A No Cycling Weekend

That's right - can you believe it, no cycling this weekend. I had projects on my list for this weekend and what a perfect weekend for it.
It was one of those autumn weekends with cloudless skies, probably in the low 20s but with a cool morning around the 12s.
Just as compensation for a no cycling weekend, we started the Friday night with a gathering of the faithful to watch a re-run of the Paris to Roubaix cycling classic. It's always been a favorite of mine since discovering the sport in my early teens. I remember reading about it several months later when the English cycling magazine, "Sporting Cyclist" arrived in my local bike shop. Newsagents never stocked it.


The Hell of the North, the road to Roubaix.



We enjoyed a Guinness and just a few glasses of red, (that would be Leon, I drank bubbles) so it was with a heavy head that I started on my list of weekend jobs. The first was to clear the driveway of accumulated rubbish that needed to go to the local tip.

After thirty years in the same house, you do collect a lot of useless things, plus my son occasionally will bring something home such as a couch or two found on the hard rubbish collection. It usually finds itself back on the nature strip for the next hard rubbish collection.

Due to the friendship of two fellow cyclists, I was able to borrow a trailer and two extra hands to load and dispose of the rubbish at the local tip. My friend Bob is a hoarder. He has every possession from childhood to this very day - well he has one more thing. While unloading the rubbish, Bob spied an old very large luggage case about the size of a coffee table, and that is what it will probably become in its new life.
Before returning we filled the trailer with mulch - this was the second thing on my list. The garden needed weeding and mulching but that was for Sunday.

Sue must have been very impressed  with (or sorry for) me as she was cooking up a storm for a Saturday night dinner. She said she had a cooking Mojo happening.



Thank you Sue

It was a Jamie Oliver  6 hour slow cooked shoulder of pork which ends up meltingly soft with really crispy crackling and a rich gravy from the vegies it sits on.  Served it with a 2 hour braised red cabbage and apple with spices and such, and celeriac mash. Was very nice. Followed with some Gorgonzola (it was on special!) with muscatels, some Corella pear and amaretto biscuits. Very nice again.

Sunday morning and the bike clothes were on the chair but that's where they stayed - it was time to do the garden weeding and mulching. There's something to be proud of when the garden is in order. Sunday was another perfect autumn day with a cloudless sky, not even a puff of fluffy white in the sky.


Autumn is here and leaves are falling but look at that clear blue sky.
Taken at 5.30 in the afternoon.



Sue doesn't like straight so I do wavy. (Correct)



No more weeds - or out of place grass.



Although its Autumn, there's still some brilliant colour in our garden.

So now the back and front gardens have been mulched, and as I type this, I notice little spots of white paint on my hands. That was the third item on the list. Two weeks ago, I replaced some more rotting timber window frames and they needed undercoating. I can see the list growing for next weekend but I hope I can get a ride or two in first..... 

Mission accomplished this weekend - time to get back on the bike.