Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 26th March 2023

Thanks to everyone who sent messages of support after last week's news of the death of Fraser Gibson. We appreciated your thoughts as he was such a special person to his family and friends & we are going to miss him so much. 

We've had an interesting week - it started quietly with the Daylesford Market last Sunday and much watching of footy during the afternoon. On Monday, School was devoted to buying a new TV - we had looked at the various options available online before heading to Daylesford Bi-Rite to chat to Tim. We weren't impressed by the picture on the normal TVs, and asked about OLED availability instead. While Tim checked that, I took Wes into Glen's place next door, to see her LG OLED TV & he was sold on the technology too. We were able to confirm our order with Tim when he arrived with our new LG top loader washing machine later that morning. We're still waiting for the new TV to arrive and coping with our jumpy picture. Fingers crossed nothing else goes wrong with the appliances here!

Wes hoisting the Collingwood flag this week

I had a busy morning on Tuesday - a Zoom with Leanne, followed by an appointment with Dr Ellie at Springs Medical Centre, and a facial after that. Meanwhile, Wes cleaned both cars from top to bottom and I washed the backseat hammock that keeps Morse happy & safe when he is travelling. 

Judi & I were able to play Mah Jong on Wednesday after a short break when all three of us were unavailable at various times. We enjoyed the games, as well as catching up with each other's news. When I arrived home, Wes had vacuumed & washed the floors & was out in the garden taming some of the rose bushes which had sent out long branches in the wrong places. 

The highlight of Thursday was a stirring win by Carlton against Geelong, who threw everything at them in the last quarter. Wes was delighted and we both thought of our dear friend, Joe Rozen, who would have been pleased, but unhappy with the umpiring!

The next day we were thrilled to catch up with old friends, Kathy & Gerard Lazzaro, who had stayed overnight in Castlemaine and drove to Daylesford for brunch with us at Bad Habits Café in The Convent. We enjoyed a lovely meal & everyone made a fuss of us, as the Lazzaros are well-known visitors now. Kathy came with a bag of beautiful wool, which I am sharing with Di Lyttleton, who knits colourful jumpers for the Community Op Shop. 

Beautiful old magnolia trees about to bloom at The Convent

I started to feel unwell while we were finishing brunch, and by the time we got home, I felt as though I was coming down with a chest infection & went to bed. I did a RAT test the next morning, and was pleased to be negative, so started a course of Prednisolone instead, which has worked well enough for me to be up & dressed, ready for the Market.

Of course, I missed a trip to the MCG and a stunning win by Collingwood against Port Adelaide in front of a record crowd for these two teams in the home & away season. I had planned to spend time with Gayle Gibson, and was very disappointed that I had to take a raincheck. 

Here is Morse this morning waiting impatiently for us to be ready to go to the Market - he's tried everything - crying, eye-balling Wes, tripping me up & waiting at the front door - all to no avail.

Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 19th March 2023

What a lovely Sunday we had last week - after the early walk around the Wombat Botanic Gardens, we headed to the Daylesford Market to stock up on fruit, vegetables, eggs & dog bones. We hadn't told Morse that Rob & Dene were arriving & his joy when the doorbell rang knew no bounds. They came bearing yummy pastries, which we had for breakfast, before setting off to walk up the hill to Vincent Street for the ChillOut Parade. It was the happiest, longest, and most-watched parade we can remember in all the years it has been going.

There were small hiccups - the organisers had decided to lengthen the course, by describing a figure 8, but the first two participants - Dykes on Bikes & the Melbourne Bike Club hadn't gotten the message & complicated matters by trying to complete the shorter course twice. There were hold-ups, stuff ups, loss of concentration by the onlookers and the participants, which all contributed to a fun hour or so. We walked back home after it finished, and Rob & Dene visited Glen next door before returning to Ballan. 

ChillOut "Find Your Wings" photos - 1/ Daylesford Brass Band, 2/even dogs were wearing wings, and 3/a Toddler Train

We have had a problem with our main TV, which has been ghosting & getting progressively worse, so School on Monday was devoted to fixing it. Wes spent a good hour on the phone to TCL's helpline, but when resetting didn't work, the person on the other end of the phone decided that she could do no more for us, especially as we were out of warranty. She gave us the names of two technicians in Ballarat who may be able to help, but as Monday was Public Holiday, Labour Day, in Victoria, we had to reset the TV settings ourselves. In fact, I went off to have a remedial massage with Sarah and left Wes doing the hard yards.

