Morse

Morse
Morse & friend

Sunday, 5 April 2020

Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 5th April 2020


Once again, last Sunday, we were thrilled to be able to shop at the Daylesford Sunday Market, which was very well organised with lots of sensible signage, hand sanitiser & social distancing policed. Yvonne was very organised with our fruit & vegetables & had already packed boxes with the stuff for the boys & the stuff she knew we usually buy, which made our visit to her stall quick & easy. Except, that when we arrived home, I discovered we had no cucumber – Hendrick’s gin tastes magic with tonic & cucumber, so we had to go back! We ordered up big from Jeff, the dog treat & bone man, and were pleased we did, as he will not be attending the market any more in the forseeable future. We also bought some pumpkin & polenta sourdough & croissants from Stella’s, and Ken carried my biggest basket to our car for us.




We enjoyed our croissants sitting out on the decking with our pots of tea & coffee, thanking God that we live in such a beautiful place with our stunning views across Lake Daylesford & over to the Wombat Forest. Lewis & Morse stayed with us for a while, then Lewis slid open the fly-wire screen door & they adjourned to their more comfortable bed in the lounge with pillows & fell into a deep sleep. Dene next door baked a New York style cheese cake & Rob delivered a generous slice for us to enjoy that night.

On Monday morning we had the first of our tutorials – me teaching Wes NAB Internet Banking. I had prepared well with a list of instructions & he was an excellent pupil. We managed to survive the session without an argument and I am pleased that he can now cope with Internet Banking if I should be unable to do it, for whatever reason. I hope I will be as good a pupil next Monday, when I learn about our Investments! Later in the week I contacted the NAB & discovered how to give Wes his own NAB login, which pleased him very much.

With the new rules coming in that night, limiting contact to 2 people, I collected an order from Tonna’s; visited the Post Office & was delighted to discover two parcels of wool from Kathy Lazzaro’s friend, Maree; picked up cards from Brian Nash, and filled up with petrol. Most people were behaving correctly & most places were properly organised to cope with customers. Wes did some gardening before making his usual visit to Barbara & taking Maisie for a walk. He brought her back to spend the afternoon with us.


Meanwhile Jan Pengilley & I enjoyed a Skype call, which enabled us to see each other & her to see Lewis & Morse up close, which she loved. They haven’t quite grasped the concept of Skype and I suspect they will find Zoom completely bewildering!

Wes did the tutorial on Zoom & was most impressed with its ability to have you in touch with multiple people at the same time. We will stick with Skype for one-on-one, but there may come a time that we need to network & Zoom will be perfect.

The week seems to have flown by with all the usual activities – gardening, computer work, walking Lewis & Morse, feeding birds, picking roses, checking for mail at the Post Office, putting bins out & bringing them back in again & staying in touch with friends and family.

Tall arrangement of various roses

Wes has bought some potting mix, manure & top cover for my garden beds & I’ll get cracking as soon as the last tomato & zucchini plants die. The chillis & peppers are profuse and most of the other herbs are doing well, except for the parsley, which is sparse. When it & the chillis die off, I’ll redo those planter boxes in preparation for post Winter planting.

Wes always has more projects than hours in the day, whereas I have slowed down since the onset of chronic fatigue. However, I have decided my long-term project will be to change all our passwords. I do this every two years in June & often am still going in July. So starting now won’t hurt & hopefully I’ll be finished by June!

  
Once it started raining, this is the only place they wanted to be!

We got 25mls of rain during Wednesday night & gentle rain continued for most of the day. Nobody wanted to be outside for very long, because the rain was quite invasive! Wes had a lovely long Skype chat with our friend, Paul Jackson in Oxfordshire; & Jeff, the dog treat man, delivered a box of dried bones to keep the boys going until he can return to the Sunday Market.

On Friday we did the walk from Twin Bridges (so called because there is a bridge on either side of the Ballarat Road – well, one is a metal bridge & the other is a series of large rocks placed in the water as a replacement for the bridge that was washed away in a storm) to Tipperary Springs & back. It is a beautiful walk & we had never taken Lewis & Morse on it before. We did our earlier walk around Lake Daylesford, which had a touch of drama to it – we arrived at the parking spot off King Street which leads to the shorter Lake walk & discovered Robert, the very early walker, had fallen over next to the passenger side of his car, and was lying unable to move, calling help in his loudest voice. I stayed with the boys & Wes went to help in the pitch dark with his torch. Another man walking along King Street also heard the cried for help & fortunately arrived to help as well as Robert was too heavy for Wes to get upright on his own. At this point, all thoughts of social distancing go out the window. Robert was able to drive himself home (he lives about 1 minute’s drive away) & we hope he isn’t too shocked & can resume his regular early walks with his stick, his torch & his shuffle.



Morse & Lewis with me on the stunningl walk from Twin Bridges to Tipperary Springs – at its best in Autumn!

Yesterday it rained heavily all night, but we were able to walk early without getting drenched. Wes made chilli scrambled eggs for breakfast, and we spent the rest of the day sitting in front of the fire, listening first to Greta Bradman on ABC Classic, followed by The Coodabeen Champions, then back to ABC Classic. Lewis & Morse were very thrilled to be inside out of the cold & wet.

Before COVID-19, we had planned to be at the MCG watching Collingwood & Hawthorn. I had intended to go into the ballot for a Long Room pass for Wes & we were going to have lunch there. So last night instead, we ordered take away dinner from Jackie’s on Vincent & enjoyed our favourite meals – calamari for me & Mongolian lamb for Wes, plus Grandmother’s sweet dumplings for afters. The meal was piping hot & of the quality we are used to experiencing at Jackie’s restaurant. We opened our last bottle of Cofield Sparkling Shiraz & watched an episode of Deadwater Fell, which we are enjoying.

This morning it was wonderful to walk around the Lake - with Daylight Saving over, we could all see where we were going after about 20 minutes or so! Now we are off to the Sunday Market in the fog.

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