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Sunday, 8 January 2017

Daylesford Summer Dispatch - Sunday, 8th January 2017





Dear Friends, here in Daylesford, we started our year with some much cooler weather, which was very welcome. Bilbo & I had a good visit to the Sunday Market, where everyone was in good spirits and pleased to be catching up after a fortnight’s break. Wes & I had planned to go to the Annual Glenlyon Sports Day, which is great fun, but I found myself having a panic attack around 10am, so we decided just to have a picnic in our back garden instead. We ate Turkish rolls with smoked salmon & capers, accompanied by a Cofield Riesling, as we looked out over Lake Daylesford & admired all the greenery, roses, grass, fruit trees & forest.

There was much excitement at Flemington Racecourse as the first of Black Caviar’s foals, a 2-year-old filly named Oscietra, ran in her first race. She is quite tiny, and led gallantly for about 800 metres, before being passed by 2 other horses. That night was the Big Bash Derby at the MCG, where the Melbourne Renegades beat the Melbourne Stars by 7 runs in front of almost 72,000 fans.


Stunning long & short stemmed roses from our garden

We woke to a cool morning & misty rain on Monday, which made for a lovely walk around the Lake.

Afterwards, while Wes gardened in the front, I took Bilbo for a second walk up by the Daylesford Station and base of the Botanic Gardens. We didn’t meet another soul during this time.

Judi rang to say that our good friend, Glenn Mack, had suffered a heart attack the day before & was in St John of God Hospital, getting the best of care. He later had 4 stents inserted & came out of hospital on Thursday afternoon, which is a tribute to his fitness & sensible eating regime.


Wes showed the film, ‘Queen of Katwe’ on Tuesday morning. Judi & I were among the handful that turned up to see it. And what a wonderful film it is – we haven’t stopped talking about it. It is a true story set in Uganda and beautifully written, acted & filmed. Afterwards we had a light lunch at the Food Gallery, which was very busy, and has employed our friend, Andrea Holmes, to help with the holiday crowds.

I’m afraid I turned into a couch potato after that & spent the afternoon watching Day 1 of the 3rd Test at Sydney. We missed David Warner’s record-breaking century before lunch, but enjoyed seeing Matt Renshaw, aged 20, turn his maiden century into 150+ by stumps.

Both Wes & I had appointments to see Dr Greg Stewart on Wednesday – we both needed prescriptions, we both had excellent blood pressure and only I was due to have a blood test, which I did on Friday morning after the shopping. While I watched Day 2 of the cricket, Wes spent hours mowing Barbara’s lawn, so that it would look good for her return on Friday night. He had visions of mowing the verge at the end of the street as well, but it was too hot.

Wes had offered to take our friend, Danny Spooner, to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne on Thursday morning. Danny has been diagnosed with inoperable & incurable cancer in his lungs & brain and has decided against chemo, but is happy to have help from Peter Mac to manage his pain. We enjoy chatting on the drive in – Danny has a very good attitude to his illness and fate, which makes it easy to be with him. He is a world-renowned folk singer, born in England, who made his way to Australia in 1962. We first met him at Melbourne Uni and it was a thrill to find him living here in Daylesford with Gael Shannon when we bought a house here in 1998.

Our next stop was the Ian Potter Gallery, (the Australian arm of the National Gallery of Victoria), where we bought tickets to see the John Olsen Exhibition, after a refreshing hot drink in the Members’ Lounge. What an incredible body of work he has produced. I enjoyed his poetry and writings as much as his paintings, and we both liked seeing the recent interview with him, where he talked about most of the major works in the Exhibition.


We found time to look at a couple of rooms of Australian art, especially John Brack’s ‘Collins St, 5pm’ and its partner painting ‘The Bar’, as well as Fred Williams’  ‘Upwey’ – which are three of my favourite paintings of all time.
Then off for a yum cha lunch with Tom & Deb at Westlake in Little Bourke Street. We were to have been joined by Ian & Robyn, but Ian injured his knee the day before and had to retire hurt from all social engagements. He has since emailed to say it looks as though the damage isn’t as bad as first thought and he hopes to be off the crutches soon. When we arrived back here it was evident that Bilbo had spent most of the day on the couch!


Me at Westlake without a hat as everyone keeps telling me!

On Friday morning, we three went for a walk around Victoria Park, where the footy is played, where the Show is run and where lots of dogs congregate in the late afternoon on the soccer field. We were impressed by the work that had been done by Council which will make parking at games or functions in the Clubrooms a little easier than before. There has been a big clean-up & some lovely plantings as well.

Wes & Brian Nash spent the morning together at Eganstown Catholic Cemetery, Blanket Flat & the Deep Spring mineral water area. They tried to find Corinella Falls, but only got lost and retired to the Swiss Mountain Hotel at Blampied for a cool ale and chat.

Wes spent the afternoon mowing Danny & Gael’s back lawns. Someone on a ride-on mower had done the front areas, but Wes brought home 4 big garbage bags full of clippings after he was done. He had time for a shower & change before heading off to Melbourne Airport to collect Barbara, whose flight arrived at 7pm. By the time he got back here around 9.30pm, he was absolutely exhausted.

Yesterday I took Bilbo for the walk to let Wes have a sleep in and rest his back after all the mowing & driving. He tried to work in the front garden, but finally was persuaded to come in & watch the cricket & later enjoy a snooze. I took Bilbo with me to the Farmers’ Market & then into Vincent Street to collect prescriptions. We met so many people, including Glenn’s partner, Denise, and caught up on the latest news.

Late in the afternoon, Wes went with Barbara to collect Bobby, the cat, at Guildford. She had intended to collect him on Monday, but Wes wasn’t available then or today, so opted to get him earlier. Wes was looking much better by the time he set off – I had been quite concerned as he had really been pushing himself. I had hoped that he would have a break while Barbara was away, but then we found out about Danny Spooner, and the opportunity to drive him into town, and then to mow his lawns couldn’t be ignored.



It is already 25˚and very humid here this morning. Bilbo & I are off to the Sunday Market before we join our friends for the first breakfast at the Food Gallery for 2017. 

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