Slow Water Wading

It was again a sunny cloudless windless mill pond across the road so a good day to try another of the Winter Wading efforts.  It takes about 10 minutes to get used to the water but then it actually feels warm after that but you do get completely red legs afterwards and they are cold to the touch.  I should try to get a thermometer for the water temperature. The tide was up so I did not get out to where the rays sit. There were dolphins yesterday as well but they were also well out.  We got hold of some possum shoo yesterday which was liberally spread and so far it has worked on the cats. We have a possum run up above us so maybe we should start spraying it there .

300g cooked up last night 

The Pond

No pearl today

Cat Beach

The Sun has continued on its Winter way again today with blue skies all day. So a good day to go up the ladder to clear some gutters.  There are only a few gutters near overhanging plants which allows for a build up of gunk. I found mini garden beds of moss and lichen, you would have thought someone planted it. We also have a cat problem out the front. The new beach has been dug up for cat litter and the carefully lined stones rearranged to cover the deed.  The indoor mushies have sprouted a forest so they need to come out today. The last thing was a dash to top up the mask supply. 

Mossie

Mushie

Bouncing Blue Barrel

After the working day it was so sunny we had to do a beach walk. I had already ridden into Drysdale and back but you can always use a bit more exercise. We detoured up the newly planted slope to find a new road up there that has been pushed thru. More exercise. Then there was the barrel that had washed up across from the shell fields.  Just a bit more exercise to haul it 200 metres to a spot the council will be able to get at it.  It turned out to be an hours effort and I should have worn shorts. The sea grass on shore seems to be abating as well, depends when the next wind comes.

Put some mussel into it

Dell foreshore

garden popup

Pink Invasion

We woke up this morning to the usual coolness but the unusual pinkness that was allover the ground in clumps.  I went out there with gloves to see if I could clean up at least what was near our place. There were hundreds of dobs of pink foam as far as you could see.  I was half expecting an emergency response covid cleanup crew to come along with alarms blaring.  We could not figure out what this pink foam was.  Sometime later we could see in the distance coming towards us was a car with a trailer dropping pink goo at intervals as he drove.  Debbie could not help herself. She flagged him down in her dressing gown. It turns out the guy is marking the ground where he has driven as he sprays a poison over all the grassland. Your council rates doing some weeding and feeding.

                                           

Pink smudge away

Confluence

Seeing we have mud guards now we went looking for some dirt. This was found at Inverleigh when riding to the junction of the the Leigh River and the Barwon River and a good looking swimming hole it is, complete with rope swings into the water.  The ropes are plentiful mainly because of the ancient river gums that are all through here. We also rode a section of the Leigh River where the trees have also survived on a very picturesque stretch.  We had lunch at Fyansford and across the road, TruffleDuck is an 1870s national trust house that is now a reception place. Due to the No Wedding problem they have temporarily opened as a cafe, so that could be the next coffee stop.

WatersMeet

William Lawson set up a house in 1840

Good reception

Mushies

I mentioned a couple weeks back about buying a mushroom farm, ie a box with some dirt in it.  After some debate about its location (in the laundry) but under a skylight there are now some white caps poking thru the dirt.  This is happening around the edges and mostly at one end. (the end nearest the skylight).  We have covered that end but maybe the sprouting does not happen evenly.  They get a moist spray most days but that is all. Now we have to work out when you can pluck some.

Not Mushroom in here said the Japanese train packer

War of the Roses

The side fence has come in for some maintenance like a bit of straightening, some paling adjustment and a lick of paint. However there are what must be tree like old rose bushes on the other side that have battered the fence into submission. It looks like this is a more recent set of palings too, compared to the posts and I think the espaliered 500 yar old rose trees may have something to do with it.  The nearby orchids are sprouting though after their move from Essendon. It has taken two years for some action there. Debbie is going to see if the neighbours, who do not live there, are willing to disentangle the rose trees from the fence posts.

Gnarly Rose Tree

Now it's a painting chair

Orchidoptera

Never pay for postage again

I am about to go for a walk around to the letter box but before I do I have taken the below picture of the letter.  One of the things about buying boxes of old stamps or old collections is that you never know what that person was trying to do.  I have found huge quantities of unused stamps including whole sheets of them.  I am not into whole sheets so the two queens below I tore off such a sheet and also the other two (golden wattle) were bought at a post office 50 yar ago and kept by someone who wrapped them in cellophane ever since. So due to the increase in stamps at the start of the year I have the extra 10c covered for another 100 envelopes. 

No Wind Ride

12° doesn't matter much if there is no wind to speak of. We went back over to Ocean Grove to pick up our newly maintained, disc braked, cross city, off road bicycles.  Complete with new stands and mud guards.  The Hendry cycle shops may have an association with that Evans man of Tour de France fame and they charge like top of the range as well.  We tested out the upgrades with a short 15km tour of the town.  One sobering place we found was the Ocean Grove Respiratory Centre.  There was a queue of at least 20 masked people waiting to be tested.  We also found the Kyosk Cafe which had a good atmosphere complete with log fire and squid boat lighting. 

Self Standing

High Tide gauntlet

Sea Change Wharf

No table service so it's Kybosh for the Kyosk  - Note squid lights

Birds Eye View

I have filmed the Kestrels before and this is a newer younger one that has recently arrived and can still do the silent hover.  Even in this more forceful wind it still managed to maintain position.  This one paid a visit a few times today but there were no field mice to be had.

