Nimmitabel: A Work in Progress: Pedalling to Kingower Nov 30

I can't believe it, but the weeding is pretty much all done... In the garden beds that is. I guess mulching really does work. Sure I did a little bit of weeding, but no back and nail breaking stuff, and it was just really spot weeding as opposed to wholesale clearance. And sure, there are still weeds in the grass, but I'm not too bothered by those.

The cherries are also ripening quite nicely, and strangely have not been picked off by the birds yet

delicious cherries

I know they're quite small, but they're tasty, and my yield has increased substantially. The first Summer I harvested 6 cherries, last year there were none, as they all dried up and dropped off, while this year, I picked 20! I thought it safer to pick them this week, rather than let them ripen a bit longer and run the risk of being eaten by birds.

bountiful yield

I also ate an almost ripe raspberry, yes it was red, but was still a bit tart.

1 x ripe raspberry

Did my customary promenade up Brooke Street. Ran into Nicole, so stopped for a chat. Saw Denise and Steven, enquired about a Christmas Turducken at Inglewood Aged Beef, and was asked if we might open the house for the Inglewood Alive festival next weekend while visiting the supermarket. This was rather surprising, I wasn't sure what to say to that. Maybe next time. Another suggestion was that we have an announcer from ABC radio - Bendigo do a live broadcast from our veranda when they start doing up the Town Hall. Very interesting.....

On the way back to the house I passed a well dressed couple sitting at the picnic table having an early lunch, I congratulated them on their civilised looking picnic (I consider myself some thing of a picnic connossieur) and they told me that they were waiting on friends who hadn't shown up. They then offered me a Boston bun, I declined, but they insisted, as they had a LOT. They ended up giving me a whole packet, and told me they were Jehovah's Witnesses out touring the country. No conversions were attempted.

freebie Boston Buns

One job that I didn't finish last time was picking up and throwing out the broken glass from the a painting that had fallen off the wall. It was one of the paintings that I had bought at Joels, and I must confess I had always thought was a just a print. But I saw once the glass was off that it was actually a painting as there were brush strokes and globs of paint. Justin already knew this - old art student that he was.

Broken picture glass

Anyway, had a sandwich for lunch, pottered around in the garden, and then thought that I would ride one of the bikes up to Kingower for a lark. I didn't want to use the one that I had repaired about 5 punctures on from the dreaded bindis. Because who knows maybe I didn't fix it properly, and I didn't want to get 1/2 way there and then have to wheel the bike back. Truth be told if this had happened I would have called someone and asked nicely if they could come and give me a lift back. So, I pumped up the tyres on my old road bike, but unfortunately didn't raise the seat.

Now, I always thought that the 10 km or so to Kingower was a straight, flat road. And so it seems zooming along at up to 100kph in the car. However on a bike you are painfully aware of the long gradual inclines, and then the steeper shorter hills. And it was about 12 km according to my sports-tracker on my mobile.

Google maps - Nimmitabel to Blanche Barkly, Kingower

I knew that Justin wasn't keen on the idea of riding to Kingower because of trucks thundering down the road sometimes. But I was careful, didn't wear headphones, and carefully pulled over into the gravel when I heard a car approaching.

I must admit, the slight inclines were a shocker, especially as it was a warm day, bright sun, no water, and a seat too low for my legs. I soldiered on, and was thrilled once I eventually reached Kingower. I thought I would go and visit David and Arlene at Blanche Barkly and hopefully score a glass of water

made it

Blanche Barkly Winery

The door to the winery was closed, so I wandered around to the side, and found them sitting under their pergola - enjoying some bubbles. They had just come back from America the day before, so were enjoying themselves. I was given some iced water, and then shared some red with them afterwards. All very good, but I still had to cycle home

David & Arlene

I left around 5.30, and yes the ride back was slightly better, more down hill bits, so more coasting

view back to Kingower

view back to Inglewood

Got back home round 6.20, and so buckled down and did some much needed watering

watering the vegie garden

Then, up to the veranda to relax and read the papers and sip on a G&T, just lovely. Damien and Nicole drove by and called out hello, so I beckoned them up for a chat and a quick drink. I told them how I had ridden to Kingower. Nicole had seen, but not recognised me, and thought the poor cyclist was struggling/going slowly. I said that I was out for a leisurely, not a fast ride, and that the seat was too low for me. Was I protesting too much?

The weather wasn't as beautiful on Sunday as Saturday. It was somewhat overcast, and pretty hot, which made working in the garden a bit off-putting. I did potter around in the morning, a lot more watering, front and back, and also general tidying up of dead branches etc

plum tree with dead branches

dead branches sawn off

plum tree without dead branches

I also wanted to take some photos of the study/garden room, because although we haven't done anything significant renovation ie fixing up the plaster. We did have the windows fixed, and have furnished the room, so before and after shots are quite different