Last Wednesday I hosted author, Caroline Petit who wrote the book, The Natural History of Love to our golf club.

I started and run the Birdies, Bogies and Books Club at our golf club and every month we have a book to read and discuss.

Sometimes I source the books from a local library who provide multiple copies for our members to borrow, alternatively, they source their own books.

I planned this particular event for February this year given that we have the Edward Fonceca Trophy, a competition played during this month and that it is also, the month of ‘love’. Both are directly aligned to the themes and subject of the book that follows the story of Carolina Fonceca, who was the mistress to the Count de Castlenau.

The Foncecas used to live in the Mayfields Estate in Mordialloc near the golf course so it was an opportunity to invite our members to learn more about the history of the people and their home.

Before the event, we conducted a history tour of the club house and grounds by taking the golf buggies and going for a drive to see how different the ‘estate’ looked. As a golf course, the old garden which used to be exotic for its time as the Count was a naturalist and collector of plants is now long gone.

It makes you appreciate how history has its time and place and time changes the locations and their stories may die out.

I was helped by a few members of the club who helped out with the history tour as well as dressing the front table to create the ambience with candles and the candelabra; and the beautiful flowers that were displayed as bouquets. They were creative and created the serene setting in which to ask Caroline about her book and the story of the Fonceca family.

If you’re interested to learn more about the book, I did a review of it some years back. Enjoy the strange coincidences on the golf course!

Photos: Big thanks to JR