December 11th, 2023Just sayin’…

By Donna Kelly

I thought Heather Mutimer’s story on Madame Xenia Borovansky, the niece of the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, and who moved to Daylesford, was fascinating. It’s on page 13 (this edition of TL if you want a read).

You never know who has been/is here, in this region. I often wonder about the former life of the Glenlyon Primary School. I used to be able to imagine the kids running around outside, sitting in two classes by the two blackboards, things slowly changing all the way to gaining pen licences.

Now, of course, it’s more of a house, and it takes some imagination to think about kids in the kitchen and living area – but their footprints are still there. Some would be long gone, others still living in the region with their schoolday memories.

Hopefully they were halcyon days, and not too terrible with a mean teacher wielding a strap. And if they were I hope they went on to bigger and brighter things.

It’s not all about schooling, as we all know. I know lots of people who wish they had been encouraged to take up a trade rather than stay at school for that piece of paper.

Although, by the age I am now, which I need not divulge, many are keen to get off the tools with sore knees and backs and joints that need little groans to get moving in the morning. Still better than the alternative.

I also really liked Eve Lamb’s story on The Daylesford Foundation. This is a fantastic group of people who just get in there and get things done. They don’t ask for publicity, they don’t ask for recognition. The only reason we managed to finally get a story on them is because they want more young people to know about their scholarships.

So if you know someone who needs a hand, a young person who could do with a leg up, then get in touch with them. They are good people and they know how to make a difference.

I also loved chatting to signwriter Robbie Holbery for the story on page 5. We talked for about 40 minutes about this and that. Yes, he’s a great signwriter but was also with the Carlton Football Club, had the Hawthorn Football Club asking for him to recreate a shop window for its museum and was a regular runner in the Stawell Gift.

He keeps to beautiful copperplate and does everything by hand. Doesn’t even use anything to steady his hands as he works on the glass windows of shops from Melbourne to Daylesford and anywhere in between.

And he takes the time to chat to passers-by, loves a compliment and is very complimentary about everyone he meets. In that 40 minutes he never had a negative word to say about anyone or anything.

And who but a wonderful person would spend Covid, not cleaning out their pantry, or lamenting the state of the world, but writing wonderful copperplate letters of hope to complete strangers from old phone directories and posting them off without a return address? What a great guy.

Finally, I received some very nice notes about the last edition of The Local. It was a tough one to write, with the accident still very much vivid in everyone’s minds, and from what people said, we did well. We wrote with compassion and sincerity and love. And that’s what we try to do each edition. Well, less of the love perhaps, but certainly the sincerity.

We really do try to “Connect the Community” and I think we did that in the last edition. I hope you are getting ready for the silly season. Sometimes we need a bit of silliness. Just sayin’…