Daylesford Summer Dispatch - Sunday, 27th February 2022

 

Thank you for all your responses to last week's Dispatch. We were thrilled that you were thinking of us & especially our new car, Sammy. We started our week with a good trip to the Sunday Market, where Jeff, the dog treat man, had a box of dried bones for us, just as we were running out. Yvonne gave the boys slices of apple with their cabbage (for variety she said) and Lewis, the clever one, promptly snaffled them all before Morse even knew they were there. 

There was a huge event on at Victoria Park - Daylesford MotoFest & town was packed with interesting cars. We had three immaculate vintage Chevrolets parked in Duke Street, so didn't have to go far to feel part of it all, although it was hard to get past these very wide cars on our little strip of roadway!

In the afternoon, I watched the Pies AFLW look awful against North Melbourne, who are unbeatable in Tasmania & played really well. The previous day the Blues AFLW team had regained their form with a fine win, so one of us was happy. The final T20 between Australia & Sri Lanka was an exciting match, with the Sri Lankans finally winning a match with one ball to spare. There was a good crowd & a wonderful atmosphere & we were sorry not to have been there.

Not everyone was rivetted to the footy & cricket!

At Monday School, we discussed Autumn plantings & decided to go for beetroot, Dwarf Purple Queen beans, Bush peas, French Breakfast radishes & silver beet. As well, Wes is planning on introducing some more prostrate rosemary into the back garden & we might try garlic bulbs (but have never been successful in the past).

Wes spent most of the rest of the day cleaning both cars & removing everything from the Mazda 6 in preparation for Thursday's handover. He found an ancient First Aid kit, a 20-year-old Melways (not much good these days) and a CD holder (equally useless). Pearl benefitted from all this cleaning & looked beautiful when he was finished. 

Meanwhile Telstra delivered my smart clock, which replaces a 30-year-old one in the upstairs bathroom & I learnt how to make it play ABC Classic on demand. It has a clear face showing the time, temperature & day of the week - always handy bits of information. This was another gift from Telstra because I am a Gold customer - despite buying 2 x Pixel buds & a phone charger booster recently, I still had enough points to get this. I'll get one for Wes's bathroom when I accumulate some more points. 

On Tuesday, I had a very early Zoom with Leanne, so didn't go on the walk with my boys. Wes tells me that I missed a very funny moment, when he asked Lewis to find the car for him & Lewis pointed out that our car was in the main carpark, (which was 2kms away), not the small one that Wes was indicating. Poor Lewis!

We did heaps of gardening & planted beetroot & silver beet seedlings as well as some prostrate rosemary. Our Roma tomatoes are finally ripening & will go beautifully with the fresh basil we have. 

Thanks to Facebook - this goes on at our house every afternoon!

Dot, Judi & I met for Mah Jong on Wednesday morning and Wes took the opportunity to wash the floors. We are really missing our wonderful cleaner, Sandra Frost, who lost the tip & nail of her little finger in a log-splitter & has been out of action for a few weeks. She is recovering well with a skin graft, but in the meantime all her customers are trying to cope without her. 

On Thursday, while I was Zooming with Kathy, Lovely & Lib, Wes drove the Mazda 6 to Ballarat to exchange it for Sammy (1UV 2PE). We are thrilled to bits with it, and it has many of the safety features of Pearl, without the sophistication. We think it will be a wonderful Labrador & local car for us all over many years. 

Wes collecting our gift-wrapped Sammy - we also scored a bottle of shiraz, a box of chocolates & a retractable USB cord for charging our mobiles in the car

We were delighted when the hammock cover for the back seats of Sammy arrived at the Post Office on Friday. It was easy to install & the boys, although reluctant at first to jump in, settled down very comfortably once we started driving. We took them to Hepburn Springs & back & they happily leapt out of the car on their return home. 

Our air-conditioner started playing up again & dripping water onto the floor, so we rang local friend, Gary Rodoni, and he will be here tomorrow to see if he can fix it or if we need a new unit. It looks as though it is a hose problem, either inside or out, and I was very relieved when Wes decided we'd let the experts sort it out.