 

There were still plenty of visitors in Daylesford on Tuesday, probably because of the wonderful weather & the great atmosphere generated by ChillOut. I had an early chat with Jeff in Lincolnshire, and encouraged her to tell me more stories about her time in Hong Kong in 1966; followed by a lovely Zoom with Jan in Maleny, who was interested to hear about Daylesford's weekend's activities & the recent sale of The Rex, among other topics. 

In-between, I provided Glen with a chai latte, and had a quick chat. She is looking better each day & especially that morning as her dogs, Nellie & Willow, had spent the day & night with her for the first time since Glen broke her leg.  

We woke to very sad news on Wednesday with the death of our dear friend, Fraser Gibson, after a short illness. We met Fraser, through his wife, Gayle, when I was Treasurer of the Ladies' Committee at Collingwood Football Club during the 80s and we've enjoyed many happy times together. I think Wes's greatest joy was when he & Fraser & Sam Esposito shared a beautiful wooden ketch, HMS Collingwood, and they spent hours together with this boat. Our hearts go out to Gayle, their daughter, Gabby, and their grandson, Fraser. 

1998 - Fraser at sea on HMS Collingwood

Lovely photo of Gayle & Fraser with his unforgettable smile

We had planned to go to Ballarat that day, which was a good thing to do after such news. The sun shone on us everywhere we went. We started at Faull's Shoes to get new walking boots for both of us & walked away very pleased with our purchases. The woman looking after me asked what we were doing next & I said I needed a pot of tea, so she sent us down the street to Wen & Ware café, where we enjoyed hot drinks & biscuits in a lovely atmosphere surrounded by beautiful homewares.

After our break, we walked to Rebel Sports & bought 2 x 4kg dumb-bells - I've been searching for them for months & this was so easy. Next stop was Bunnings for Wes to get some gardening gloves and we weren't ready to go home, so drove to the beautiful Ballarat Botanic Gardens to admire the Begonia Display, along with quite a few others. Across the road was Pipers by the Lake, so we strolled over for lunch & enjoyed our interesting salads. On our way home, we detoured to look at Ballarat's New Cemetery, which is very European in design with evergreens planted among the graves & feature garden spaces. 

Great photo of Wes with his Greek salad at Pipers by the Lake

Wes drove to Melbourne on Thursday, mainly to visit his long-time friend & school-mate, John Hardwick, who is in Epworth in palliative care. He had a good visit & was able to give Johnny a shave, while they shared some laughs & great memories. Afterwards, he drove to Fitzroy to give Gayle some flowers from us, and then to Essendon to say hello to John's wife, Carole, who is confined to home with vertigo at present. On his way back, he stopped at the Maltese restaurant for some pastizzi, and at the Brunswick Seafood shop for tuna cutlets & a whole trout. 

That night Carlton played a draw with long-time rivals, Richmond, in front of 88,000+ at the MCG. Wes was relieved to escape with the 2 points, but not thrilled with the standard of footy. 

We caught up with our friend, Bob White, at Chaplins in Trentham for breakfast on Friday morning after my Zoom chat with Leanne. The specialty meal was baked eggs, Jewish style, which we all had & enjoyed very much. On our way home, we stopped at Bi-Rite to get a new washing machine, as our current one was leaking water & shorting the fuse box!

Bob looking good in St Patrick's Day green

That afternoon, the TV technician arrived & declared the screen couldn't be repaired. He was a Collingwood supporter & happy to chat footy instead. I ran out of energy & had to watch the footy from bed, where I lasted until half-time before falling asleep. I couldn't believe the final score, when I read that we had just managed to beat an injured Geelong, which had looked the better team while I was watching. 

Yesterday was very quiet. I still had no energy, so settled down with Saturday's Age to read and the replay to watch, as well as live AFL games in the afternoon & evening. We had to call off brunch with our new neighbours and lunch today with Marilyn & Robert Preston. I'm feeling better for the rest, but am still like a balloon with all the air out of it, so will be back home taking it very easily after the Market this morning. 

