironing and sundry other chores. Wes arrived home around 3.30pm very happy with the day, but needing to go back again yesterday, as not all the books and furniture had fitted in the van.

So we were both up early and heading to Melbourne in separate cars – me to visit Leanne and Wes to finish off clearing out Joan’s home so that the cleaners can come in and get it looking good for settlement in a couple of weeks’ time. We both drove through heavy rain and we both had successful mornings.

We had invited Judi to share Derby Day with us as her husband, Michael, has gone to Blackheath in the Blue Mountains to spend time with his best friends, Roger & Vicky. I collected Judi on my way home from Leanne after an unpleasant drive with the road full of hoons and people not used to driving regularly. Wes had endured a similar experience and was already back here getting lunch ready. He had asked Gary & Katie, the people who had emptied Joan’s house, if they would deliver a bookcase to us on their way home to Daylesford, so we waited lunch until they arrived. They, of course, had their lunch first, and arrived around 2.30pm just as Wes had decided to cook the fish anyway!

My favourite rose - Friesia

The rest of our afternoon went smoothly and we picked up two quinellas worth $117 in total for $27 outlay – a very satisfactory result, which more than made up for last week’s losses. Wes drove Judi home after the last race and we were all in bed by 7pm and ready for lights out not much later.