The Start of a New Chapter

Yesterday was my last day in paid employment, and what a busy day it was, being the end of financial year. 

The day was brightened when some flowers arrived at work from some special friends and my colleagues gave me a card with beautiful sentiments and a gorgeous bracelet for a farewell gift.

I had mixed emotions as I left the building for the last time.  It hasn’t sunk in as yet, as we prepare to head off on our big adventure at the end of the week. It just feels like getting ready for a holiday.  When we return from our trip it will start to sink in.

The weather has been wet today, so when Chooky sent an invitation to a Zoom sewing morning I was definitely in.  Of course I forgot to take a photo of us all once again.  I always marvel at the range of topics that are discussed while we work on our projects, or just sit and chat.

I made a bit more progress on my Blue Quilt, finally getting around to fusing the lightweight interfacing to the appliqué background fabrics and then getting a couple of blocks ready to stitch down.

Then I remembered that I have to get my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks completed this week, so pulled out my 1930s fabrics and made a start on them.  

After the session finished, I kept on going and now do have the purple Rainbow Scrap blocks for July completed.

Firstly, my butterflies and nine patches.

Then my bright half square triangles.

I then got stuck in and cut the setting triangles and fabrics for sashings and cornerstones of the churn dash quilt. 

A day of bits and pieces, but progress on a few fronts.

I had to cut short my time in the sewing room, as we were going out to an early dinner with some friends and then to have a wander around the Bathurst Winter Festival.  The weather is disappointing, but it was just very light rain, so we still were able to see some of what was on offer.

Tonight was “Ignite the Night”, the first of two night time events with food stalls and street performers.  We will be away for the second, which will be next Friday night.

This is the seventh year of the festival, having missed 2020.  Our first port of call each time is to the Renzaglia Wines stand to buy a glass of mulled wine.  They are our old next door neighbours from when we lived out of town, so nice to see them.  We only just scraped in to get our glass this year, as they were about to run out.

Then it was just a wander to see the lights and street performers.

The centrepiece of the illuminations is the Court House.

Last year the court house wasn’t illuminated, as it was wrapped in scaffold while undergoing a major restoration.  That was completed just a couple of weeks ago, so it was nice to see it all lit up again this year.  One of the restoration tasks was to completely overhaul the clock, which is now working perfectly once more.

The Festival is such a feel good event, running for the two weeks of the school holidays.  It brings lots of people to town and gets us out and about in the middle of winter.

There are more illuminations, which we hope to get out and see during the coming week.  This year there are also sculptures in the park, so we hope to go and see them in the daylight.

As we went back to the car, we noticed that the old Techical College, that we toured a few weeks ago, has now been lit up at night.  It looked lovely reflected in the wet road.

Tomorrow is also predicted to be wet, but we must start getting organised for our escape at the end of the week.

Another Weekend Away - Part 1

We left the cold Central Tablelands on the Friday afternoon and travelled all of two hours east to warmer weather.  What a difference it makes after all the gloomy weather we have had of late.

This part of the Bells Line of Road was covered in ice when we travelled down in June.

The reason was our usual attendance at the Macquarie Towns Classic Motorcycle Rally at Windsor.

We had a wander up the street on Friday night, and we weren't even really rugged up.  I always enjoy seeing the paddle wheel in the mall.

While on the subject of paddle wheels, this is what we saw when we opened the blinds of our motel room on Saturday morning.  I'd rather like to go on a cruise on it......one day........

OK, the reason we were here was for the bikes.  We didn't bring an oldy down, just Snubby the silver side car.  We were surprised to see that we were the only members of the Historic Car Club to have entered this year.  They don't know what they missed out on.

There were some lovely bikes at the start point.  We do like a nice Moto Guzzi.

Did you notice the blue skies.....oh, and a nice BSA.

It was nice to see this old Honda Four, as it was in original condition, not repainted to better than new. It was in great condition for its age.

Check these out!  I have never seen a little monkey bike registered in Australia before.  I've only seen them in the UK.

70s and 80s bikes are definitely the biggest class these days, unlike when we first started attending rallies, many years ago, when the 50s were always the largest class.  Notice the Isle of Man helmet sitting on the tank.  His jacket matched the bike as well.  Yes, they won a trophy in their class.

Once we got under way, we ended up behind the little monkey bike.

We were surprised at how well it travelled along.

Our morning tea stop was under the bridge at Colo in a nice park.  

I went for a little walk and notice a couple of plaques on the rock wall.  On closer inspection it was a war memorial.  Not what you expect is such a location.

Beside it there was a sizable cave.

Once we were back on the road we headed to the Sackville Ferry, which we seem to cross most years. It is a highlight for those of us that reside west of the mountains.

There was quite a bit of waiting for our turn, but it is all rather social.  Mick enjoyed just sitting back and soaking up the sun.

I enjoyed taking photos.....fancy that!

OK, on our way again. Isn't the river stunning.  Yes, I think we will have to arrange a trip on the paddle wheeler one day.

Lunch time saw us at a local school, where we were fed very well and we then took the time to vote for our choice of bike in each class.  It was rather difficult as they were so well presented.

That is probably enough for one session, but there is more to share, which was somewhat unplanned, for Sunday.  

Catching Up - May - Gold Country Car Rally

Back to catching up on our doings earlier in the year.

