Talbot

The weather was very much improved over the weekend. Jim and I were still at Hill House on Saturday morning, until Ian reappeared in the afternoon.  Lindsey was working and came back later still but by that time we were back at our place.  Hugo was delighted to see the return of the sun - he loves lying outside on his mattress when the sun is out, and there hasn't been much lying outside weather recently.  Rupert is not really a lying outside kind of dog.  That's what he thinks the couch inside is for. But he too enjoyed being able to potter around outside without getting drenched, frozen or blown away.

Sunday was glorious.  A really lovely winter's day. It was also the day the Talbot market was on.  So we went.  All four of us.  Ian hasn't been before and I think he was a bit curious.  He was definitely impressed when we got there.  It was a good market day.  Nice and bustling.  Lots of interesting things to look at and buy.  Jim and I went home with a basket full of veggies, a big bag of potatoes, a jar of passionfruit curd, cakes, biscuits, lots of other yummy things, a  Christmas present and a very light wallet.

Then we went to Bread and Circus  in Clunes for lunch.  There are other places to eat in Clunes, which is just as well.  Bread and Circus is on the market.  We like eating there.  They have an excellent lunch menu.  We are hoping that the new people will continue running it as a nice little luncheon venue.  Otherwise we'll have to try one of the other places.

Storms

The weather in Mount Helen has been very stormy over the last few days.

We've had strong winds, heavy rain, sleet, a little snow, mist, drizzle, fog. You name it and we've had it - apart from sunshine which has been in very short supply.

We had things blown down at Hill House.  The garden bench blew over and squashed a garden fence (not a paddock fence, thank goodness).  The roads were covered in twigs and branches and sticks and leaves.  There were trees down in the University.  I think the SES had been quite busy on the roads.

It has also been cold.

We were at Lindsey and Ian's place last weekend and Rupert and Hugo were Not At All Pleased by the weather.  They would ask to go out to play, put their noses out the door, look at us in disgust and come back inside.  If they absolutely HAD to go outside, they rushed out, did their business as fast as possible and dashed back in.

They got a bit bored, I think.  There's only so much lying about on blanketed couches near the heater that a Great Dane can do ( though they can do quite a bit of that :-D )  Rupert took to "growling" at Hugo and chewing his ears.  It wasn't proper growling.  It was more like the poking and prodding and niggling that bored children do on long car trips.  Even so, Hugo got a bit fed up of it.

We did our best to keep them entertained (thank goodness for a very long hallway that you can throw balls down).  But it has to be said that it was a considerable relief to wake up yesterday morning and find that the storms had gone away and the sun had come out and we could all go out to play.

The weather wasn't as stormy in Melbourne but Summerhill had a little storm all of its own.  I was in Lindsey's kitchen on Monday morning when my phone rang with a number I didn't recognise.  I answered it with a cheery "Hello, Frances here" and got a very bewildered "Oh.  Is that the Reservoir Surgery?"  No.  No it isn't.  Odd

Then my phone went completely ballistic.  Now you may remember that some time ago the phone lines went down at the surgery and for a little time calls were diverted to my phone.  I had understood that the diversion had been turned off.  But clearly not.  Equally clearly, there was a problem with the phones at the surgery.

I sent Lindsey a message (and turned my phone off - there wasn't much I could do to be helpful to patients while I was in Lindsey's kitchen!).  It turned out there was indeed a problem.  And not just with the surgery.  Someone had cut a Telstra transmission cable and cut off telephony and internet access to anyone at the Summerhill shopping centre who had services through Telstra.  We had no phones, no fax, no internet, no email.  Some shops also had no card machines for processing payments.  Fortunately the surgery's medical software was unaffected.  And the phone diversion was moved from my phone to someone else's.

They said it would take about a week to get the cable fixed.  A week?????????  That seems like a long time to fix a cable.

On Wednesday afternoon the actual phone rang (not the mobile). We all looked at it in some confusion.  Then someone answered it.  It seemed we had phone lines again.  Then the fax machine whirred into action. And the internet came back.  It took a little longer for everything to be restored at the pharmacy.  And now the shopping centre is more or less back to normal.  So not a week. Just two days.  I wonder if they over estimated the repair time so we would be pleased when things came back more quickly.

Right. I'd better go.  I should be on the road to Melbourne and I'm not.

Mount Martha

We were at Mount Martha at the weekend.  It wasn't our weekend but we swapped with Wendy. Lindsey and Ian are away this week and we will be staying with Rupert and Hugo for "our" weekend.

So we went to the Bridge Mall market on Saturday morning, nice and early.  We went to Rivers to look at their end of season sale.  Very excitingly, a Peter Alexander pyjama shop has opened in the same shopping centre as Rivers. We might have gone there as well.  I *might* have bought a pair of cat pyjamas!

Then Jim and I went down to Mount Martha, where we had a pleasant evening with Stella eating steak and chips and chatting.

