Daylesford Christmas Dispatch - Sunday, 25th December 2022

The spirit of Christmas is alive & well!

There is no Sunday Market this morning - the only time it doesn't operate is when Christmas Day falls on a Sunday. However, to look after their regulars, the Market was held on Friday afternoon between 4pm & 8pm. Perfect solution for us, although Morse was confused & wouldn't eat his pear pieces, so Wes had to put them in his pocket, rather than offend Yvonne.

We are heading out to Cliffy's shortly to buy hot drinks along with lots of other Daylesford & Hepburn friends. This is a lovely gesture by Liam Thorneycroft, who had the idea & raises money for the CFA (Country Fire Authority) each Christmas Day. We've already bought our raffle tickets online with fingers crossed as there are some great prizes to be won. 

Last Sunday, we visited Leanne, to help her with preparations for lunch today, and to talk through the latest with NDIS, as she has experienced quite a few "no shows", which is very disheartening. Leanne was able to tell us about a lovely visit she had received from our sister, Paun, and her husband, Brian, who made a quick road trip to Victoria to catch up with family & friends. 

Stunning dogwood

This has been a warm & enjoyable week here in Daylesford:

• We've both spent time in the garden & it is looking beautiful with lots of rose, green grass (amazing at the end of December) & all the herbs & seedlings are doing well too.
• I've had a few indulgences - facial, remedial massage, manicure & brunch with Judi @Muffins & More café
• We've feasted on Western Australian rock lobsters one night and enjoyed a whole snapper last night, preceded by oysters
• We've had phone calls & Zooms with friends & families, as well as mourned the loss of Daylesford icon, Allan Wolf-Tasker, died last Tuesday, far too soon, of an aggressive cancer. 

Allan Wolf-Tasker in typical pose standing between our mutual friend, Glenn Mack, and Warren Maloney, at a Daylesford Wine Dinner at the Lake House in 2008

We've both driven more than we usually do this week & I've had to avoid ducks, bunnies, black wallabies & kangaroos on my various trips around the Shire. The ducks are silly & just don't know to get off the road. If they do decide to move, they usually split ranks & head off in different directions, much to the chagrin of the motorists banked up waiting for them to cross to safety. 

Morse has settled back into normal life with us - an early morning walk, breakfast, a snooze, a cuddle, helping in the garden or the kitchen, another snooze, another cuddle, an afternoon snooze, dinner & a serious cuddle before bed. He is spending more time in our bedroom overnight - he used to arrive about 4am, but some nights he is in position at 10pm!

Morse enjoying a cuddle with Wes & an old friend (his mauve & green teddy which has been missing for some weeks)

Yesterday Wes spent working in the front garden as it had grown like Topsy & desperately needed a haircut all over. Meanwhile I picked up some last-minute items for us & Leanne, and started packing for my stay in Melbourne, starting this afternoon. Later Wes ventured into Vincent Street to pick up the oysters, and collected lemons from Candy & Hal's tree while he was out. I shared the lemons with Glen next door, who had her family with her sharing a Christmas Eve feast. She had run out of lemons & was most appreciative. 

Daylesford Summer Dispatch - Sunday, 18th December 2022

 
Morse wasn't interested in food of any description, just wanted to be with us, particularly Wes, when he arrived home

Last Sunday was driving back home to Daylesford & a very lovely drive it was, even though it was raining much of the time. We had made sure we ate breakfast before we left our Cottage & stopped three times for hot drinks & biscuits on our way. We left Adelaide at 7.30am & arrived back here at 4pm, where Wes promptly jumped into action & washed both cars. Pearl was looking particularly dirty after 1,600km on the road. 

Meanwhile, I unpacked our suitcases, turned on all the power points and did a couple of loads of washing. We sat down with fish & chips & a bottle of Riesling at 6.30pm, watched a bit of TV and found ourselves in bed & asleep not long after.

On Monday, we both woke early - me because I had thank-you gifts to deliver, supermarket shopping to do & medications to collect from the pharmacy. Wes collected Morse and drove to Wheatsheaf, where Yvonne had our fruit & vegetables waiting for us. Morse was delighted when he arrived home, raced around looking at everything, drank lots of water, ignored a bone & some celery & leapt into Wes's arms as soon as he sat down. 

There is always so much to do when you arrive home from a holiday, even one as short as ours was - the garden was beckoning, but rain, hail & wind with occasional sunshine put paid to that. I balanced Reckon, we both handled emails & Wes got back into the swing of Zoom chats with Barbara. 

