A Sunday on “Olga”

Shock Horror!! We actually had ourselves organised to join in on a Historic Car Club run on Sunday.  We haven’t done that for simply ages.

The plan was to meander to the village of Neville for a roast beef lunch at the local pub.  The weather was forecast to be good, we didn’t have anything on and the pub usually does good food. Count us in.

Sunday morning arrived, we were in our usual lazy Sunday morning mood, so would be late to the 10.00am start.  Not to worry, we’d catch them up. The forecast nice sunny day didn’t eventuate, but it wasn’t forecast to rain, so we rugged ourselves up and off we went.

We went to town, got fuel and by then it was 10.10am.  We would have missed everyone so took a back street to the road to Perthville.

It was a lovely ride through the autumn countryside.  This tunnel of elms going into Perthville was just stunning.  It has to be my favourite time of year.

We had a lovely ride through Georges Plain, Wimbledon and Gresham before arriving at Newbridge for the morning tea stop.  We were the first ones there!!!  The rest of the group had been late in getting away!!!

As we had been disorganised we hadn’t made the thermos.  Fortunately, the pub was just opening up and made a mean coffee.  Nothing like a hot drink to warm you up once you hop off the bike.

It wasn’t long before we were joined by a few more.

I could have snuck this little local fellow in the sidecar and taking him home.  He looked so happy, with his tail going a million miles an hour.

We weren’t the only bike on the run.  Norm took his recently restored Matchless for an outing.

While Norm was on the bike, Cath was snug in the little Datsun Fairlady. It is such a jaunty little car.

After we were warmed up we headed on our way again.  While quite a few of the trees were lovely and golden, a lot of the landscape was starting to look decidedly wintery, especially as we were heading into the higher areas of the Central Tablelands.

We travelled through Moorilda, Barry and on to Neville.  I often wonder where they came up with the names of the villages.

Anyway, it wasn’t long before we arrived at our lunch destination and all the cars gathered.  There were about 20 vehicles ranging from a 1928 Ford A Model to a Porsche, Lotus, a couple of Toranas, quite a few English cars, an early Land Cruiser, a Valiant, two Fairladies, a Mustang, a Thunderbird and of course, our two bikes.  Quite a mix, but all are equally welcome.

 

We didn’t have a wander around Neville this time, but it is a lovely little village.  We always love this collection of old implements that line one property’s fence.

I didn’t take a photo of lunch.  I was too busy tucking in.  Yes, it was good, as expected.   There is nothing like country cooks.   It was the perfect day for a roast lunch.

By the time we all had a natter, it was three o’clock and time to head home before it got too cold and started getting dark.

It was a great day out, and we really should try to get out with the Club more often.

Machattie Park in the Autumn

Remember how I spent my lunch break a few weeks ago wandering through Machattie Park and checking out the begonias – OK it was nearly 6 weeks ago!!  Well, at the end of that post I mentioned kicking leaves in the park as a kid. Now is the perfect leaf kicking time.

On Saturday, I had to duck into town and when I saw how lovely the park looked in the sunshine I couldn’t resist calling in.

How beautiful is this.

I couldn’t catch a decent photo of it, but the leaves were gently fluttering to the ground in the slightest breeze.

The best bit, though, was seeing kids and their parents playing in the leaves.  It is such a simple thing and I hope they have fond memories of those times as they grow older, as I do.  I’m not sure who was having the most fun here, the little fellow or his mum.  The both looked so very happy.

Yes, I did kick some leaves around too.  You never grow out of that.

Aaah, I love autumn.

Showtime

We always like to attend the Bathurst Show.  I don’t think there has ever been a year we have missed unless we have been away at the time.

Our show is traditionally the weekend following the end of the Sydney Royal Easter Show.  Orange, the next town west, is the week after.  For  years we had glorious weather and every year Orange had terrible weather.  Eventually, the towns swapped dates.  For years Bathurst had glorious weather and Orange had rain…..so they swapped back.

Well, this year it was our turn to cop it.  We have just had our first taste of winter weather. Friday was cold, but not wet. We were supposed to take “Olga” the old girl down on Saturday to be part of the Historic Car Club display, but as the weather was wet and freezing cold we piked out.  This morning was still cold, but at least it wasn’t raining, so we rugged up and went along for a look see – no, we still didn’t take the bike.

We only stayed for a couple of hours and didn’t even look at a lot of the animals or go down sideshow alley.

Mick did get to have a sit in a highway patrol car at the Police stand and learn what all the doo hickeys in the cars do.  That was the closest he got to going on a ride. 

I thought the little caravan for the chip stall was rather cute.

Doesn’t everyone look cold.  It was……..there has been snow on all the surrounding hills over the weekend.

Of course we had to have a look at the local competition in the pavilion.  The numbers of entries in the cooking section were high, but nearly everything else was very low.  Unfortunately, there were next to no flowers or veges.  Naturally, the harsh summer has contributed to that.  Let’s hope next year is better.

The needlework section seems to shrink every year.  I actually got my act together and put in a couple of entries.  One of my friends and her daughter also put in some entries.  Thank goodness for quilts or there would have been a great deal of black spaces.

My entries were my table runner, which came third.  (The very small one in the centre with the cream background – it was folded in half)

My friend’s daughter made the cute blue quilt next to it.

My friend came first with her lovely green bargello table runner.  It looks really effective.

My other entry was my “Some Kind of Wonderful” quilt, which came second.  I was rather surprised at that, as the only appliqué section was “Quilt - hand appliquéd and hand pieced”.  As mine was neither, it had to go in the section “Quilt – hand or machine pieced, commercially quilted”. 

The winner of the section was beautifully done.

My photos aren’t the best, but I was trying to show a few of the other entries.

I’ll have to work on some more projects so that I have something to enter next year, to fill up those blank spaces.

