A Day Out With Rosie

For the first time in I don’t know how long, on Sunday Mick and I both had nothing planned for the day.  It seems that life has turned rather busy for both of us this year.  So, what would we do?

First up, it was a leisurely breakfast, using some of our home grown raspberries, which have finally started to bear fruit again.

Mick was thinking of taking Rosie, the Suzuki Sierra for a short run.  I suggested we could go for a drive in her for a pub lunch in a little village.  Win, win.

We had received 16mm of much needed rain the previous day and the weather was still rather grey, but that wasn’t going to stop us.  This would be the longest drive that Rosie had been on since Mick has owned her.  Previously, he had just been taking her out to a mate’s place about 20kms away to drive around his steep paddocks and motocross track.

She is rather cosy in the cab compared to our modern vehicles and she is also rather slow, but we don’t mind that, as we are used to travelling around in the vintage side car at a slow pace.  We planned to travel on some quiet country roads rather than highways and of course found some lovely little dirt roads.

Although it was Sunday, this farmer was still busy with his stock.  That shed would have been an army hut at Cowra back in WW2.  You see them dotted around the place.  The shed in our back yard when I was a kid was one as well.

Out this way there are ruins of a few stone buildings.   This was a nice photo opportunity for Rosie.

Our lunch time destination was the Neville Pub.  Neville is a village out the back of Blayney, next to the village of Barry.  I always wonder how they got their names.  Anyway, the pub was always a good one, but shut down for a few years.  A couple of years ago it went on the market and two young builders from Sydney who were working in the area decided on a whim to buy it, with no previous experience of running a pub.  They made some improvements and it has been open for about eighteen months and is doing well.  We had a delicious burger and had a nice chat to a fellow who turned up on his motorcycle and also owns a little Suzuki 4WD, so the boys had lots in common.

Obviously, I forgot to take a photo of the pub or lunch. Doh!

The other half hearted plan for the day was to see if we could pick some wild apples, as there are quite a few apple trees growing along the sides of these minor roads.  Most trees had already been picked, but there were a couple that looked to have quite a few on them.  It became apparent why, as upon closer inspection, the fruit was very diseased.  However, one did have a blackberry growing next to it with lovely plump berries.  We didn’t have a container to collect any, so just enjoyed a few while there.

We took a different route on the way home, travelling along the “Old Lachlan Road”.  

We have travelled this very minor road some years ago and thought it was about time to drive it again and it would be a good one to take Rosie down.  It was rather rough in places, but thanks to the previous day’s rain, wasn’t dusty.

You know you are on a minor road when there is grass growing up the centre.

We didn’t meet one single vehicle along its entire length, but did encounter a traffic jam of a different type.  We are guessing it was an organised trail ride, as they were all kitted out in a similar fashion.

We do enjoy seeing the local countryside.

Overall, we travelled about 130kms.  Rosie seems to be happy sitting on around 70 kph on the road, so a rather leisurely way to travel.  We have learnt that she is running quite rich, as she used quite a bit more fuel than she should, and was a bit smelly, so Mick has now adjusted the carby.  Initially, she was a also a bit how’s your uncle on the road, so we pulled over and he put some more air in the tyres, which made for a better ride on the bitumen, but a bit rougher on the rough roads.  It’s all about reaching that happy balance.  On the whole, she went well and we hope to have more little day trips like this with her in the future.

Rosie Goes Blackberrying

Remember that Mick bought a little Suzuki Sierra about eighteen months ago and named her Rosie?   Well, he had been having a lot of fun getting her up to scratch, but she hasn’t travelled very far as yet.  One of our good mates has a property out of town with a section that can only be described as “goat country”.  It has been the perfect testing ground for Rosie.  

Mick has been out several times, but I went out last week for the first time.  You see, four wheel driving is not really my thing.  However, as there was the prospect of picking blackberries, I went along.

The spot where we picked was rather pretty, beside a small dam.  It is surprisingly green for this time of year.  Once it cools down a bit Mick and my brother hope to go camping here.

We were probably a couple of weeks early to get a good harvest of blackberries, but we were able to fill a small ice cream container.  Just enough to eat some and freeze some for later pancake breakfasts.  Yum.

Other Happenings in September

I’ve been rather remiss during September in relation to blog posts, so a big catch up here.  Firstly, I’ll share how I went with my goals.

READ A BOOK

Yes, I read “Cutters End” by Margaret Hickey.  It was one I found at an op shop or book fair or something and I really enjoyed it, as did Mick.  It is the first in a series featuring Detective Sergeant Mark Arita, with another three released since.  I will be on the lookout for them.

TRY A NEW RECIPE

Don’t laugh, but this was to make some chicken and bacon sausage rolls.  A very simple recipe that most people make with their kids, but something I’ve never done.  They received a tick of approval from Mick.  No photo, as they were either eaten straight away or put in the freezer for later.

I also made a small batch of strawberry jam.  