We both walked Morse on Tuesday & enjoyed it, although Morse was back to his old tricks of barking at ducks & black wallabies. It was another rainy day, so we spent the day doing chores, delivering thank you gifts & opening the mail that had accumulated while we were away.

On Wednesday, Wes caught the train & tram to Carlton, to attend a small pre-Christmas reunion of old schoolfriends at the Lincoln Hotel. He really enjoyed his day out, and was quite tired when he arrived home at 6.30pm. Morse coped without him, but only just!

Great photo - L-R - John Atkinson, Chris Meehan, Dave Carey, George Traczyk, Mick Curran & Warren Maloney

Meanwhile, I had a day of getting things fixed - it started with my glasses, which I took to our local optometrist, because a lens was loose. They replaced both screws for free immediately & sympathised when I told them I had one pair of glasses that I looked after very well & things went wrong with them. On the other hand, Wes, who has four pairs of glasses, is very slack with them & nothing ever happens to his🤣

In the afternoon, Mark visited to repair our dishwasher & washing machine. The former had a piece of glass stuck in the drainage pipe outlet & the latter was leaking water. He fixed both issues & showed me how to do it myself in the future. What a gem!

On Thursday I was finally feeling on top of things here and was free to have a lovely catch up with Judi, after I had visited my doctor, Ellie, for a final check-up this year. We had planned brunch at Muffins & More, but it was closed as that area of Raglan Street had no electricity, so we ended up at Pancho, where we enjoyed very yummy meals & smiling service. 

Sardines on toast & omelette with smoked trout

That afternoon, Wes headed off to Victor Szwed's place for a boys' sausage sizzle & film afternoon - with Jeff Bain, Brian Nash, Danny Moynihan & a new chum, Ivan. He really enjoyed the get-together & it was good for Morse to have to cope without him again, although when Wes arrived home, it was dinner time & Morse abandoned his meal to greet his Daddy with great enthusiasm!

The next morning, while Wes had a well-earned rest, I delivered more of our Christmas thank you gifts and had some wonderful responses. The best was at The Convent, where Tina invited me to have a pot of tea and sit with her for a chat. When I left, she had given me a bottle of sparkling to celebrate our Anniversary back in June & a bottle of shiraz, which she meant to give Wes for his birthday last month. 

These stunning Christmas lilies were waiting for us when we arrived home last Sunday - thank you Judi - we love them & the perfume is beautiful!

Yesterday was fun - we both spent the morning in the garden - me planting Jalapeno chillies, purple petunias, Roma tomato seedlings & cucumbers. Wes did some pruning and mowed everywhere, so the back yard looks cared for again. Afterwards we drove to the Great Western Hotel in Ballan, for Christmas lunch with our friend & current neighbour, Glen, as well as our old neighbours, Rob & Dene, who will be moving to Ballan next month. 

We enjoyed a wonderful catch up over good food & wine in a very relaxed atmosphere. I suspect this hotel will become Rob & Dene's local very quickly as their new home is within walking distance of it. Dene was delighted with the small posy of Pumpkin Patch roses that I had picked for him, and in return we were both thrilled to receive one of his home-made Christmas cakes, most of which will travel with me to the Windsor on Christmas night, and provide sustenance during the Boxing Day Test. 

We came home to watch the rest of Day 1 of the Brisbane Test, with Australia 7 runs behind South Africa's first innings. However, we still have 5 wickets in hand as we have much more batting depth than they do. It was an exciting day's cricket with 299 runs scored & 15 wickets taken. Our friends, Jane & David Knox were there and caught up with other mutual friends, Chris & Bill Waterhouse (pictured) after the game. 

Adelaide Summer Dispatch - Sunday, 11th December 2022

Poor Morse will be feeling like this not knowing we are picking him up tomorrow morning

When I left you last Sunday, we were heading out for breakfast and ended up at the Waterfront Café, where we tackled eggs benny & a vegetarian stack both of very large proportions. Once again the staff were lovely & friendly, tables were well-spaced & the service was prompt & smiling. It is a real hub for the locals, who were busy getting takeaway coffees as they walked their dogs or themselves along the beach. 

Vegetarian stack with haloumi, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms & an egg

We had planned a quiet day and Wes even went back to bed late morning, as we were still recovering from the lethargy we experienced with COVID. Shortly after he fell asleep, a young earnest guitarist set up his spot outside our bedroom window & proceeded to entertain the hotel guests in the garden until 4pm. As well, the unit above us had a young child who ran around their lounge & bedroom non-stop, probably wearing hobnail boots!

