We've had a better week, with my health on the mend & some good things happening. On Monday, after shopping, we watched a film on the life of Chopin, made in 2010 & with incredible footage of Arthur Rubenstein & Daniel Barenboim playing. We learnt a lot about Chopin the person, and his love affair with George Sand & came away with a better appreciation of his music.
On Tuesday we watched the 2010 UK film Made in Dagenham, which follows the fight by the women machinists in the Ford Factory to get better pay & ultimately equal pay for women. It is a very powerful film that moved us when we first saw it. All people of our generation are very well aware of the iniquity of pay rates for women, let alone recognition of us as equals. If you haven't seen it, it is on SBS on Demand.
Last week I delivered the latest lot of beanies & jumpers to the Daylesford Community Op Shop, where the women taking my box of goodies asked me to thank Di, who makes most of the jumpers as they are very popular. As well, I managed to break the glass decanter that houses my gin (empty at the time), and was able to find a pre-loved Stuart crystal partner for Wes's whisky decanter at the Daylesford Mill Markets for a very reasonable price.
On Wednesday, Wes drove us all to Ballarat so I could visit the Linda McCartney photographic exhibition, which is part of this year's Ballarat International Foto Biennale. I had changed my ticket 4 times - twice because Ballarat went into lockdown & twice because I wasn't well enough and I daren't try to change it again. How lucky was I - no-one else at the Exhibition (in the beautiful Art Gallery of Ballarat) for the first 30 minutes & plenty of space to wander at my own pace. I must confess I had expected more Beatles photos, but there were lots of Paul McCartney, mostly in Scotland with their children. We visited The Mull of Kintyre some years ago & I was thrilled to recognise the scenery, the sheep & the horses.
My favourite photo by Linda is this study of Twiggy à la "Girl with a Pearl Earring"
The sadness of Ballarat, especially in Lydiard Street, was the number of empty shopfronts, mostly cafés, which depended on the Gallery & Cinema for much of their business. As there have been COVID cases recently there, we didn't do anything else except visit the NAB to get some cash. We discovered that our usual branch had also closed, another victim of shutdowns. Here in Daylesford we have been so lucky - so many local businesses are well patronised by those of us who live here, and although their profits are down, they are still surviving. In fact, one shopowner told me that he plans on closing over weekends once Victoria re-opens as it is so hard to keep track of those who are masked & vaccinated.
On Thursday, Wes was delighted that our Daylight Saving meant his chat with the Jackson 8 started at 7.30am our time and he was able to walk the boys beforehand. I took them out with me to deliver jars & magazines to Nick & Robyn, and then we went to Leitches Creek to pump water. I arrived home with a coffee scroll for Wes (his usual reward for spending two hours on a Zoom chat), before spending a very pleasant 40 minutes with Kathy & Karen on Zoom myself. We all had something to look forward to after the chat, and mine was spending over tea & a toastie with Judi at Muffins & More, which has re-opened inside. We both felt very comfortable there & spent a lovely hour catching up.
We still can't take the boys socialising outside the Virgin Café, which was our habit on Friday mornings, but it should re-open very soon. Instead I was able to chat with Jan Pengilley after my early catch up with Leanne. Then into Vincent Street to get new name tags for Lewis & Morse as the writing had worn out on their original ones.
Yesterday as it was raining, we didn't walk the boys, but took ourselves to Muffins & More for an early breakfast. They were doing a lot of business, which was great to see. We enjoyed our Nordic eggs with spinach, and left after we finished eating as there were customers queued waiting to get in. On our way home, we dropped by Wombat Hill Nursery to get some more punnets of pleasure for Wes to plant, and stakes in preparation for our tomatoes which will be planted on Melbourne Cup Day, which falls on 2nd November this year.
Bush peas going crazy with French tarragon to their left & broccolini to their right & various sages & thymes behind
Yesterday we enjoyed watching the Caulfield Cup day races, although we didn't have enough collects! Wes is in charge of Cox Plate next Saturday & is planning to do better than my quinellas & trifectas. I felt well enough to stay up for dinner & it was lovely to sit at the table together with the WBBL on in the background.
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