Our Sydney friends, Jane & David Knox, have become grandparents with the safe arrival this week of Emily & Alan's daughter, Dolly Jean. We are so thrilled for them all & hope that Jane & David can get to London soon to meet her. 

Yesterday I visited the monthly Daylesford Rotary Farmers' Market, which was doing good business with plants, produce, a busker, a sausage sizzle, chooks, grog, olive oil & home-made goodies, both edible & not. I picked up a couple of plants for Wes, emu oil hand cream for me & honeyed cashews for both of us. 

We've got a busy day coming up - after the Sunday Market, we are taking the boys to Guildford to try out Hilltop Kennels for three days, as we have tree-loppers arriving tomorrow & their job will be easier without Lewis & Morse. After we drop them off, we are driving to Strathmore to visit Leanne, where she is very keen for a chat & there a few household chores we can help her with. We hope to get back here in time to watch the AFLW Pies & Blues both play later in the afternoon. 

Daylesford Summer Dispatch - Sunday, 20th February 2022

 

We all have mountains to climb!

This has been a much better week & I am feeling on top of things again & able to cope, which is about time! We started on Sunday with the Market shopping & were so pleased that Kathy & Gerard Lazzaro had agreed to use our tickets for 100 years of the Archibald Prize at the Geelong Gallery. That afternoon I watched the AFLW Pies win handsomely against the West Coast Eagles in Perth, before the Western Bulldogs managed an exciting 1-point win against the previously undefeated Adelaide Crows in Adelaide. 

We had a wonderful School session on Monday, watching another Alan Bennett play, called Afternoon Off, filmed in 1979 & full of wonderful actors, some of whom were not yet known. That afternoon, I had a third remedial massage with Sarah Hunt, who is doing wonders in getting me back to normal and relatively painfree. I suspect it also helped energise me & we both complained that the hour flew by too quickly. 

Wes had bought oysters & we had them that night with a bottle of Bleasdale Sparkling Shiraz to celebrate Valentine's Day.  He served cold cooked Atlantic salmon with a rice salad to follow & we enjoyed every mouthful. 

On Tuesday I felt well enough to tackle three chats in a row - first off Jeff in Lincolnshire, where we discussed the Australian book, Crimson Lake, which has been turned into a mini-series here. 
Candice Fox has written a trilogy and maybe the series will tackle all three books, but I've only read the first so far, at Jeff's suggestion. Next was a Zoom with Leanne, who had a new cleaner in the house, so we didn't chat for long, as she needed to give the person directions, and finally, an overdue catch-up with Terry Borg, who had celebrated her birthday the day before by having breakfast locally with family & friends, followed by a trip to Phillip Island and finally Chinese dinner with her house guest, Gloria, from Canada. 

When I went upstairs to prepare my salad for lunch, I discovered the dining table was sopping wet, as were the seat cushions & there was water on the floor. It looked as though someone had upended a full bucket, but we quickly realised it had come from the air-conditioner. Wes googled what to do, and the suggestion was that we open the unit to clean the filters. We were embarrassed at the amount of dirt on them & can't remember the last time we gave them a thought! Fortunately, that seems to have solved the problem & we have a much happier, more efficient unit. And yes, we decided to do the bedroom one as well, even though it is only 12 months' old. 

On Wednesday, I was able to join Wes, Lewis & Morse on the early morning walk around Lake Daylesford. Much to our delight, the previous day a good section of the Peace Mile had been graded, making it much easier & safer to traverse. 

Karen & Leigh with Casper at the old bridge near Sutton Spring below Lake Daylesford - November 1998 & we had just bought Maloney Folly

Afterwards, I did my usual fortnightly deliveries of old Age newspapers to Ken at Spring Park Nursery, Eganstown; followed by jars, Epicures & The Local to Nick & Robyn in Porcupine Ridge; pumped mineral water at Leitches Creek, and put fresh rosemary in the jar I have on David & Annie Smith's grave at the cemetery.

Views from the original Holly Cottage @ 78 Duke Street - 1998
 

Dot, Judi & I met to play Mah Jong at Muffins & More, although we did more talking than playing. Dot was looking good after her heart attack just before Christmas & we were pleased to see her husband, John, who has recovered from his stint in hospital too. 