This came about as a result of our second fridge in the garage dying.  There were still some strawberries from last year in the freezer that hadn’t completely thawed so I made jam rather than throwing them out.  Fortunately, there wasn’t all that much in the freezer and the fridge is mainly used for drinks.  Now we have a nice, new, more efficient fridge out there that should last for many years.  The one we had was Mum’s old fridge, so would probably be about twenty years old.

HAVE A FUN DAY OUT

Fancy morning and afternoon teas seem to be the flavour of the month lately.  This time it was a morning tea to raise funds for the Radiation Bus.  Radiation treatment for cancer is not performed in Bathurst, with patients having to travel to Orange, about an hour away.  This bus runs each week day for minimal cost to the patients and creates an informal support group on the way.  It is run by the local Community Transport and receives no government funding.  The morning raised $5,000, which was an impressive effort.  The organiser is one of my neighbours, and many of us were requested to bring along a plate of food.  There was such an incredible spread and at the end of the event there were plates of slices and biscuits for sale, so Mick was able to have a few treats as well.  I even had my photo in the local paper.

Our other fun day out was to attend the NSW Quilters Show at Rosehill in Sydney.  That will have its own separate post.

Mick had a fun day out with my brother, who is a member of the local 4WD club.  The club went on an outing to check out a newly opened suspension bridge over the Cox’s River on the Six Foot Track, which is a walking track through the Blue Mountains.  They were blessed with a beautiful day weather wise.

The photos he shared showed an absolutely beautiful spot. Once he gets Rosie all sorted we may have to go for a drive and picnic so I can see it too.

WRITE UP BLOG POSTS ON OUR ISLE OF MAN TRIP

That still doesn’t seem to be happening.  I will get there.

What else have we been up to?

When we went to the Bathurst Swap Meet in late August Mick bought two signs.

The first one appears to be a very well home made, Suzuki sign.  It was just silver metal.  

He masked it up and painted the background the same colour as Rosie, his Suzuki Sierra.  It now hangs on the shed.

The second was a pair of signs off a vintage Franklin caravan.  They were even a nice chippy orange colour.

With a bit of chopping, masking and painting, he now has a name badge on Frank the Fuso truck.  It doesn’t take much to keep him happy.

Now that it is spring it was time to switch up my little shelf in the kitchen.  Sometimes the items remain pretty much the same each season, but it was fun to “shop” our display cabinets to find some different spring like items.

AND NOW FOR THE WEATHER……..

Early spring is notorious for being changeable and this year has been no different.  Firstly, our spring weather arrived about a month earlier than usual.

Warm mornings usually herald us having breakfast on the back verandah.

Plants budded up early and everything was looking lovely.

THEN…..

We had what they called a “Polar Blast” with the biggest frosts we have had all year.  I really felt for the orchardists, vignerons and wheat and canola farmers. There have been some big losses to some of their crops.

Our biggest casualty was the wisteria.  While other bloggers were sharing their wisteria in full bloom, ours was still budding up.  Then, frost hit and this is how our flowers look.  All over town it is the same. So sad, as it would have put on a good show this year. Compare it to this time last year.  The azalea and hydrangeas were also victims.  

Fortunately, the crab apple seems to have been unaffected.

Our iris and renunculas are adding a pop of colour at the moment.

Thankfully, we hadn’t got too far ahead of ourselves with vegetable planting.  We had some self sown tomatoes coming up in the garden, so covered them when the frost was forecast.  They are now in pots being taken in and out each day.  We have planted some cherry tomatoes in pots and they are in the little potting shed at the moment, also being taken in and out.

We are trying an experiment this year, growing some potatoes in a stack of tyres.  They are just starting to poke their heads out, so we will be gradually adding more soil and tyres as they grow.

Hopefully, the worst of the frosts are over and we will start to plant our veges in the next couple of weeks.

And that about sums up the month of September.

Meet Frank

 No, we haven’t added another cat to our family.  “Frank” is our new Fuso Canter truck.

It had come to the time to update Mick’s vehicle and we decided to replace his Mazda BT50 ute with a small truck.  

The reason behind this is that there is currently a crack down on overweight caravan/tow vehicle combinations on the roads.  The powers that be are setting up random mobile weigh bridges and many vans are coming in over weight.

When we were in Darwin a couple of years ago Mick got talking to a fellow who was weighing vans as a business.  Of those he had tested, 100% had failed.  The problem goes right back to the sales people selling the vans and the tow vehicles.  Our van was sold as “Prado suitable”.  Yes, if the van was totally empty, had no water or food and the vehicle was also empty it might comply, but under realistic conditions, no way.

We knew we were overweight.  Mick had added extra suspension under the back years ago, for carrying around all his work tools.  However, that would now need to be certified and they won’t certify anything over a couple of years old.  The main thing is that if you are in an accident and your vehicle/van is deemed to be overweight the insurance company will not cover you.

Therefore, we decided to update to a very small truck that will mean that we have no ongoing weight issues.

We had the tray of “Frank” made as small as possible and  as a result, he is actually shorter than the Mazda. He has automatic transmission and can be driven with a normal car licence.  There are all the mod cons in the cab, but not quite as many creature comforts, but we can live with that.  As to cost, he was surprisingly less expensive than a Ford Ranger or Mazda BT50.

