Dear Friends, we
enjoyed a fun breakfast last Sunday with lots of good conversations. The Food
Gallery was looking forward to closing for a week so they could do some
renovations and showered us with coffee-flavoured lollies in their excitement.
We had just arrived
back home when John & Carole Hardwick arrived, unexpectedly. They had been
in Creswick at the RACV Club and couldn’t bear to drive home without visiting
us. We had a lovely catch-up for a couple of hours and they left just as the
wind was starting to build up. Luckily our side of Melbourne didn’t experience
the issues suffered by places like Emerald etc.
On Monday I went back
to gym, where everyone was still happy to chat about the Grand Final. When I
got back here, Nick Massaro arrived to give me a massage, which was very
welcome, as it had been a few weeks since our last. As usual we chatted away –
mostly about the footy and watched the clouds roll in, although the promised
hail didn’t arrive until the afternoon. Wes spent some time working in the
front garden – weeding & trimming, but retreated indoors when it got too
wild & woolly.
It was raining again
on Tuesday morning when I set off to drive to Strathmore and spend some time
with Leanne. Of course, the sun was shining there and the temperature got up to
17˚, only to plummet back to 9˚ when I arrived back here after a successful
visit. Wes showed the film ‘Sully’ to an appreciative audience of 19, but
wasn’t able to watch it himself. Afterwards he had a coffee at ‘Sweet
Decadence’ with Barbara, Denise & Kate.
Surprise, surprise –
it was wet again on Wednesday morning when I headed off to gym after delivering
the last of the beanies & berets created using Viva’s wool. Mell who
organises ‘Keeping Daylesford Warm’ was keen to have the hats as it is still cold
and miserable at times and there is a need for warm headgear. She left me a
small bag of wool to keep me going over Spring/Summer.
However, if anyone has
any unused wool, preferably 8 ply or 4 ply, I would love to add it to my
stockpile – let me know and I’ll work out how to collect it from you. This does
not include offers from Jeff in Lincolnshire – far too hard to get, much as I
would love to put your leftover yarns to use!
Wes went to Ballarat
with Barbara as she needed help with a bone density scan – not every operator
feels that aiding the patient to get onto and off the table is part of their
job description, so Wes goes along in case he is needed. They arrived back here
around 2pm and we had a late lunch of pastie (me) and pepper pie (him) that I
had bought at ‘Muffins & More’, where Dot & I spent the morning playing
Mah Jong. Dot won all the games except the last!
I turned into a handy
person when I got home – replaced the lint filter in our 12-year old
Westinghouse Clothes Dryer (not an easy task) and then fished out of the pump
opening of our ASKO Dishwasher, a piece of teapot, which had broken off and
wedged itself into a tiny opening. This little piece of plastic had shut down
the entire workings of the dishwasher, but the instructions are clear, so I
gave it a go and after an hour, we were operating again.
Although Thursday
dawned cold & windy, we decided to go ahead with our trip to Kilmore and
were so pleased we did, as the weather improved dramatically as the day wore
on. We were underwhelmed by Kilmore, which has a most unattractive main street
and no Information Centre as far as we could see. After strolling around, we
headed for Rose Café, which is out of town slightly, and gets no 1 rating from
Trip Advisor. It was lovely to sit in the sun in a beautiful garden with irises
& tulips in bloom and rose ready to explode.
Karen enjoying the sun in the Rose Café garden
We drove around the
area for a while, looking at Assumption College, which dominates the skyline
these days and wandering along a Heritage Drive, which is always 1 km and seems
to take you around the outskirts of Kilmore.
We decided to visit the
Kilmore Catholic Cemetery, which is rather lovely and enjoyed wandering among
the old graves, which are very well tended. We found a couple of Maloneys, as
well as long rows of Sisters of Mercy and Marist Brothers.
Then it was off to
Lancefield for lunch, where we followed Trip Advisor’s suggestions & took
the second best café in their list, Mad Gallery, in the main street. We enjoyed
piping hot yummy soup with a toasted warm bread roll.
Everywhere we drove
was green and lush, and there is still a lot of water lying around in fields
and by the side of the road.
Afterwards we came
back here and stopped at Magic Pudding to replace my teapot! When we arrived
home, Bilbo had to be wakened, but was very pleased to see us and immediately
started his countdown to dinner time.
Wes spent the morning
weeding and tidying up the garden on Friday, while I did early shopping and
then drove to Ballarat for another appointment with the naturopath, who is
surprised that I haven’t made more progress.
Judi had asked for help
finding her way around her new smartphone, so I dropped in there for a couple
of hours afterwards and we had fun together finding out all about her Telstra
phone.
Me at Mad Gallery Café in Lancefield
Wes had suggested we
have an early dinner at one of our local Indian Restaurants, ‘Taj Mahal’, which
opens at 5pm according to its website. Sadly, it was firmly closed at 5.10pm,
so we headed to ‘Wine & Country’ for a pre-dinner drink, but it was
bursting at the seams. We decided to go home and Wes cooked Atlantic salmon
with chilli infused rice, which was very yummy indeed.
Yesterday morning,
after Wes did my henna & washed Bilbo, we headed off to ‘Boathouse
Daylesford’ for an early breakfast before all the visitors piled in. This was a
good decision, as the café was jumping by 9.30am and we were pleased we had
arrived early.
We consulted the form
guide and selected our bets for Caulfield Cup day – had yummy food – field
mushrooms on toast for me & waffles with maple syrup & fresh
strawberries for him. As we were leaving we told Susanne & Claire about
looking for a pre-dinner drink the previous night and they advised that post
Melbourne Cup day, they would be offering just that until 6.30pm or so.
Lovely photo of Wes with his back to the view at
Boathouse Daylesford
We arrived back home
to find Bilbo wandering around the garden looking for us, so Wes changed into
gardening clothes and set out to make the most of the fine weather. I was doing
washing & ironing with Trip Advisor reviews in between loads!
We didn’t have any joy
in the early races, but finally hit pay dirt with the Cup itself – the quinella
didn’t pay much, but I had put $5 each way on Scottish, which came second. We
also had a big collect in the next race when Our Boy Malachi won the Caulfield
Sprint. Warren is Godfather to John & Dannielle Anderson’s son, Malachi, so
we had $5 each way on the horse as it seemed a very good omen.
Our Boy Malachi (2) sprinting away from the field
This morning Wes &
Bilbo have walked early and now Bilbo is waiting impatiently for me to finish
whatever it is I do at the computer and take him to the Sunday Market.
We are expecting a
good crowd for breakfast, so it will be fun to catch up with everyone and Bilbo
will no doubt have plenty of leftovers to keep him happy!
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