more bike love

Photo lifted from the workcycles website.

My fickle ministrations have moved onto a workcycles secret service. She is the sporty spice version of the Oma. How is this for a description: "A modern workhorse. A fast, tough and stealthy city bike for the long haul." How any bike that weights more than 20kg can be described as stealthy escapes me however I am smitten. Imagine a bike that is designed to last a whole life time even while living outside in the snow.

While there ARE a few city style bikes available in Australia, none of them have the amazingly practical and usefull components of the workcycles bikes. Note the skirt guard, fenders, full chain case, hub dynamo for the lights which are mounted on the fork so that a front rack can be mounted to the frame. They rock.

In other news, Selina suffered the indignity of having a last century plastic woollies basket strapped to her new old pink rack. She is super practical now. I needed more boot capacity to carry the veggies back from the community garden, not to mention the milk and papers.....and the other night when I rode up the hill to a friends house for dinner, the two bottles of wine in her front basket almost bounced out - YIKES.

Despite the snow on the weekend, spring is here and it is time to get out on ya bikes.

I am getting good at only using the car for work trips out of town. Although I need to pick up some star pickets for the tomato tunnels this weekend......might need the car for that too.


that is all.

Selina Selina I love you

OK, so she is just a tad on the small side but she is lovely to ride. I am having a bit of a bicycle epiphany and renaissance all in one.

Yesterday I rode Selina 11 km or so to Ma and Pa Duck Herder's for a cuppa, and then rode home. It was lovely. Today I rode down to the garden, did some weeding then off to the hardware store in Phillip and then home and then back to the garden and then home. Perhaps about 13km all up. The extra layer of rim tape seems to have fixed the exploding tube issue. I like not being in a rush, or "training" ie hurting. I like not driving. I Like Selina!

I need more storage space, so I took my pannier rack off my cyclo - cross bike. With a bit of stuffing around it will fit onto Selina. Its black which won't do at all, so I am spraying it PINK which is much better methinks.

Bike & Kangaroo Heaven in the Bush Capital

Bike and Trains Study Tour, Netherlands from carltonreid on Vimeo.

This is so inspiring. Selina continues to delight, except her rear tires keep exploding. BANG!!! I have put an extra layer of protective tape between the wheel rims and the tube. Will see how it goes. Her 20 year old spoke ends are a bit rough for these modern day mamby pamby tubes.

I continue to LUST after a Workcycles Oma.

Be still my beating heart.


In other news, I had the joy of showing some overseas visitors (Wales and Scotland) a bit of local wildlife. Their joyous amazement in Kangaroos reignited my own. They can't believe you can see Kangaroos just hopping around beside the roads near and in the city. And the Emu's just sent them silly. We spent 2 hours searching for Koalas in the 20 acre - ish Koala enclosure at Tidbinbilla, only to discover we were looking for one of "about 7" of the little blighters, so gave up and had tea and cake. Luckily a new Mr Koala was in the quarantine enclosure near the entrance, awaiting release into the general paddock, so we got to see at least one.

And how about this weather.

And I am not mentioning that silly Mr Rabbit.

Money Diet

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. I think it was that second pair of Mary Jane's being delivered by the little men* that did it.

Mr Duck Herder has put Mrs Duck Herder on a money diet.

I have an allowance. A quota if you will. And I have to write everything I buy in a little book. And the book will be CHECKED apparently.

Mr Duck Herder is on the money diet too. I suspect its going to become a bit of a competition.

In other news, I rode Selina home from the farmers market this morning. It was lovely. She was lovely. Her stem it just the tiniest bit too short, so I need to find a second hand one from a similarly old and weirdly sized bike......

that is all.

* the little delivery men.

Welcome home Selina

Yay. Here she is. All new. With a detachable basket don't you know. Selina passed her health and safety check with flying colors. She has new white walled tires filled with gue to stop them from puncturing, a newly tightened bottom bracket, a newly trued front wheel, adjusted derailer and shifters, new cables inside those lovely white casings and she rides and shifts and steers like a dream.