After the cricket finished, we went for a walk to Rivoli Bay deli, where Judi & Michael had suggested we try the smoked trout. We bought a packet & Wes forked it through spaghetti that night for a very yummy, simple dinner. 

On Monday, it was too cold, windy & wet to walk anywhere, so we packed up & drove to Robe for a late breakfast, finding ourselves at Drift Café, where we enjoyed Chili chorizo scram & Chili spinach scram (think scrambled). It was very popular, the staff were lovely & the food was excellent. Afterwards we went for a long walk to the waterfront, along the boardwalk & back to our car. 

Our next stop was Kingston SE, which we reached early, so took a deviation to see The Granites. Our accommodation here was a lovely cottage, with everything you could wish for, including air-conditioning that went as low as we wanted, and cei3ling fans. Our generous host, Wendy, had left oodles of provisions including a lovely bottle of sauvignon blanc. 

The Granites - Coorung

We walked down the pier in the afternoon & spotted a pod of dolphins leaping & swimming together - they were too fast for me to get a photo or video, but it was lovely to see them.

The next morning we had a leisurely start before enjoying a 5km walk along the Kingston beach. Apart from some surfers, we were the only people on the beach. We had enough energy to go out for dinner - the local pub, The Royal Mail, offered a large menu, and we couldn't finish our pepper steak & fish & chips.

On Wednesday, we said goodbye to our lovely cottage & drove to Adelaide, hoping to stop at a quirky cafe in Meningie that we discovered last year - sadly it has changed hands & wasn't open at 10am! We had planned lunch with Jenny & Graham Ellender, Daylesford friends, who now live in Adelaide & enjoyed a good catch up at the National Wine Centre, which was busy with Christmas functions & a conference. We have a love of Labradors in common & they were very sad to read about Lewis's death in our Christmas letter. 

We were about 2 minutes from our present accommodation, Athelney Cottage, tucked away in a quiet street not far from the city & a pleasant 30 minute walk to the Adelaide Oval. The owner, Rosie, greeted us after we had unpacked & parked the car in the street. This is a lovely old-world cottage full of books, paintings, cushions & provisions & we were very comfortable for the 4 nights we have spent here. 

We headed off to The Flying Fig, a wonderful Jewish deli in North Adelaide that we found last year, when our previous favourite breakfast spot had closed. This has changed hands, but not menu & there were the same amazing numbers of choices & interesting meals to be had. Wes finds it hard to go past the bagels with smoked salmon & plump capers, while I enjoyed the baked eggs.

Beautiful baked eggs

After breakfast we went to Rundle Mall, where we were successful in getting everything on our small shopping list except for The Age newspaper. Our usual newsagent had disappeared & we didn't find another. We drove back home to our cottage, got changed & organised & set off on a delightful walk to the ground via the Botanical Gardens & the Zoo. 

The first day was wonderful - we were at ground level for a change, a bit hot, but we were well-protected & at intervals teenagers came around offering free sunscreen, water & red frogs! We stayed to see Marnus Labuschagne get his century & were back home in time for Travis Head, who batted very attractively, to score his. 

The smallest supporter at the game

On Friday, we headed to the Adelaide Central Market after breakfast at The Flying Fig, where the owner greeted us warmly & we sat outside for a change. We love this Market & once again were successful with our small shopping list, although we had to drag ourselves away from the book stall with its wonderful selection of crime novels.

It was another warm day at the cricket & we stood out of the sun for some of the time. The Aussies played well with both Labuschagne & Head making 150+. We left when the West Indies were batting & had lost a wicket, arriving back here in time to see the last hour of play.

Fox Cricket setting up pre-game commentary

Yesterday morning we headed back to The Flying Fig for our final breakfast, which was the best of the lot - Middle Eastern eggs. As Wes said we started & finished our holiday with fried egg breakfasts. Afterwards we went to visit St Peter's Anglican Cathedral, but as we parked, a funeral hearse pulled up, so we gave that a miss & drove to Melbourne Street, which has been the site of most of our previous visits to Adelaide. 

It was 35° as we walked to the Adelaide Oval for our final day at the cricket, which included a glass of Pimms.  I was able to swap our seats in the sun for better ones in the shade & we sat under giant fans offering a welcome breeze. The cricket was entertaining, but we left early and arrived back here in time to see Scott Boland take 3/0 in another stunning second innings bowling effort. 

