Dear Friends, welcome
to 2016 – we can only wish for peace on earth, happiness & good health for
us all. I’ve had a great response on Facebook to this photo, which we took on
New Year’s Eve morning on a lovely early walk around Lake Daylesford. The
colours in the sky were so beautiful and to catch them reflected in the water
was very satisfying indeed.
Wes spent the
morning in the garden and managed to put some more weeds in the green bins
before they were emptied. I went shopping at Coles & Tonnas, filled up with
petrol and ironed all the clothes I had washed the day before.
We had been invited
to sit under Glenn Mack’s walnut tree in the mid-afternoon, to help him
celebrate his birthday with a wine or two and some lovely homemade goodies. We
joined a few of Glenn’s friends for a very happy couple of hours before it was
time to go home and feed Bilbo. We had left him with the run of the house and
the air-conditioning on and I don’t think he had stirred from his bed in the
lounge, which was a very cool spot.
We were sound
asleep when the fireworks from the Lake House woke us at midnight – everyone
had begged Alan & Alla to cancel them in light of the Total Fire Ban &
the recent fire at the school, but they went ahead with the CFA in attendance.
This was a very good thing as at least one tree caught alight during the 10
minutes of fireworks. We ended up giving Bilbo his bone and having a sleep in
instead of going for an early morning walk around Jubilee Lake and we all felt
better for it and eased our way into the day.
We were shocked to
discover that my aunt, Jeff, was in hospital having had her gall bladder
removed, and were sorry that she had been in so much pain. Her daughter, Leigh,
had gone to be with Kev until Jeff returns home, and son Michael had been on
hand when the emergency arose, as Kev also hadn’t been feeling very well.
Yesterday’s roses – Hot Cocoa,
Big Red, Freesia et al
Rain stopped us
walking early yesterday morning but we did take Bilbo for a stroll around the
Farmers’ Market after pumping water at Leitches Creek. We met lots of Rotary
friends, as well as Judi, Michael & Gillie. Our main purchase was a big
container of Yellow Box honey from O’Toole’s.
Back home we were
visited by our Christmas lunch guest, Madeleine, with a jar of freshly-made
apricot jam, to say thank you again; and later by Rob McDonald, who had caught
& cooked some yabbies & wanted to share them with us. He and Wes had a
glass of Cofield Riesling on the decking while we chatted together. As I had
forgotten to defrost the smoked salmon, we were very glad to have the yabbies
to accompany our salad for lunch!
I had earmarked the
afternoon & evening for the Women’s & Men’s Big Bash Derby at the MCG.
It would have been wonderful to be part of that 80,000+ crowd, but I knew I
would get home too late to be much good today, so didn’t go. The Renegades won
the Women’s game on the second last ball – they deserved the win after having
the Stars reeling at 4/8. The Stars turned the tables in the Men’s game with a
nail-biting finish with the win provided by some hard hitting by English
cricketer, Luke Wright, one of our openers. Luke has been part of the Stars
since inception and proved to be an excellent part of the team.
We were thrilled to
see Melanie Jones as part of Channel 10’s commentary team for the Women’s game.
Mel was born in Devon, but moved to Melbourne when she was 3 months old and was
introduced to cricket by her high school geography teacher (the father of the
Stars current wicket keeper, Peter Handscomb). We first met her when she was an
Australian Test Cricketer and later she supervised our fitness at Brunswick
Gym. I have also caught up with her at the Women’s Breakfast on Day 2 of the
Melbourne Test.
We are just back
from a lovely early walk around Lake Daylesford on a beautiful cool morning. Bilbo
is sleeping at my feet, with one eye open in case I sneak out the door and go
to the market without him!
If you are
wondering how our garden produce is faring, let me update you. The cabbages
were a total failure – plenty of leaves, but no heart at all & even Bilbo
got sick of eating the leaves; the chillies are thriving and our first Jalapeno
is nearly ready to be picked; the rocket has come back to life after being
dormant for a while and we had some last night in our salad; the curly-leaf
parsley is prolific and last year’s champion, flat leaf parsley is taking its
time; we have picked the first two Roma tomatoes and there are about 100 green Roma
& Grosse lisse in various stages of growth out the front; the first
zucchini has been harvested and we are expecting quite a few more; the chives
are thriving; the French beans are still very young, but the French tarragon is
spreading, and the basil mint is growing out of its skin. We are not sure about
the fennel – there is plenty of height but not much width yet – however, we
love the look of them in their pots!
After breakfast I
am hoping that the 3rd Test will be on from the SCG – Jane Knox
tells me rain is expected there for the first three days – fortunately, they
have reserved seats, so they can wait at home until the starting time is
announced. Wes is catching up with his sister, Denise, this afternoon, and when
he comes home, he promises to do something wonderful with the smoked salmon.
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