This is exactly what Morse is doing, only he refuses to retrieve the ball at all!
We spent last Sunday doing last minute packing, cleaning up, enjoying prawn congee for breakfast & making a fuss of Morse. I gave him a bone and later when I couldn't see it, asked him where it was & he led me downstairs to find it on the grass. Such cleverness has not been evident before in this dear boy, so we praised him to the skies, much to his delight.
Carlton won well against GWS in Sydney, so once again, Wes was very happy & pleased with how well his team is going. We had leftovers for dinner & went to bed early. Morse slept through the night without bad dreams or barking & we only heard a small whimper at 5am. We went for our early walk, then it was time to pack the car & start our adventure.
We drove to Strathmore first, so that Leanne could meet Morse, I could drop off her dwarf Meyer lemon tree that had finally arrived, and post some letters for her. She loved Morse & the feeling was mutual. We stopped at the end of her street where there is a cafe with outdoor seating, and had a hot drink, giving Morse a chance to experience sitting on the footpath & watching the world go by.
Sitting outside Kahve cafe
We had a good drive to Inverloch, stopping twice more for Morse to have a little walk around & a drink of water. When we arrived at our holiday home, Cha Cha, we were pleasantly surprised to find it very clean, with more bits & pieces than we had expected, and most importantly, a very good heater in the kitchen/lounge area. We did some shopping & Wes made pasta for dinner, which was very yummy & gave us leftovers for Morse for the next two nights.
On Tuesday morning, we got up early & walked to the end of our street to the dog beach, where we were the only ones for 30 minutes and got the chance to let Morse paddle, play chasey & enjoy the sights & smells.
Wes & Morse bathed in pink sky above & below, moonshine on the water
We headed to Vaughan's cafe for breakfast - mushroom & broccolini omelettes sitting outside - another chance for Morse to socialise. Then we set off to find Tarwin Lower, birthplace of my grandfather, Jim Munro (father of my mother, Viva, and aunt, Jennifer). In the English spirit, there is also a Middle Tarwin & Tarwin, but both of these have just about vanished & Tarwin Lower is the flagbearer these days. We searched for the cemetery to find the graves of his grand-parents, but realised they had been buried in Meeniyan cemetery. Both cemeteries were beautifully kept, well-maintained & it was easy to find gravesites.
At Meeniyan, we took Morse for a 30-minute walk on the rail trail, before coming back home laden with Inverloch vanilla slices for afternoon tea. Wes bought us a pie & pastie for dinner & apple slices for afterwards. The TV here is huge, but it is an Apple TV & we are Android people, so were unable to take advantage of anything on offer, let alone use the password we had been given. Apart from missing Foxtel and footy shows, we had plenty to read & do & we could easily get The Age newspaper each day.
It was very wet on Wednesday ,when we had planned to visit some of the many wineries around, all of which were open when we had checked last month. They are now on Winter hours, which means weekends only & in some cases, closed for a few months. We eventually went for a drive, looking at Venus Bay (beautiful & unspoilt) & Kilcunda, which has a wonderful walking trail to Philip Island.
Wes & Morse relaxing at Cha Cha accommodation
Day 4 was perfect - we went for our usual early morning walk along the beach with Morse, before heading back to Meeniyan, and a lovely walk on a different part of the rail trail. We had decided to take Rosanna's advice & have lunch at Milly & Romeo's café in Koonwarra. They had a big wide veranda, where dogs were made very welcome. We tucked into hot drinks & soup of the day AKA chef's whim, which was zucchini & thyme & came with hot fresh bread rolls. Morse even scored a treat on a tiny plate from our very friendly waitress.
Wes & Morse on the bridge over the Tarwin River on the rail trail
Wes holding on to Morse who is getting impatient for his treat!
After lunch, we drove to the pretty little town of Fish Creek to visit their bi-annual Tea Cosy Festival, and we are so pleased we did. It was well organised with lots of prizes, lots of exhibits, including a children's area & the local ABC doing interviews. Dogs were tied up outside, buses were arriving from nearby towns & everywhere was open & doing good business.
All too soon it was time to come home. We packed up on Friday morning & left around 8.15am as we had made plans to visit old friend, Terry Borg, in Burwood. We've been trying to get together since before COVID & this was the perfect chance. We took Morse for a walk before we arrived & he took ages to find the perfect tree to relieve himself. Terry had baked scones, which she served with jam & cream, had bought Jasmine tea, which she served in a black & white teapot, and, as we were leaving, produced bones for Morse & soup for us, as well as some Australian true crime books she thought we might enjoy!
After this very lovely interlude with Terry, we decided to drive to Ballarat, as my bracelet had been repaired two weeks' earlier than expected. It added another couple of hours to our travels, but Morse was doing well in the back seat, so we decided to do that & collect some gin & whisky at the same time. When I collected my bracelet, the jeweller had neglected to remove a link as I had requested. They were very apologetic at Gems & Jewels, and promised to have it ready next Wednesday. However, as we were leaving Dan Murphy's, Erica rang to say she had begged the jeweller to remove the link while we were still in Ballarat, and I was able to wear it back home.
We were quite tired when we got back here, but thrilled to see that Morse coped very well & was delighted with his usual beds & options. I started washing ours & his stuff, which I finished yesterday - 9 loads I counted, which is quite a lot! We had decided to indulge in fish & chips for dinner that night as they were not recommended in Inverloch. I lasted until half-time watching Carlton looking the goods against the Swans, and was very relieved when Wes came to bed with a big smile because the Blues had held on after the Swans got close in the second half.
Morse waiting for permission to get stuck into his bone yesterday
Wes walked Morse extra early yesterday so he could man the Daylesford Secondary School voting booth when it opened at 8am, complete with sausage sizzle. We had already utilised postal voting in case we didn't get back from Inverloch in time. I spent the morning catching up on paperwork, balancing Reckon and attempting to get a tax invoice for our stay at Inverloch, so we can claim our $200 rebate from the Victorian government.
What a thrill it was when we realised that Labor was going to form government after the early figures didn't look promising. There are some wonderful independent women coming into the House of Reps, and when counting stopped last night, Labor had not conceded any seats to the Liberals, which is quite amazing. The swing to Labor in WA was huge & probably on the back of their very popular Premier, Mark McGowan.
We had a very cold & frosty walk around Lake Daylesford this morning, while we discussed the election results. I'm heading off to Strathmore shortly to visit Leanne with a self-watering pot for her lemon tree, among other things. We couldn't fit that & potting mix in the car last Monday as well as all our holiday & dog stuff!
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