The forth weekend of May always heralds the Gold Country Car Rally that the Bathurst Historic Car Club hosts.  After quite a few years of taking a back seat on this one we were a bit more involved this time.

The weather during autumn was absolutely glorious this year, even a bit warmer than usual.........until the weekend of the rally.  This was our 21st rally and we have only had bleak weather once before.  The one and only time, in 2000, we took the rally to Black Springs.......behind Oberon .......... a really cold area in winter.........it snowed!!!  In May!!!  We thought everyone would hate us and never come back again, but we were wrong.  They loved it.  Many had never seen snow falling. Phew!

This year the weather wasn't much better, being cold with scatty showers all day.  We had a regroup at Blayney at about 11am and it was a whole 3 degrees C!

Do you notice anything different about the car above? Yep, this A Model Ford Speedster has no roof!  A father and daughter team travelled in it.  They won the "Hard Luck" trophy for their stamina travelling in the open.

Despite the weather, everyone really enjoyed the route through the scenic countryside.  Occasionally the sun came out bathing the landscape in that glorious after rain light.  Also, the paddocks were just getting a nice tinge of green after the first, late, autumn rains.  You will have to picture this yourself, as, being in the car, I didn't get a chance to take photos along the way, like in the sidecar. (Mick was organising the corner marshalls, so the car it had to be this time.)

This year we had the best lunch time venue, considering the bleak weather.  It was the Neville Siding.  This is a spot sometimes used for sewing retreats.

 

It has accommodation in railway carriages and a great central building with lots of room to sit and most importantly, was nice and toasty and warm.  They fed us hearty home made soup, steak sandwiches and cakes, and plenty for seconds for those with a large appetite. I admit to a second helping of soup, it was so good. The lunch certainly made up for the cold weather outside.

There was a great variety of cars entered.

On the Sunday we host a morning tea for everyone before they head off to their respective homes.

Have you ever seen so much food.  After putting out an appeal to club members to bring along a little more than last year, they certainly excelled themselves.  Most entrants were able to take a plate with them to eat on the way home.

On top of that, we had a cake to celebrate the milestone event.

We had our Club Life Members do the honours of cutting the cake, which was a nice touch.

After everyone had headed on their way the boys came in to do the final cleanup.  Mick is showing that he certainly knows how to handle a vacuum.  Good lad that he is.

It was a really successful rally this year, despite, or maybe because of the weather.  Here's hoping there are many more to come.

Catching Up - May - Soar, Ride and Shine

Okay.  It's time to get back to catching up on the last few months.  

If you think our  April was busy, May was just as bad if not worse.

A major event was hosted by the local Lifeline branch to raise some much needed funds.  This was no cake stall, or even a book fair, of which they hold two very successful ones each year.  No,  how about something a bit more spectacular - like an air show, car and motorcycle show and retro pin-up fashion competition.  

Soar, Ride and Shine was born.  

There has not been an air show in Bathurst since 1964.

We were a little bit involved with Olga the old girl going on display and with other members of the Historic Car Club, we gave a bit of a hand with the set up on the day.  

The weather was great on the day.  On the previous day there had been a really thick fog.  If that had been on the day of the air show, many of the planes would not have been able to land at the airport. The organisers were very fortunate indeed.

Let's start by checking out the bikes. There was a nice selection.

Followed by a few of the cars.  

Vehicles travelled from all over the place to attend.  

There were the pristine ones ....

.... as well as those that weren't.

Hotrods.

Even a cute caravan.

What about this one, owned by a local fellow.

There were even some other bikes and an almost flying machine.

The car and bike show was really well attended.  It took ages to walk around and see them all.

Time to look at the market stalls.

Enough of these, let's check out the airshow.

One of the big draw cards was the C-27J Spartan.  Now that is one big plane.

After queueing for a while we entered the main cargo, or passenger area.

And Mick, like the  big kid he is, was able to check out the cockpit, which was just all dials and buttons to me.

Back outside the stunt planes were in action.

There is a bit of a contrast in size here.  The little jets actually flew on the day.

The majority of the air show was put on by Paul Bennett Airshows.  They had a great array of planes, did amazing stunts and gave a great commentary while it was all going on.  This is "Miss Kitty".  I don't know what she is.

Mustang

This DC 3 was headed to Hong Kong the next day.

Now for some stunts

What about some water bombing?

The local REX plane gave joy flights all day.  They were $50 and went for half an hour.  Great value for those lucky enough to get a ticket.

The Avenger from WWII is rather neat in the way it folds its wings up, and it all happens so quickly.

This was one very pretty plane.  It is a Beech Staggerwing and dates back to 1938.  Who'd a thought.

The Navy chopper was another big draw card.

So, what about the pin-up competition?

After some of the event organisers attended "Goodwood Revival" in the UK last year they decided to have a bit of a retro fashion theme.  Some ladies, gents and tiny tots really rose to the occasion.

Don't you love the presentation stage and the props.

A great line up of entrants.

And the winner .....in an original 50s outfit she purchased in the US.

What a fantastic day it was.  There were huge crowds that attended and it was all so well organised, considering this was their first go at something like this.

There will be another Soar, Ride and Shine next year, going over two days, and then the plan is to hold it every second year.  Let's hope it takes off (pardon the pun) as an ongoing event.  We really enjoyed it.