Daylesford ChillOut Dispatch - Sunday, 12th March 2023

 

We started our week in the usual way with a long walk around Lake Daylesford, followed by a trip to the Sunday Market to collect fruit & vegetables & entertain Morse with pats from friends & a sliced pear to eat. Once we had fulfilled those needs and I had washed & put away our produce, we gave Morse a big bone to occupy him & drove to Strathmore to visit my sister, Leanne. 

We had a good and busy visit - lots of chatting over hot drinks & toast to begin with, followed by Wes getting stuck into Part IV of her garden, as well as watering & pruning other areas. All the new beds are doing well, and on our next visit we will do some maintenance of all 4 beds & make sure all the plants (new & old) are happy & thriving. 

On Monday we woke to discover 11mls of rain had fallen overnight & everyone's gardens were showing the benefits. My Roma tomatoes are finally starting to ripen, the cucumbers are growing, and my two Jalapeno chilli plants are doing well. 

School that morning was cleaning our study from top to toe. While I dusted & polished, Wes cleaned the flywire screens & windows, vacuumed & washed the floors, and moved his desk further to the left, which gives much more light to the room & to him. We were very pleased with what we had done & felt we had earned our lunch. I had ordered new Motorola mobile phones for us both, as our LG models are no longer being updated now that LG has moved out of the Australian market. They both arrived that afternoon - one was delivered to the door & the other taken to the Post Office for us to collect!!!

Morse has had great difficulty relating to the changes in the study. When he leapt up onto Wes's recliner on Tuesday morning, he was facing the wrong way & it took him 30 minutes to work out that he needed to move his body around. We were most amused! I had a good Zoom chat with my sister, Leanne, followed by another excellent catch-up with friend, Terry, and Morse consented to be part of both Zooms with the attraction of a treat as his reward. 

Warren's desk, his recliner, our filing cabinets & my desk with our lovely view of the garden, Lake Daylesford & the Wombat State Forest in the distance

Once again, there was no Mah Jong on Wednesday, so I devoted my morning to getting our new phones up & working. There was no problem with Wes's phone, which happily synchronised with his old one & moved everything over swiftly, but my old one refused to play ball (even Tim at Mitre 10 couldn't get it to behave), so I've had to reinstall most of my apps manually, which isn't too hard, just frustrating. We are thrilled with our new phones, which are quicker, easier to read & use and have excellent cameras.

Morse was very happy to pose for my first photo!

We've both chatted with old friends this week - thanks to Helen Hanrahan & Sherryn Danaher, who made the calls to Wes & to me. We did enjoy speaking with you & sharing some news. As well, Wes had an excellent Zoom with his Godson, Danny Wells, and a Gilbert & Sullivan flavoured monthly Zoom with his Cousins. At the end they paused to remember Maryanne Phelan and her wonderful stories. There were five of us on my weekly chat with Old Friends and we were thrilled to see Joyce Spiteri again after a couple of weeks' absence. She makes us smile & we did laugh about decluttering or lack of it at everyone's homes. 

Meanwhile, over in India, the Aussies won the toss & elected to bat on a friendly pitch, in front of the Prime Ministers of both countries. Usman Khawaja batted all day to make his first century of this tour & we were very proud of our team's efforts in 33° heat. That night we had fish & chips as our Fish Shop had re-opened after their short break.

On Friday, after a lovely walk around Lake Daylesford, I left Wes doing the floors, while I went to Daylesford Cemetery to plant some rosemary at David & Annie Smith's graveside. Wes sent me a message to say the washing machine was leaking water, which sent me hurrying home to see if I could solve the issue. We took out the filter & discovered it was full of lavender twigs, which must have been in a pair of gardening trousers. We did a short wash with nothing in the machine to check & no more water leaked onto the floor.  

Day 2 of the Test was wonderful with Australia batting almost all day to reach 480. We loved seeing Cameron Green score his first century & Todd Murphy put on a 70-run partnership with Nathan Lyon, which was unexpected. Meanwhile Daylesford & Hepburn Springs are full of very happy people celebrating ChillOut, with both towns decorated with flags & bunting, and shops, cafés & restaurants full. 

