Morse

Morse
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Sunday, 7 April 2019

Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 7th April 2019



What a week it has been. When I left you last Sunday, it was raining (we got about 12 mls in all) so I went to the Sunday Market on my own as it was too wet to take Lewis & Morse. There were 8 of us at breakfast & we enjoyed a fun morning with lots of silly conversations & the occasional serious moment.

Wes headed off shortly afterwards to visit his sister, Denise, who had been to Ballarat during the week for a cataract operation & was recuperating well. Then he screened the film Stan & Ollie to an appreciative audience of 20. I would love to see this film, but I wanted to watch the AFLW Grand Final more & I was so pleased I did.

Wes arrived back home to find me in tears as the crowd of 53,034 was announced at the Adelaide Oval. This is the biggest Australian crowd to watch a stand-alone women’s sporting event & the Adelaide Crows played champagne football as they dominated Carlton. The game was played in good spirits & the injuries sustained were all from awkward falls, not deliberate acts by the opposition. On the field were at least three Olympians (2 with Gold medals in Rugby 7s); three International Basketballers (& one who gave back her American scholarship to play AFLW); a doctor; a policewoman; a Council worker who spends her week fixing potholes; at least two 18 year-olds; two former soccer players, three mothers and an Irishwoman whose family flew to Adelaide for the game. Every woman has a story to tell – only the young ones are lucky enough to have been playing footy continually since they were 4 or 5, some took it up in their teens & twenties or thirties when they finally could.  
   
                                                                 
After our walk on Monday morning, I was feeling as though I was getting a cold and decided to give gym a miss & go back to bed with The Age & a pot of tea. We are both very pleased that I did get up, as I noticed a loud noise of rushing water in the downstairs bathroom & discovered that it was flooding everywhere with a blistered pipe connection. While Wes turned off the water & started mopping up, I rang around to get a plumber. After I had rung every local plumber, I put a notice up asking for Help on the Daylesford Grapevine. Within seconds I had two helpful responses recommending Toby Hughes, who agreed to come out & fix it, which he did quickly & efficiently when he arrived three hours later.

Wes spent most of his afternoon drying out his bathroom cupboards, mopping up the rest of the mess & putting everything back. I kept the boys upstairs with me out of his way. So much for his gardening morning & my quiet day!
   


Not as bad as a mud bath – this is after a pool party (which involves getting one’s face & feet into the large water bowl & splashing around)

Wes had a delightful Boys’ Afternoon on Tuesday, catching up with Jeff Bain, Brian Nash, David Hall & Danny Moynihan at Danny’s place, where they watched the 1970s film The Man Who Would be King. I am sure that Warren Pengilley would have been in their thoughts & toasts as this was the first time they had met together since his funeral in December.

On Wednesday, Wes helped Barbara, who had organised her gardeners to get rid of her blackberries, which have become overgrown. Meanwhile I caught up with Judi over pots of tea & muffins at Muffins & More. I gave gym a miss that morning as I still had a sore throat & was determined not to let it get the better of me.

We enjoyed a delightful family day for most of Thursday – it started with a long walk around both sides of Lake Daylesford; followed up with breakfast at Pancho, where I had a curried potato omelette & Wes tucked into a veggie bowl with pumpkin etc. After that we piled the boys into the car & drove for 45 minutes to Macedon to see their famous Avenue of Honour in its Autumn glory. There was no-one else on the road & we were very lucky to have gone before the school holidays started yesterday. We then drove up Mount Macedon & took the boys to the Cross, something we have done with each of our labs since Samuel Snugglepot back in the 80s.



Top:Wes with Morse & Lewis under the beautiful trees; me ditto & Wes at the Cross asking Lewis & Morse to sit for him

That night we had an early dinner at Jackie’s on Vincent, where we were delighted to be joined for a drink by Daylesford friends, Cathy O’Toole & Peter Widdop & later, Rhonda Lubin, who were all meeting there for dinner as well.

On Friday, after a walk & shopping, the boys were thrilled to help Wes in the garden until he eventually had to spray them with the hose to keep them away from the plants.

Yesterday, we had breakfast out again, this time at Larder, where we enjoyed yummy meals, hot drinks & caught up with friends. Kim Lyden came in to collect coffees for the Newsagency, and Jane Barrett (back from 6 months in far North Queensland) was getting takeaway coffees for a drive to Melbourne with her husband, John Webster.

Wes caught the train from Ballan to the Docklands to meet Ben Lazzaro & his son, Jack, to watch the Blues play the Sydney Swans.

Lovely photo of Wes with Jack enjoying his first Cherry Ripe – a footy tradition in our family!

I had planned to take Lewis & Morse to the local footy but decided it would be too hard on my own, so we watched the Carlton game instead. The Blues played well but weren’t good enough to beat the Swans.

Wes arrived back home in time to watch a lacklustre Collingwood team totally fail to worry the West Coast Eagles, who played well & won easily at the MCG. David Lazzaro sent me a message to say he would like his petrol money back & I think I would have been feeling exactly the same if I had made the trip to Melbourne.

This morning we got up at the usual time – I hadn’t put our clocks back & the boys were ready to go at what is now 4.45am! I had thought about changing the clocks at 5pm yesterday and decided to wait. Collingwood’s awful performance put everything else out of my mind, so this has been a very relaxed Sunday morning for a change. Plenty of time to get everything done before 9am breakfast!

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