We've woken early & hope to be on the road by 8am, which should get us back to Daylesford by 5pm tonight. We've had a wonderful break & are feeling rested & relaxed. It will be good to see Morse tomorrow, as well as get back to our usual routines - and, of course, Christmas is only a fortnight away!

Middle Eastern eggs - not sure we can wait another year to taste this dish again!

Daylesford Summer Dispatch - Sunday, 4th December 2022

We're feeling the guilt - Morse is in Eureka Kennels while we are gallivanting around South Australia!

We had a busy week getting ready to go on holidays - isn't that always the way? Last Sunday, after a quick trip to the Market, and a speedy washing & putting away of goodies, we drove to Strathmore to spend time with Leanne. It was quite a long visit as there was lots of do, apart from wishing her a very early Happy Birthday. 

That afternoon, we were thrilled to see the Melbourne AFLW team win their first Premiership by narrowly defeating Brisbane in a hard-fought, engrossing game of footy in Ipswich in 31° heat. Their captain, Daisy Pearce, was elated & couldn't stop talking, smiling, congratulating & praising - her post-match interview was most memorable!

Gorgeous bush in our front garden

On Monday, we spent School designing our Christmas email, which was delivered on Thursday morning with our Christmas letter attached. Google has enabled us to do so much more with emails than we ever could with Outlook, and we are grateful that we made the change during early COVID lockdown. We still use Word documents & mailing systems, but Google Email, Calendar, Contacts, Sheets & Keep is far superior to Outlook's similar programmes. 

Wes spent the whole of Tuesday in our garden, getting front & back ready to cope without us. I'm not sure the weeds take any notice, but every gardener I speak with assures me that the weeds are bigger & better this year after all that rain, which at least makes them easier to pull out by the roots. 

On Wednesday I had a fringe trim, while Wes vacuumed the floors & did end of month back-ups on our desktops. Daylesford town was fairly quiet, but will be very busy by the time we get back home I am sure. That afternoon I was glued to the first day of the 1st Test against the West Indies in Perth, which saw Australia rally from the loss of an early wicket to be 2/293 at stumps. 

Healthy strawberry patch

Wes spent Thursday weeding in the front garden, hosing everything that needed it, including the cars, and doing a last mow of the back. I enjoyed a good final Zoom for 2022 with Old Friends. It has been wonderful to have the weekly contact with Kathy, Karen, Lib & Joyce this year, and we are grateful for the occasional participation by Squiz. Hopefully we'll all be fit & well & ready to start again on 19th January.

We set off for Beachport early on Friday morning, as Wes had taken Morse to Eureka Kennels the previous afternoon. I divided up the contents of our fridge between us, Glen & Judi, while Wes packed the car including my golf bag with each of us having six clubs (I'm left-handed, so we can't share). We had planned to stop in Dimboola for breakfast, but realised after a couple of hours that we weren't going to be anywhere near it. However, we were headed for Dunkeld & decided to break there instead. Wes had found a Trip Advisor recommendation for a Scottish Deli, which sounded ideal, even though we couldn't remember having seen one there on our last visit. On closer examination, he discovered the Deli was actually in Scotland!

We settled for Izzy's Café & enjoyed vegetarian breakfasts served by smiling, uniformed staff, with good table spacing, self-serve napkins & plenty of water. Neither of us has had a fried egg for years, but our Irish waitress misread the request for scrambled eggs.

We arrived here at Beachport right on 2pm & checked in via various codes. Our apartment is spacious with views of the beach from every window. Our only problem is we can't lower the air-conditioning from 21°, so have been quite warm at night. Each night gets better as we find ways to cool our bedroom with the drapes closed during the day. The bathroom temperature is set to 26°, which is even worse, but I am gradually reducing that. Otherwise we are very comfortable with reclining leather chairs, good lighting & an excellent kitchen.

We had local fish & chips on Friday night - crumbed flake, calamari rings & yummy chips. The leftover chips went to the seagulls the next morning on our early walk, where we traversed the long pier as far as we could go without interrupting the fishermen. 

We had a longer walk after breakfast - along the beach, where there is a good boardwalk and then a well-kept path. The views along the way were lovely & we met plenty of dogs being walked or frolicking in the beach. On our way back we visited the Lobster Pot & bought a crayfish & oysters for dinner last night. The friendly staff cleaned the cray, added ice, lemon & parsley & sent us off feeling warm & fuzzy from the experience. 

Needless to say, we enjoyed a fabulous meal with a bottle of Cofield Sparkling Shiraz, while we watched the West Indian team fight back in the best possible way.