On Thursday I was OK to walk again, where we met Barry, the fisherman. He & his wife, June, had been rear-ended by a truck, when they slowed to 40km for roadworks on Tuesday & he was still quite shocked. The truckies had not co-operated & he had needed the help of the police to get their details so he could make a claim against them. 

That morning, I had a good Zoom chat with Kathy & Karen AKA Lovely. They thought I was looking better & I certainly enjoyed our conversation, which wandered through the various activities we had been doing over the past week. Wes had his Zoom at the other end of the day - Daylesford Labor branch & I was in bed by the time he finished. 

On Friday, Leanne & I enjoyed our usual Zoom catch up, before I headed into Vincent Street to post letters, collect mail & pick up the latest crop of Brian Nash greeting cards, which he had done for me. 

Lovely 2018 photo of Nick & Robyn Massaro (left) & Brian Nash & his partner, Roberta Donnelly (right) in front of Brian's painting of Nick & Robyn's home in Porcupine Ridge

Yesterday we headed to Ballarat Mazda to look at replacing our Mazda 6, which needs a new transmission & the cost of that is more than the car is worth. We have been driving it as little as possible and realised this week that we needed to replace it rather than spend any more money on it. Wes looked at all sorts of vehicles by various manufacturers online, but we are most comfortable with the look & feel of Mazdas & decided we should stick with them. Andy, our young salesperson, showed us everything that was available & we decided to buy a Mazda 2 & let the boys use the back seat, as most of the hatchbacks require a big jump to get in. We are thrilled to bits with Sammy, not least because Wes can collect him on Thursday as he was on the floor. 

Sammy, after Wes's dad, Ray, who bought the first Mazda we ever drove. We loved it so much that we have continued the tradition

Daylesford Summer Dispatch - Sunday, 13th February 2022

 

Poor Woodstock!

As you might have guessed from last week's Dispatch, this has been another quiet one, with lots of cancellations. I managed to get to the Sunday Market, but spent the rest of the day quietly, watching the Australian Women's team win the Ashes at the Junction Oval in their second ODI against England. Wes had an excellent visit with Leanne, doing some odd jobs, repairs, fixing her computer & printer, and having a good chat about how she is going. 

On Monday, I did the supermarket shopping, then collected Wes who had dropped our Mazda 6 back at Howe Automotive to see if they could fix the transmission problem. By the time the car was ready at 6pm that night, I was back in bed, so we left it there to collect the next morning. 

I felt quite a lot better on Tuesday & settled down to watch the Women's final ODI against England, changing the sheets & towels during the drinks breaks & doing the folding & ironing through the lunch break. It was good to still be up, having fed Lewis & Morse their dinner & share a drink & chat with Wes around 5.30pm, although that wore me out & he kindly served dinner in bed. 

Thanks to everyone who has been in touch wishing me well - most of you have worse health problems than I do & I am grateful to know you are thinking of me. I don't think I'll ever get used to not being able to do as much as I'd like, even taking getting older into account. 

Wes & the boys have spent much of the week gardening in the mornings, resting over lunchtime & computer work in the afternoon. Those not actually using the computer tend to extend the rest time until it gets close to dinner & then they come alive with a vengeance. 

Morse & Lewis catching up on sleep on the left & a small vase of perfect roses at the front door on the right

I was thrilled to be able to host a Zoom chat of old friends on Thursday morning, with friend, Libby Edgoose, joining us for the first time. Kathy, Karen & I were delighted to see her, &, specially to hear her news of a move to a retirement village in Gladstone, about 20 minutes' drive from her daughter, Becky. I've known Lib since I was 18 and we've shared much together over the years - obviously not recently since she moved to Queensland, but we have lots of fond memories as do Kathy & Karen. 

            Lib & Karen outside Chaplin's in Trentham in 2014

I was also able to chat with Leanne on Friday via Zoom, which was important as we hadn't talked for a week & she had lots to tell me. When you live on your own, it must be so hard, not having anyone right there to share things with & I am happy to listen to the latest news on her carers, doctor, NDIS etc, as well as discuss anything she needs to run past another person. 

