Life doesn’t always pan out the way you expect. When I sent
last week’s Dispatch off, we headed to the Sunday Market, where we found the
regular stall-holders very worried about Steve, the Stella’s bread man, who
hadn’t arrived to sell the bread. In the way of markets, his helper, Ken, was
on the phone to the police; Yvonne had provided the name of someone who lived
near Ron in Ballan & that someone had gone to his house & could see him
lying on his bed; Yvonne & Cory were selling the bread to customers, and
the chap in charge of the Sunday Market found himself superfluous. During the
week, I rang Yvonne to find out what happened to Steve (who has already
suffered one stroke that left him damaged on his left side). Apparently, the
police woke him up from a very deep sleep & he drove himself to the Market
where he proceeded to abuse Ken for contacting them!
There were only three of us at Boathouse for their last
breakfast service & we are very sorry they are stopping this meal. It was
quiet early, but as we were leaving the outside decking was almost full &
very busy indeed.
Lewis discovering he
can jump too – only as far as the ottoman, unlike Morse, who can leap straight
onto Wes’s lap
When we arrived back home, Rob from next-door, came to tell
me that when he & Dene went in to cuddle the boys (while we were at
breakfast), he noticed both of them very interested in the gap between the
garden & their decking, next to the side gate. While Rob was watching,
Morse started climbing Wes’s ladder, which rests against the house & Rob
thought we might like to move that ladder before Morse mastered climbing it! Which
we did.
I forgot to mention the amazing 31st consecutive
win by Winx on 2nd March. This is a world record & the
owner intend to retire her after 2 more runs, both in Sydney. 23 of her wins
are Group 1 races, which is phenomenal.
On Monday, we had the postponed & very welcome visit
from Karen (aka Lovely) & Malcolm Stevenson. We had called them off because
of the Hepburn bushfire last month. They arrived early & bearing a wrapped
gift for the boys. This used to be a lovely tradition – usually at Christmas
& our labs were always very excited to open their gifts. It stopped when
someone gave them a present with food in it instead of a toy.
We had a wonderful catch-up and they both loved the boys
& thought they were very handsome & good fun to play with. I had
suggested that long trousers would be the go, rather than shorts, and they were
both pleased with that advice, as Morse, especially, can get very excited &
scratch bare flesh by mistake! We had planned a barbecue, but it was too hot to
cook outside, let alone sit there, so we sat in the air-conditioning instead
with the boys on Malcolm’s feet.
On Tuesday, we decided not to play golf, as we were both
tired & it was quite warm early. We were so pleased with this decision, as
our new next-door neighbour, Glen, introduced herself to Wes, who was gardening
out the front. He brought her in to meet me & the boys & she seems like
exactly the sort of neighbour we had hoped for & didn’t get with Esther. Her
husband, Ron, died 12 months ago so she has moved here from Queenscliff, and is
renting in Macadam Street (one street across from our little bit of Duke
Street), while she waits for some internal work to be done on her house. She
has two female poodles, a daughter & grand-children in Wheatsheaf (about 12
minutes away) & can’t wait to get stuck into the garden.
Later that morning, Jan Pengilley visited us, mostly to see
how the boys had grown, but we did enjoy chatting & catching up with her
latest news. She had last seen Lewis & Morse on 7th January, the
day after we brought them home & they were still very small.
Jan brought a gift for
Wes – hand-crocheted face washer & edged hand-towel. We had discussed these
at breakfast one morning & she offered to make one for him. It is rather
beautiful & very soft on your skin.
It was such a relief to wake up to cold weather on
Wednesday morning. We walked around the Lake in light rain, which was
wonderful, but not enough. I headed off to gym (much easier on cool days) and
then caught up with Judi over pots of Jasmine tea & muffins at Muffins
& More. Meanwhile, Sandra was busy cleaning our house & locking
the boys away from under her feet, & Wes was helping Barbara with various
chores including filling her car with petrol.
Morse & Lewis
exhausted after chasing each other around the backyard
Sandra used to give Bilbo & Frodo an apple as she left
& we decided the time was right to institute this routine with Lewis &
Morse. We had a couple of small red apples & I was watching as she made
them sit & gave them the apples. They had never seen red ones before &
immediately dropped them, as though they were balls to play with. It took quite
some time & effort to persuade them to eat the apples & it was most
amusing to watch!
I visited Leanne on Thursday & we did lots of things
together, including cleaning her oven door, now that I have worked out how to
do it! It was a beautiful day after a cold morning & I drove via Kyneton
for a change of scenery. Wes enjoyed a quiet day at home playing with the boys,
working in the garden & doing great things on Ancestry.com.
On Friday, after shopping, I caught up with Dot over a
cuppa at Muffins & More. She & John have lots of doctors’
appointments coming up, so we decided to have a break from our get-togethers
until after Easter, when hopefully their lives will be a little less busy. Wes
had planned a barbecue for our lunch, but when he lit the flame it fizzled out quickly,
so he had to cook inside & we ate outside in the beautiful weather.
Wes took this photo of
me updating the laptop, so we could Skype with Leanne & introduce her
properly to Lewis & Morse. Lewis is at my feet, looking after me!
Yesterday we were very excited as we were expecting a visit
from Ian & Robyn Robinson. Wes bathed the boys & we gave them their
first dried bones (pork) & very yummy by the look of it. Sadly, the
Robinsons had tyre issues & couldn’t drive here, but had to go to Kyneton
(from Chewton) where someone was able to get their car driveable to get them
back to Carlton North. We’ll have to make another date.
We had bought morning tea, so invited our neighbours, Rob
& Dene, in to share it with us, which they did very happily before heading
off to the annual Lost Trades Fair at Kyneton Racecourse, with their friends, Liz
& Bill.
We spent the afternoon watching games of footy – both men’s
and women’s with quite a lot of dog-cuddling as well. We are desperate for some
serious rain & no matter how much watering we do, it is never enough. The
roses are OK, but we have lost a dogwood & a couple of bushes & it
looks as though the figs will never ripen this year.
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