What a glorious day it was on Sunday; the air was crisp, the sun was shining and there was barely a breeze. The perfect day for a bike ride, and with a little farmer’s market on in the next town, that’s where we headed – Stratford.
It’s a relatively easy ride along a “rail trail”, that is if you are used to riding a bike and are fit – I am neither! The scenery is beautiful, as is the bird life along the way. At one stage we stop alongside a paddock where a large flock of black swans are feasting, and among them are two beautiful ducks. We couldn’t resist getting the camera out and trying to get a photo, even though these gorgeous birds were some distance away.
After a few distractions along the way, we finally make it to the market which is set up in a little park, nestled on the banks of the Avon river. It is a very small market, just a few stalls, a honey stall, second hand book stall, craft stall where we find a gorgeous gift for our beautiful great neice’s second birthday, an apple stall and a bag of beautiful crisp red apples are purchased, there’s also a bric-a-brac type stall, a native plant stall, an art stall and finally the vegie stall. I have bought vegetables from this stall holder before and they were beautiful, they keep fresh for much longer than normal, probably because they are much fresher than what you buy at the shop! I walk along and decided to get a couple of leeks – I have leftover cooked chicken in the fridge from last night’s dinner, so will probably make a chicken and leek pie during the week. Then I choose some salad. I want a cabbage, so they climb onto the back of the truck and find a lovely one for me, and finally… I cannot resist the beautiful bunch of coloured carrots that’s laying on the table – I know I have plenty of carrots at home, but these are different. We chat to the stall holder and he tells us that people get confused when they see the white or cream carrots, often thinking they are parsnips!
All done, we load our purchases into the basket on my bike, the apples go into my husband’s backpack, and we head off home. I soon discover a problem with the load in the basket on the back of my bike… For a relative beginner bike rider, I find it throws me off balance in certain situations, and almost come to grief as I struggle up an incline. So decide if faced with that scenario again, I’ll get off and wheel the bike. We stop as we cross the bridge over the Avon so that I can take some photos, but I don’t think that they do the scenery justice, I just love this place.
Further along the track we look across to the mountains and there are little specs of white, I wonder if it is snow?
Finally back home from our 20 km round trip, we put the bits and pieces away and head to the garden for a while, where I begin to think about what to do with those beautiful carrots for our dinner.
Until next time…
Bon appétit!