I was much warmer this afternoon, spending it in the kitchen cooking.  Yesterday I made two batches of soup for the freezer and today I’ve made a lemon cake and casserole.  Cold weather always makes me think of my stomach.

Making Progress

 

Yes, our home is now officially on the market.

We’ve been busy de-cluttering, sprucing up and deep cleaning.  As a result our house is looking beautiful.

Now we just hope that someone else also thinks it’s beautiful and wants to live here.

Meanwhile, it will be the tidiest it has ever been.  Maybe it should be on the market all the time.

Friday Night

What a great way to spend the evening.

Mick is happy watching Australia play New Zealand in the footy and I’m happy stitching away at my hexies.

Win, win.

Ain’t They Purdy!

I washed a little bit of my green glass collection on the weekend.

Ain’t they purdy in the sunshine.

(This is for you Peg, Kris & Chooky.)

A Quick Finish for April

There hasn’t been much time for stitching around here just lately, but I was determined to have some little thing finished for the end of the month….. and I was itching to do some sewing.

I’ve been wanting to make us some more flanny pillow slips.  Do you notice that the pillow slips nearly always wear out before the sheets and there aren’t many flanny ones sold separately.

Well, Spotlight have had a sale and this fabric jumped out at me.  Here it is a bit closer.

Yep.  Vespas.  I couldn’t go past them.

There will be a second pillow case to match, but I haven’t finished it as yet.  It will be finished in the next day or so, when I get back to it, but at least one was finished yesterday.

I created my own pattern taking inspiration from a couple of others I found on line.  There is the popular tube or burrito method of making them.  The only hitch is there is no flap on the back to tuck over the pillow, which I like.  A Spoonful of Sugar had a nice one with good dimensions and a flap,  but the seams needed to be neatened.  I ended up using the tube method for the front, making a separate back with a flap and then using a french seam to make it all neat and tidy.  Still nice and easy.

Just watch out for flannelette that is only 36” wide, instead of the usual 42” , which is what happened with the blue and white spot fabric.  If I had measured twice, and cut the fabric differently I wouldn’t have had to go back to buy some more.   Oh, well, I’ll know next time.

Yes, there will be more.  I have enough Vespa fabric to create the side trim on a pair.  I just have to find a suitable main fabric to go with it.

Anzac Day

Mick and I usually attend the Dawn Service in Bathurst on Anzac Day.

However, this morning we attended the Dawn Gathering in a paddock at O’Connell.  There was quite a sizable number of locals up nice and early.

O’Connell has only been having a gathering for the past few years.  The momentum to start was the efforts of the local community to save the Memorial Avenue of Trees.

They line the main road from Bathurst to Oberon through the village and there was a big push a few years ago to have them removed to widen the road.  Due to the locals’ efforts this did not happen and the trees have been saved.

 

Back to this morning.

We all met around a flagpole.  In true country style, it consists of a long stick with an old electrical insulator on top.  It is fully functional to raise and lower the flag.

Around the flagpole was a semicircle of banners, each with the surname of a local family who had someone serve in WW1.  Like all communities, not all returned.  Many of the names are still familiar in the district.

It was a lovely way to commemorate the significant events of 99 years ago. 

It was also a special day for me, as for the first time I opened the little box that came to me from Dad.

I wore his miniature medals with pride. 

A Visitor

We have been visited by lots of different birds this year.  Whether it is the season or the fact that our garden is becoming leafier, I don’t know.  I do know that I love it and my bird book is getting quite a workout.

On Sunday I heard a different bird call while I was hanging out the washing.  It was a definite whistle.  As usual, I went looking for the source.  I couldn’t see anything in the vineyard behind us, or on the sheds.  Eventually there was a small movement in the wattle tree.  To my surprise the culprit was  grey bird, about the size of a starling, but plumper.  For some reason I had expected a larger bird.  I watched it for a little while, and as it made no attempt to leave the tree went to get my camera.

It was still there when I returned, but hopped from limb to limb, higher and higher, so no photo. 

Then I heard a second bird.  They started to have quite a conversation and it had obviously also landed in the tree, as I could hear it hopping about. 

I crept around to the other side of the tree, expecting another grey bird.  To my surprise it was bright yellow……and sat still long enough for me to take a photo.

I had never seen one of these before and had no idea what it was.

Out came my trusty Simpson and Day.

After a bit of hunting I found them.

A Golden Whistler.

I hope they visit again, as they were rather lovely.

Good Friday Motorcycling

Although we enjoy doing spontaneous things it is good to look forward to a regular event. Good Friday is one of those times.  Each year we join with the Vintage Motorcycle Rally that travels around Bathurst for a week.

This year we took Sophia, the Moto Guzzi for an outing.  That is her on the right of the below photo.  She doesn’t get out very often.  Looking back, I haven’t been on her since late 2012.  It feels strange getting on a solo again……..and I had to struggle to find some bike trousers that still fit…….Oops!

There were over 200 bikes involved in the week, ranging from the very early veterans to the most current.

This year there was a lot of rather tasty examples from the 70s.  Colours really came into their own during that era.

Wherever you look, there were men checking out the finer details of bikes.

Discussions on finishes, what is original, what isn’t. 

Get out of the way when the veterans get going, as they don’t have a clutch and can’t stop.  It is a real art to ride them.

The route on Friday is always the same, travelling to Oberon via the back roads, where we regroup and have morning tea.  The local bakery always has lovely, fresh hot cross buns and good coffee.

After our break, we continued on our way to Tarana for lunch. 

 

As there are so many people, it is rather a slow process to get a meal at the pub, so we opted to take a picnic.  We had quite a group from the Historic Car Club, who were quite settled under a gum tree, soaking up the sun.

A rather lovely way to start the long weekend.