Turning Japanese

Often you would notice some Asians wearing masks. Even in Tokyo it was a small minority. I always thought it was a pollution thing.  Debbie has returned from her baby caring mission and thanks to Bianca we have some of the better masks but they will be saved for the next Melbourne outing.  The initial paranoia of road blocks has gone away, as she sailed passed the blockade with no one at all being checked.  We will see if it stays that way.   The bridge in Asher's garden has been swapped with the smaller one we had here.  Now there is more room to look for fairies.

The Masked Tippler

$1 each

Bridge Work

Cool Ride

I got the road bike out for a tour of the Drysdale circuit but in the reverse direction in which I have always traveled previously. For some reason it seemed more uphill. This would have been more to do with the stiff westerly that was bringing showers after last nights storm front. I stopped a few times in spots of interest such as the stairway that leads down to the rail trail from the top of the overpass. A groove has been set into the stairwell for bicycle wheels to have there own track whilst descending.  I notice that in these times where the steam train is stuck in the shed they have been laying new sleepers and tracks.

Storm Front Sunset

Bicycle Groove

Sleepers

Underpass

Zwift

Today's main action was lawn mowing.  The grass seems to be behaving itself as far as slow growth during winter is concerned. Mowing does warm you up on a blustery day. The other thing I tried today was to tune into Zwift. I get messages from Bill Disseldorp about his niece Sarah who was the 2019 Australian Women's Road Race champion and who must content herself with virtual bike racing on rollers but connected to the internet.  I half considered getting into this but we can still go outside for a ride so I couldn't be bothered trying to buy the gear. However you are still meant to be able to tune into Zwift Youtube channel as a spectator, but it is like finding a spoke in a bike stack. There are hundreds of these events all over the world at any time of the day.  The pro circuit is meant to be starting up again in two weeks anyway so maybe I will just wait for that on SBS.

I found S Smith but not S Gigante. This was a replay of a race up Mont Ventoux from last night.
The screens have a lot of information.

Hooray I eventually found her with Bill's help and wearing the yellow jersey no less.
Watching this stuff takes some getting used to

Bicycle maintenance

We took the disc brake hybrid bikes to the shop today for some maintenance. The shop is in Ocean Grove so we went the long way by first riding along the coast to thirteenth beach and back. This was a route we used to do a lot in the van days. There are a few changes with numerous new coffee stops along the way both in OG and BH.  There was no hint of Winter. Open top cars and hundreds of surfers. We had lunch at the Olive Pit and got there just after Noon and there were two free tables.  Later we saw a big sign 'masks for sale $3.00'. They were standard builders dust masks. We got a good laugh out of it.

GO for OG

wipeout

Bound for scrap metal not donation

Return to the Archive Box

I have two notes from the Archive Box that I have scanned today.  The first one is a travel postcard written to me in 1992 when a group of  ex MMBW employees had the audacity to form a computer company, hence the salutation  Dear Neil and MITites.  She compares New York to a jungle, a bit like Jethro Tull did in their song lyrics.  The other one is a thank you note from Carol Tamburro.  This is also dated 1992. She had a baby girl then who would be 28 now and maybe has had kids of her own. However I have lost track of that. It seems we also gave her some handme down clothes, probably from Laura, who was four at the time.  I bet handme down clothes would not be as welcome these days.  Elyse already has plenty of handme down clothes after baby number five and three girls in a row.

I never take stamps off postcards 

28 yar old baby Jessica

Garden of Beasts

This is a translation of the Tiergarten in Berlin which is a huge park that holds the Berlin Zoo among other things. We had a hotel room some years back that overlooked the zoo, so we paid it a visit.  This book has no particular connection to the zoo but is set in Berlin at the time of the 1936 Olympics.  The yanks send an assassin with their team to take out a few of the locals. Along the way he creates a half dozen missions of his own.  Not a bad read. A few of his have been made into films eg The Bone Collector.  Not sure where this volume came from. It is a proper hard back with dust cover but is heavy to hold and I had to find places to lay it flat as my fingers were complaining.

Tiergarten Zoo 2015

Stamp News

I have continued to dig thru the cartons I was delivered some weeks back. The sunny days have that out side pull however today I stayed in and opened another shoebox  I have found clues about when this collection was last active which would have been 35 to 40 yar back as the most recent stamp I can find so far is mid 80's. Today's shoe box was a bonanza full of unopened packets.  Full of mint and used Australian states and predecimal stamps.  You can see what was paid for them around the 1970's and I have put today's valuation below.  I looked up the below address in Sydney. It was torn down years ago and replaced with an office block.  

$100.00

$5.00

$20.00

$20.00

Beach Patrol No 375

It was warm calm conditions to go into the water again however I was equipped for a rubbish patrol so I stuck with combing the beach for discarded or often washed overboard items.  The beach itself wasn't too bad just a few small bits and pieces however with the clearance of the hinterland I went up into the hills just for a sticky nose. The plantings up there are extensive and the views are good as well. I picked up a can, a cup, a brush and a small section of rope.  The big items were all the way back at the top of the ramp where a pair of pants had been dangled some weeks back.  They were now in the dirt so I put them in the bin as well.  All up it was probably a 50 min exercise.

View from half way

Bin Treasures

New Queenscliff Wharf

The benefits of a marginal Federal Seat in parliament are evident when you can see some electioneering money coming our way to rebuild a derelict wharf in Queenscliff. It is not officially open as there is a fence around it which can be easily opened so you can stroll around. There is even a squid boat moored on it. We rode down there from Mannerim which used to be a town along the rail trail.  The ride was 22km and we stopped for lunch without a booking at Q360 which we have used before. Other things to note were a group of Japanese tourists posing in the main street at a Gallery. Curious. Also the new canal is open which feeds water into the Point estate lake system.  We will detour through this estate next time.

The Point Canal

Copious Wharf

Swan Bay