The Mount Martha Great Dane meet was on Sunday so Lindsey loaded Rupert and Hugo into the car and drove down.  While she was doing that I put a small pork shoulder into a low oven and got a Sunday Roast organised.  Then Jim and I (but not Stella; it was a bit cold for her) went and met Lindsey and the boys ay Citation Reserve.  And a good time was had by all:

There were other dogs as well as Great Danes. Dogs that are usually among the bigger of the dogs in the park, like golden retrievers, labradors and kelpies, who were surprised to find themselves counted as small-ish dogs :-D  There weren't any really small dogs. This was fortunate.  A very small dog might get squashed accidentally by rampaging Danes.  A six month old Newfoundland came just as we were about to leave.  He was lovely.  An enormous bundle of fluff .

Back to Stella's place, to finish getting the Sunday Roast ready

We had our roast pork with roasted potatoes, beetroot, parsnip, carrot, fennel and apple with green beans on the side. Very yum!

And then Lindsey, Rupert and Hugo went home.  And after a bit, so did Jim and I.

As I mentioned, Lindsey and Ian are away this week.  This meant that I was in the flat on my own last night.  This is most unusual.  I am almost never alone overnight. I didn't do anything with this opportunity, though.  No wandering up Smith Street, or tramming into town, or heading into Carlton. No. I just sat in the flat and watched TV!

Sunday Lunch - on a Thursday

I was telling Lindsey and Ian about the booze bus in Newlyn last Sunday and mentioned that I thought it was on the wrong side of the road because it was not getting the lunch traffic from Daylesford and from the Swiss Mountain Hotel.

Lindsey said that they had never been in the Swiss Mountain Hotel.  I said that we had enjoyed the food there when we had been and we should all go for lunch one Sunday.  How about Thursday, asked Lindsey.

Thursday?  Yes, she said.  Very unusually, she had no plans for Thursday.  Neither did Jim or I.  Ian did, but he shuffled them around. And on Thursday he drove to Blampied from Melbourne and Lindsey, Jim and I went from Mount Helen.

It's school holidays this week in Victoria so the hotel was busier than I had thought it might be on a winter Thursday. On the other hand, there were also a number of older people there as well as the families with children.  And the food was as delicious as we remembered

Jim's chicken parmigiana.
I'm not sure he has enough chips 😂

My very delicious steak sandwich.
I definitely have enough chips!

We will go again.  On a Sunday.  We will book well in advance.  And have a designated Dry Driver - in case there should be a booze bus on the Ballarat side of the road!!

I went to see the hand therapist at St Vincent's hospital yesterday.  She has made me a new overnight splint and given me some exercises to do.  When I came out, ready to catch a tram back to work, there were police bikes sat on the road, lights flashing.  This was unexpected! Then I noticed police officers pottering about on foot.  And then I saw the huge crowd of people in the Exhibition Gardens.  I had arrived at the tram stop just as the NAIDOC rally was about to make its way into the city centre.

Clearly there were not going to be any trams in the foreseeable future, so I sat on one of the seats at the tram stop in the sunshine and watched as the host of people walked past us, waving flags, banging boomerangs or sticks, dancing, singing and shouting.  Some of the children had balloons instead of flags and bounced along with their grown ups. 

Rally walking downwards the city

Then the trams came back and I made my way out to Reservoir.

The overnight splint has already made a noticeable difference to my hand even after only one night. I am to go back in three weeks. I must make sure I wear it each night and that I do my exercises.

Good morning from Mount Helen

Sunday

It is just as well that the Lunch Bunch usually meets on Sundays and not Saturdays.  You possibly wouldn't have wanted to drive from Macedon, or Geelong, or even Ballarat to Daylesford on Saturday.  Sunday was an entirely different story.  The wind had dropped, the rain had ambled off, the sun even made an attempt to say Good Morning.

Gilly's cottage was lovely and cosy.  The wood fire was burning. The table was set. There was wine. There was lots of food

Table set and waiting for visitors

Very excitingly, Flora was on the guest list

It was a lovely afternoon.  We had cauliflower soup and braised lamb shanks with delicious local carrots. We had cheese and fruit.  We had much chatter and merriment.

There was a booze bus in Newlyn on the way home, on the outbound side from Ballarat.  They had a ute pulled to the side, but that might have been a trailer issue rather than a booze or drug issue.  I'd have thought they would do more business if they had been on the inbound side, picking up Ballarat residents returning from lunch in Daylesford or the Swiss Mountain Hotel in Blampied.  They wouldn't have got much joy from Jim, it is true. He had volunteered to drive home and had only had one small glass of wine with his lamb shanks. But I'm sure they know what they are doing and they did stop every car that went by.

So a lovely Sunday.  No need for dinner. We had toast and marmalade for tea. And Jim finally got his wine.