Total cost:

Selina: $20

Tires, basket and a general lovin': $200

She is too much fun to ride. I couldn't resist a few laps around the block in my skirt and boots. Thats the thing I love about Selina. I can ride her in whatever I am wearing - no special shoes or lycra.

I am thinking I will sell my road bike.......but keep my mountain bike because thats just too much fun as well. Selina is going to change my world, replace all those short drives whether I am in my work clothes or not, to pop down to the community garden to pick veggies, pop up to buy the paper...........

No more two sets of clothes to commute in. No more hunched over looking at only the road in front of me. No more having to change into my cleats and then hobbling around at my destination in my bike shoes. From now on I am fully clothed in my civilians, up right lookin' out at the view!

I love you Selina.

Lacuna Sabbath

The Lacuna Sabbath came a day early today. I bought new shoes!

I took the lovely Selina in to the bike shop. Mal from Mal Adjusted thought she was delightful and he is sure they can easily fix her up.

We agreed she was a delightful color. I have been waiting on the phone call to say there is something expensive wrong with her, but it has been very quiet.

And in other news, the nice boys from South Pacific Hydroponics knocked me up an excellent stand for this big old flouro light the biggest hippy gave me. I can adjust the height of the light as the seedlings grow. This is very cool.

So in went some eggplant seeds.

From Franchi Italian Seeds: Melanzana "Violetta Lunga 2" and Melanzana "Prosperosa". From Phoenix Seeds: Eggplant "Diamond".

I don't know what it is about the Franchi seeds. They are imported from Italy. But the QUALITY is outstanding. Every time. No matter what. And you get HEAPS of seeds in each packet. They are worth every cent. They are my guilty delicious pleasure.

The Diamond eggplants are a Ukrainian variety. I didn't have much luck with them last year, my eggplant and capsicum seedlings got a bit damp and didn't thrive. So I will give them another try this season. Regular viewers will recall that Mr Duck is Ukrainian, so I like to pay homage to the mother country by growing Ukrainian and Eastern European varieties. The Ukrainians KNOW THEIR VEGGIES. This is why we have Black Russian and Black Krim tomatoes and 1000 varieties of beetroot.

I also put in a few swift and Siberian tomatoes. These are very early bush (determinate) varieties. Both around 50 days. My personal challenge is to have the first tomato ripe for Mr Duck Herder's birthday on 23rd November. You never know. These are not the main crop of course. Just something for fun. Its always a bit of a competition at the community garden to see who can get a ripe marty before Christmas.

I could only fit 1 1/2 seedling trays onto the heat pad, but I reckon the temperature should be OK for everything to germinate. I have been using the special projects room a lot to work in, so the heater vent is open in there, and the drying cuppboard is in there as well, so the room is pretty warm. It sure is a good use for this huge old light fitting.

OH, if you would like the contact for Phoenix Seeds, you need to ring or write to them for a cattle dog. The number is (03) 6267 9663 or PO Box 207, Snug, Tas. They have an excellent range of unusual veggie and herb seeds.

That is all.

Oh, I can't help it. These are my new shoes.

you gotta make your own

Hey duckie, this your new bike?........

So, not quite an original workcycles azor oma ......but with a lick of paint, some new wheels, new tires, an internal 8 speed hub, new crank set, possibly a longer stem, new brakes, chain guard and skirt shield, rack, baskets and bell I reckon it'll do. $20 from Tiny's Shed. Her name is Selina.

"hmm, cool bike"

The girls like her anyway.

PS - please notice lovely straw bale wall.

More evidence that the animals have taken over. Even though she is very big and fat Chu Chu feels the cold. She is able to open the lid of the laptop just that little bit more by herself, wake it up from sleep mode so it warms up and then well, sleep on it. And yes, she really is resting her head on the screen.