Yesterday, our neighbour, Glen, gave us 3kg of her beautiful plums, which I turned into 2kgs chutney & 1kg of stewed fruit with some pears. I was thrilled that I could concentrate on the recipe and felt very chuffed to have achieved something concrete this week! We celebrated with fish & chips for dinner & watched Carlton's AFLW team play Fremantle in WA as we ate. Darcy Vescio's opening goal was easily the highlight as the Blues were no match for the Dockers for the rest of the match. Fingers crossed that the Pies can do a little better this arvo against West Coast.

I leave you with a rare photo of Morse (left) & Lewis sleeping with their heads at the same end of the bed!

Daylesford Summer Dispatch - Sunday, 6th February 2022

Wonderful sentiment Snoopy!

We had a fun visit to the Market last Sunday - everyone wanted to talk about Ash Barty's win in the Australian Open & lots of the stallholders were tired from staying up later than usual on a Saturday night. Yvonne had shredded the cabbage for Lewis & Morse, which they appreciated by eating every skerrick, much to her delight. 

We set off to visit Rosanna & David in Keilor, via Bourkie's Bakery in Woodend, where we bought some French vanilla slices as our contribution to morning tea. We had a lovely visit - so much to talk about & catch up after so many years since we had last seen each other, and we had only chatted with David over Zoom. Cooper was particularly pleased to meet us when we produced a bag of liver treats. We first met Rosanna back in 1998 when Cos Rullo suggested she would be a perfect person to join Maloney Insurance Brokers and she was!

Rosanna & David, with Cooper 

On our way back home, we stopped at the Maltese restaurant in Keilor Road to stock up on pastizzi - two dozen each of ricotta & peas and got started on them that night. The boys had behaved themselves while we were away and I think our arrival back home woke them up. 

The next morning would usually be School, but I had a dental check-up in Ballarat instead. I had postponed this three times for various reasons & by the time I got to Ashmore Dentistry, my usual dental hygienist had given birth to a baby son & taken maternity leave. I was more than happy with her replacement, Bec, who did a great job & coped with my asthma, mouth-breathing & inability to lie flat in a dental chair! Wes had driven me as he needed to do a few chores in Ballarat & I was most grateful, as I am always tired the day after a trip anywhere. 

By popular demand, another vase of perfect roses - deep pink, pale pink, deep orange & pale yellow

Also, by popular demand, Morse & Lewis getting comfy together

Tuesday was a big morning of Zoom chat for me - started off early with Jeff in Torksey Lock & Ash Barty was our main topic; then onto Leanne in Strathmore, who had lots of good news to share, and finally Jan in Maleny, where we talked about COVID, female role models such as Ash & Grace Tame, and laughed about her chooks' antics. 

On Wednesday morning, after I did my fortnightly deliveries, Judi & I met at Muffins & More for tea, toasties & Mah Jong. It was lovely to be playing again & she wiped the floor with me, winning 3 games to my one. Sandra cleaned our house while I was out & Wes did wonders in the front garden. 

That afternoon I fell in a heap & retreated to bed, where I have been more or less. This is the usual pattern - feel well & energetic, do too much & pay for it by a complete loss of energy. As well I am quite asthmatic, but at least I don't have COVID, which is a blessing. Wes has been wonderful, as usual, providing G&Ts, yummy meals & sending in Nurses Lewis & Morse for pats & licks when needed. 

I did enjoy seeing the Australian women retain the Ashes by winning the first ODI on Thursday & hope they can continue their good form today. Our AFLW teams haven't been doing well, and the Pies went down badly against Brisbane at Maroochydore yesterday. Fingers crossed the Blues can do better this arvo.

My illness has meant we missed out on a trip to the Geelong Gallery to see 100 Years of the Archibalds on Thursday, where we were meeting up with old friend, Wendy Owen, and her husband, Roberto, to see the exhibition & have lunch. It also means that Wes will visit Leanne on his own this morning, for which I am very grateful, as she looks forward to our three-weekly visits, mostly for the conversation over coffee & cake, but also for any practical help she needs. 

Our first hot-air balloon this year rising over Lake Daylesford early yesterday morning