We picked him up in Orange on Friday, in the rain.

By dinner time that day, Mick had installed the canopy, which was previously on the Mazda, onto the tray.  On Saturday, he installed the additional storage box onto the tray.  He built this unit to match the canopy while waiting for the delivery of the truck.  It slotted in beautifully.

Then it was time to get the towbar and Rock Tamers on the back, ready to tow the caravan.

We took the set up down to the local shopping centre car park to make sure everything was nice and level, which it was.  Phew!

I thought our little “Rosie” Sierra would look tiny next to her big brother “Frank”, but surprisingly no.  

It just goes to show how small he is.  Mind you, the cab space is much roomier in the truck.

The maiden voyage with the van will be tomorrow, as we head up to Baradine for Scrub Stitchin’.  As we haven’t been anywhere with the van since November, and not been on holidays since September, we are really looking forward to getting away again.

There are a few things that Mick still has to set up on “Frank”, but they can wait till we return home.  He has done extremely well to get so much done in just a few days.  He’s a handy fellow to have around.

What Have We Been Up To?

It has actually been a rather quiet time around here, which we are both enjoying immensely.  The weather has been lovely.  We had a couple of days with some rain, receiving about 30mm over a few days.  Not flooding like some places, so just nice for the garden.  The temperature has been reaching the mid to high 20s C.  That is about to change over the next few days, with it supposed to be reaching the mid to high 30s C.  Not so nice.

In the sewing room I have continued to work on the Just 2 Charm Packs Quilt Along, having completed the next 10 blocks.  That means all the blocks are now made.  They aren’t due yet, but there is nothing better than being ahead, rather than behind the eight ball.  I won’t work on this any more this month and will hopefully have the quilt finished in February.

A few more crochet squares have been worked on while watching the cricket.  This is where I am up to now.  I don’t know how big I will make it, but they are a great project to pick up when you just need to make that 15 minutes.

I haven’t worked on my Blue Quilt for a few months and I really want to get this one to the finish line.  The next border consists of the appliqué blocks, which I have already completed, and a lot of checkerboard blocks.  The pattern just says to join width of fabric strips and cross cut.  That would be easy, but I have lots of smaller pieces of fabric I wish to use and which will also make the end result scrappier.  Obviously, this takes more time and is somewhat fiddlier.

I’m making progress, and a great big mess.  Hopefully, they will be finished this month.  If not, at least I will have made some good progress.  The next border that needs a bit of work will be the half dresden plates, which will all need to be appliquéd down.  I really want to get started on that, as it is something that I can take to my stitching mornings. 

I have continued to work on my What Sweet Delight stitchery at my patchwork group mornings and am very confident that it will be completed this month.

And I can report that I have worked on something for at least 15 minutes every day in January……and am having a lovely time doing it.

In other happenings. Mick has continued to work on the fit out of Rosie, the Suzuki Sierra. He has fitted a solar panel, deep cell battery and hooked up a 12v fridge. It is looking good.  We took it for a short drive last weekend and it went well.  There are no creature comforts and the air conditioning is via winding down the window.

I haven’t done a garden update for ages, so will try to do a separate post soon.  In the mean time, here is yesterday's harvest.  We are getting that many beans every day, so loads are being frozen and some given away to neighbours.  We are also getting one, if not two zucchinis each day, so they are being given away too, as well as making zucchini slice for the freezer.  Our tomatoes are not doing well at all this year.  We think it may have something to do with the sudden extreme heat in early December.  Lots of people are having the same issues.  There are a few self sown plants coming up in garden beds, some of which have come up in compost that has been put on the garden.  We are leaving them in place, hoping that they will provide some fruit.  Funnily enough, the healthiest one is in the flower garden by the front door.  This is the first cob of corn we have picked.  We haven’t grown corn since moving here, as we haven’t had the room.  Now that Mick has extended the vege garden, we can plant more variety.  The egg plants are just starting to have fruit large enough to pick.  We will probably have more than we can use of these too.

Last night we had a lovely dinner of homemade chicken rissoles, accompanied by all our own veges and our homemade tomato relish.  It was very good and that cob of corn was just perfect.  We just cook sliced egg plant on the barbie or in a frypan and it is so lovely and creamy.

A common sight at this time of year has always been the Christmas beetle.  However, in recent years they seem to have disappeared.  We heard on the radio that there is now a program where you advise of sightings, so researchers can work out where they are and where they have disappeared from.  Mick found a beetle yesterday and we thought it was a Christmas beetle, as it was the same size.  However, the dark stripe on its back didn’t look right.  After a little Google search, it turns out that it wasn’t a Christmas beetle, rather it is actually a Cowboy Beetle.  We’d never heard of them.  They are an Australian native and live on nectar, so not a pest species.

On Monday I had a day out at Orange, travelling up with my friend.  She is picking and selling beautiful organic blueberries.  We had a lovely time.

Of course, we are enjoying them for our breakfasts.

To finish off, we went on a walk after dinner a couple of days ago and enjoyed this sunset.