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.