Cycle Tour Challenge Training...

As mentioned in a previous post, March is traditionally a month of cycling in Cape Town, South Africa. And, because of COVID-19, they had a virtual Cape Town Cycle Tour this year. I was able to enter the Cycle Tour Charity Challenge and made sure to get plenty of kilometres under my legs before attempting my 109 km ride! Here are some snaps from my training rides before I attempted my 109 kms last weekend. (More on that in another post!) :)

Airport ride on a blustery day.

East Side Park.

Edwardsport Road.

Candace goes for an afternoon cycle.

Old abandoned diesel train engines near the rail car repair facility.

A wet evening ride.

A bizarre sighting in the evening. A deer's head mounted to a tree in a ditch!

At the airport again...

And the East Side Park again. :)

Daddy Daughter Date...

I took my sweet little Eliza to the Cherry Ghost for some father-daughter time a few weeks ago. We enjoyed a fun morning, sipping hot drinks and reading a Paddington Bear story. :) It's special times like these that mean the most to me!

Paddington Bear books are classics!

Bat Boomerang...

Our latest cardboard construction project was a bat boomerang for our little Batman! I fashioned it from a tiny Lego bat boomerang and used thick cardboard for its construction, before painting it black. It's really cool and our Batman was very happy with it!

 

The tiny Lego bat boomerang is just in the foreground. :)

The painted cardboard version.

Our Batman inspects his new bat boomerang! :)

Bicycle Artwork...

March is traditionally a month of cycling in Cape Town, South Africa, with the Cape Town Cycle Tour usually occurring on the second Sunday in March. It was postponed this year, due to COVID-19, and so the Cycle Tour office held a Charity Challenge - in which one could ride 109 kms at any time at any location during the month of March. But more on that in a future post. Riaan has seen me in my cycling kit going off training on my road bike on multiple occasions this month, and so decided to draw me on my road bike. I was super proud! :)

Braai Day...

After I had been on a nice cycle earlier in the day, we had a lovely Saturday evening braai two weeks ago. We followed our braai with hot cups of Milo around the fire. Just what this South African soul needed! :)

Pork chops on the braai.

Riaan looks so serious in his Aragorn cloak.

Eliza enjoying her Milo on the swing.

Bonfire fun after supper.

Anniversary Date...

We celebrated nine years of marriage on the 4th of March, 2021. It seems like our wedding ceremony back in 2012 was just a few days ago! We went down to a restaurant in Evansville to celebrate and had a fun time with our cute little plus-one. (The other two were being looked after by close friends back in Washington.) After our lovely meal, we browsed through a huge (but overwhelming) thrift store. It was good quality time together. Here's to the next year of marriage! :)

Not quite the same as calamari from Simon's Town or Hout Bay! I miss calamari by the sea!

Candace's amazing steak and asparagus - yum!

Garden Box Work...

Having bought these raised garden beds last autumn, we finally assembled them, filled them with soil, and planted our newly-acquired asparagus roots recently. We had to move the heavy swing to the other side of the garden in order to install them, and we are very happy with the layout of our garden now. We also had some pretty cute little helpers throughout the process!

My little helper. :)

View towards the swing's new home.

View from our big tree in the corner towards the shed (at right) and house (at left).

Big bags of soil ready to be emptied in!

 Adding the soil.

 Planting the asparagus roots.

 Little Anya enjoying some time outside.

All done! :) A good morning's work!

Pretty flowers - an early sign of spring. :)

Snow Ride...

I went for a short cycle on a rather mild afternoon late in February. It was a pretty flat cycle and it was the first ride I've done where there was actual snow on the ground - although it was melting quickly! :)

Snow on the ground.

Cycling back past light melting snow.

McCormick's Creek in the Snow...

We visited McCormick's Creek State Park on Sunday, 21st February. It was quite a mild day, but the snow was still thick on the ground. It was absolutely gorgeous and I am so glad that we chose to visit on this last weekend with thick snow. (Just two days later most of the snow had disappeared thanks to unseasonably warm temperatures.) 

The thick forest and deep snow certainly created a Narnian atmosphere, and I wouldn't have been surprised to see Mr Tumnus the Faun walking through the wood. :) The waterfall was also completely frozen and that added to the mystery and beauty of the day.

Sandhill cranes in the snow.

Driving through snow-covered fields.

Entrance to McCormick's Creek State Park.

Canyon Inn.

Icicles hang from the roof of the Inn.

Riaan and Candace walk through the forest.

The frozen Canyon Falls.

Massive icicles on either side of the river.

Road closures due to thick snow.

Driving through the snowy scenery.

Eliza and Riaan even used their little sled to go down a slope.

Riaan relaxes with a snow statue.

Heading back to the car for the drive home.

A stationary diesel locomotive on the tracks near Worthington, Indiana.