Bathurst 200 Illuminate

After seeing a tantalising taste of the illuminated buildings while we were at the Street Party we ventured down town on the Wednesday night to have a better look.  It was quite frosty, so we were well rugged up.

This time everything was up and running. Let’s take a walk.

The Courthouse.

 

The Boer War Memorial

Ribbon Gang Lane.  We learnt later that this was a silent disco, so we missed half the fun.  Next time we will be more aware.

 

The old Tafe Building.

Pedrotta’s Lane.

The Carillon.

In the background, while we were wandering around we were entertained by the Anglican Cathedral bellringers practising.  It added an extra dimension to the evening.  The belltower is glass fronted, so we were able to watch them for a little while. 

It was great wandering around at our leisure with no crowds.  We are looking forward to the next Illuminate in July and there will be a third in October.  Bring it on.

Bathurst 200 Street Party

I’m finally doing a bit of a catch up of what we have been up to over the last couple of months. 

Remember back at the beginning of May Bathurst celebrated her 200th birthday.  Well, on the evening of the same day as the Colonial Fair there was a big street party……..they think it was probably the biggest one Bathurst has ever seen.

We got down there at about 5pm, so the crowds weren’t too bad.  The weather was ideal – cool enough to rug up, but not too cold.  We were able to get some food and wine from the showcasing of the local products.  This section went down really well, but as no one expected anywhere near the number of people to turn up, all the stalls sold out in record time.

A the evening closed in the landmark Carillon was illuminated a soft pink.

We were entertained by some great local musicians.

A highlight of the night was the lantern parade.  This was the culmination of many workshops over the previous months by adults and children alike.  Apparently there were 350 lanterns.  It really was a great spectacle.

The main drawcard, though, was “Illuminate”.  This was Bathurst’s version of Vivid, with several buildings around the city centre being lit up.  Unfortunately, the majority of the lights on the Court House failed to work at the street party.  This would have been devastating for the organisers and caused some negative comments around town.

However, the part that did work looked great.  The light show was on for the following week, so there was still ample opportunity for everyone to go and have a better look, with less people around.

No matter about the glitch at the end, we had a fantastic night.  There was lots to see and, as with all these events, you run into heaps of people you know and have a chat.  It was a great way to finish off the birthday party.

More lanterns.

There will be another street party and more illuminations of our buildings in July.  As the mayor said, Bathurst is cold in winter, so let’s celebrate it.  In July there will be an ice skating rink in Kings Parade as well as more illuminations with a different theme.  We can’t wait.

Winter Solstice Ride 2015

Today was the shortest day of the year, so that can only mean one thing.  It is time to rally the troops and go for our annual Winter Solstice Ride.  This has been a tradition of quite a few years now.  Here are a few previous rides. 2014, 2013 and 2012.

We decided to take “Snubby” the silver sidecar for this run as she hasn’t been out since we moved to town before Christmas.  Mick had to give her a bit of a dusting down, recharge the battery and put a serious amount of air in the tyres yesterday or we wouldn’t have been going anywhere.

I think our weather this year was the best we have had for our winter ride.  It was frosty this morning, but quickly cleared into a gorgeous blue day.  Yesterday we had a pea souper fog for most of the morning, so we were rather relieved we didn’t get a repeat performance today.

As usual this was a “Mick’s Mystery Tour”.  We knew in the back of our minds we would have to get ourselves organised, but only worked out our route last night.  We did a ring around through the week and had lots of responses to the effect that “It sounds good, we’ll see how we go.  If we are there on time, great, if not don’t wait”.

To our amazement, we ended up with eleven bikes and fourteen people.  By far our biggest roll up yet.  Quite a few haven’t been on one of our rides before and we hope there will be more in the future.

Our route took us via the back roads to Mandurama, then across to Canowindra by a road we haven’t ventured on before for morning tea.

Most of us just packed a thermos and bickies.

Next we travelled through Cudal and back to Mandurama.  Next we travelled by another new road to us across to Molong for lunch.

We had a great counter meal at the Freemasons Hotel, which only reopened a few months ago after being closed for several years. It was even warm enough to sit outside in the beer garden.  No photos, as we were too busy eating and talking.

One final picture of all the group (except me – I forgot to pack the tripod) before we headed back home to the cold high country.

We had a terrific ride.  We travelled 320 kms for the day.  The weather was ideal, the roads nice and quiet, the scenery lovely – so good to see it green, and the company was good.  What more could we want.

Weekend Wandering

When a long weekend comes along you can have a nice, quiet relax at home or run away.  This weekend we opted for the latter.

We hopped in the ute nice and early on Saturday and headed off.  We stopped for a cuppa on the side of the road where we saw a rather colourful bus.

And some apostle birds joined in for some crumbs.

We then had a wander up and down the street of a Cooee town.

Don’t you just love big sky country. Perfect weather for being out and about and so good to see it green for a change.

When in the country you have to go to a rodeo.

And don’t the kids love it. (Don’t worry, they were behind the fence when the action was taking place.)

After all that action, some culture was required, how about visiting a quilt show?

Meanwhile, Mick left me to go motorcycling with a mate.

They had fun exploring an old derelict house and wool shed.  Here are some of his pics.

He thoroughly enjoyed himself.

While the boys were off playing explorer, and after seeing all that quilting inspiration, it was time to do some stitching of my own and where better than “The Chook Shed” with Chooky and Fairy Girl.  Lots of chatting and even a little stitching.  I pieced the backing for a quilt that hopefully will now graduate from a WIP to a finish. (Out of interest, how old does a project have to be to change from a WIP to a UFO?) I also made some small progress on June’s blocks for Nature’s Journey.

We had a wonderful time visiting Chooky and her lovely family.

After our visit we continued our exploring.  More gorgeous scenery in gorgeous weather.

Of course that works up an appetite, so we had to find a rather lovely cafe for coffee and cake.  Thanks for the heads up Chooky.

I’m always on the lookout for interesting mail boxes and these were very creative.

We found some lunch at the town on the ten dollar note.

The old buildings were looking great in the sunshine.

What a pity this one wasn’t open as Mick was drooling at the toys in the window – or maybe it was a good thing it was closed…….

Lake Windemere was looking a treat.

And now we are back home, after travelling about 750kms in the weekend.  We love nothing better than being out and about exploring and enjoying the company of good friends.  It is even better when it can all be part of the one weekend.