A montage of photos from last year's ChillOut Parade

Yesterday after our early walk, we went to Pancho's for Glen's daily chai latte, and then Wes planted a lime & three hydrangeas I had bought the day before. He put them all in the front garden & did a wonderful job of settling them in. I found enough roses to give Glen a new jug of colour for her weekend, before getting stuck into changing passwords & pin numbers, which is my current big project. 

Reality set in with the cricket as the Indian team were 3/289 at stumps with Shubman Gill making an excellent century & Virat Kohli looking likely to do the same. Fingers crossed we can take some wickets today, otherwise the match will be a draw.

Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 5th March 2023

 

Once again, we started our week in fine style with a long walk around Lake Daylesford, followed by a visit to the Sunday Market, where Yvonne had a pear ready for Morse to devour, much to his delight & our relief. Wes had planned to take Morse fishing with him, but it was a cold morning, probably too cold for Morse to go swimming, so they stayed here instead.

We woke on Monday to find the Australian Women's Cricket Team had won their 6th ICC T20 Final, beating South Africa by 19 runs. I watched the replay on Fox Cricket that afternoon & was so proud of this team.

After we walked in drizzling rain around Lake Daylesford early, I did the supermarket shopping at Coles, followed by a visit to Baker's Delight to get a coffee scroll for Wes and an apple scroll for me. This has become a tradition on Monday mornings, and we sit down to School with hot drinks & scrolls for breakfast. I was still recovering from our busy week in mid-February, so Wes sourced a wonderful TV series on the Brontë family instead of something more taxing. 

We are between roses at present, but I managed to find enough to fill a vase for our front entry

We've had another busy week of Zoom chats - Wes spoke with Barbara twice and chaired a long discussion with Overseas Friends about Crime & Punishment in their various countries. He also was part of a Hepburn Matters Zoom to discuss the changing of electoral boundaries in the Hepburn Shire, where we are in favour of no boundaries or wards & would prefer the Shire to be represented by 5 Councillors answerable to all their constituents.

Meanwhile I chatted twice with Leanne; had a most enjoyable reminisce with Jeff about her life in London in the mid-sixties; caught up with Old Friends, where we touched on decluttering, health, appointments & the vagaries of Zoom, and spent time with Glen, our neighbour, who is still confined to quarters with her leg in a moon boot. 

Morse hiding in Wes's armchair

Wes had an appointment in Melbourne on Wednesday with our financial advisor, and took the opportunity to catch up with Gayle Gibson at a favourite haunt, Square & Compass, where they no doubt discussed the 2023 prospects of their respective teams at some stage during their time together. There was no Mah Jong that day, so I took Morse with me to do deliveries of newspapers to Spring Park Nursery, Epicures & The Local to the Massaros, and finally to pump mineral water at Leitches Creek. 

On the spur of the moment on Thursday, we decided to have lunch in the courtyard at Pancho Café, where we enjoyed mushroom congee (me) and roast lamb with hummus on toast, plus glasses of wine. It was lovely sitting outside in the sun, surrounded by other locals enjoying the small, but excellent menu.

We've both really loved the 3rd Test in Indore, where Australia bowled & batted better than before. It was so exciting to have a win again in India after 19 years. Fingers crossed for the 4th & final Test which starts on 9th March. I've particularly enjoyed the cricket even more since reading a wonderful Australian book called "Willowman" by Inga Simpson. The story revolves around a bat-maker & a talented young cricketer and brings out the art & beauty in cricket with classical music as a side dish. Thanks to Kathy & Ged for recommending it to me. 

Yesterday I drove to Ballarat early to collect my anklet, which had been in for repair. I had hoped to get a pair of 4kg dumbbells, but had no luck in either of the shops I tried. Meanwhile Wes weeded & watered the front garden while we wait for much-needed rain to arrive again. 

This morning we are off to visit Leanne and implement Part IV of her garden among other things. We were due to go next Sunday, but it is the Long Weekend & Daylesford will be jumping with the ChillOut Festival, including the Parade, which we really enjoy, so we swapped visiting days, which Leanne was happy to do. 

February 2008 - we went to Abu Dhabi to see Collingwood play in a pre-season game against Adelaide. It was a wonderful experience & I begged the gentleman in the black & white striped gabelayah for a photo and he was very happy to oblige.