Daylesford Summer Dispatch - Sunday, 9th February 2025

 
Isn't that often the case?

When I left you last Sunday, I was still at The Windsor and heading off for breakfast, which was entertaining. There was a large group of Chinese guests and their leader set aside three round tables for them. Most of them ignored these tables and sat together in twos & threes, which meant the maitre d' was nearly going crazy as the hotel was packed. The Windsor provided Chinese language menus for everyone, and most people had enough English to order their coffees. 

Afterwards, I went for a walk to see the preparation for Lunar New Year in Little Bourke Street, before coming back & packing in time for Wes's arrival at 10am. He had brought Morse, who was thrilled to bits to see me and didn't stop wagging his tail and trying to kiss me in his excitement. We had a good run home, but I felt very sorry for Wes, who had been up since 5.30am to fit in the walk with Morse, the visit to the Daylesford Market and the drive to Melbourne and back.

This garden greets walkers as they approach the MCG

It was very hot, so we all took it easy on our return, before I unpacked, put on a load of washing and read the weekend papers. We had tomatoes on toast for dinner, which was a lovely treat.

On Monday, I joined Wes & Morse at the Daylesford Cemetery for the early walk, before heading to Coles Supermarket for the weekly shop. We decided to catch up on each other's news for School, and enjoyed talking while we had our yummy scrolls for breakfast. Then it was time to harvest our Dutch Cream potato crop - not quite the amount we had been hoping for, but we'll do it better next time. Wes worked in the garden until it got too hot, and he had Zoom chats with Barbara in NZ & Paul in the UK later on. In between we had a visit from Nick Massaro with bones for Morse and goodies for us. He was grateful for some small jars that I had been saving for Dene, who didn't need them!

I got back in the swing of things on Tuesday with an early chat with my aunt, Jeff, in Lincolnshire, then caught up with Leanne, who had no water and was waiting for the Water Board to arrive and fix the issue. Then it was time for my visit to Dr Ellie at Springs Medical Centre. She was very pleased with my geographic tongue, which responded well to tablets and is now able to cope with chillis again. We discussed my tiredness, so I am now trying Melatonin to see if that will help. I also booked us both in for our March COVID boosters. Later that day, Wes & Helen Hanrahan enjoyed a chat.

Home made marmalade & chutney from Joan McDonald - both have been opened and are as yummy as they look

The next day Judi & I met to play Mah Jong for only the second time this year. We both tried some different hands and both won enough games to feel pleased with the morning. At midday, Wes joined me for lunch with John Smith, who we had not seen since last December. John had struggled with some health issues, but has made some excellent decisions - the house is off the market, he's invested in a Sadie cleaner, and he has employed a tech-savvy person to clean up his & Dot's phones and their computers. We enjoyed a good chat with him, and I think he enjoyed updating us. 

On Thursday morning, Wes participated in the Jackson Group Zoom where attendees had been invited to choose topics for discussion. After I had stewed our nectarines and apples with ginger & cinnamon, I caught up with Old Friends - Kathy, Karen S, Joyce & Lib - and we ranged over a few different topics ourselves. Then I visited Juls for my regular manicure and chat, which had to be curtailed as I needed to get Sammy back home, so Wes could take Morse to the vet for his annual check up. Morse got a clean bill of health, is .5kg lighter than last February, and had all his injections. 

One of my favourite photos of Morse with his best friend

We had planned a morning in Ballarat on Friday, but when the temperature was heading for 32℃, we decided to stay home and make sure Morse kept cool. We had some chores to do, as well as going to see the Bob Dylan film, A Complete Unknown, and would have been away for 5 hours, which we thought was too long. The chores and film can happen another day. Instead, I chatted on Zoom with Leanne, and did some local chores, while Wes watered everywhere in the back.

We've been watching at least the first two sessions of each day of the 2nd Test in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankans were able to post a good score in their 1st Innings, but Australia easily passed it with the loss of only 3 wickets, and it seems that an Australian victory is the most probably result, although we will have to bat again this afternoon, and don't have a great history of chasing small totals.