Spring Grumps

The garden knows it's spring

I love spring. Everything is growing, the air is warming up, I can start to feel my toes again. I don't even get hay fever, so I can breathe deeply of the beautiful perfumed air and enjoy myself outside. Well that's the theory. Unfortunately, what seems to happen is I feel spring a little earlier than it actually occurs and I begin to gear up for a non-winter season of awesome activity. As soon as I can feel that slight warming of the air, my brain decides it's time to kick it up a notch, well more like a whole pile of notches. And I end up paying.

A beautiful spring day

Which is why have the spring grumps. Towards the end of August I started to ramp it up, doing some training rides and races in the hills. As well as track, and CX, hmmm, looking at it like that I can see why my knees started to complain! And of course, as soon as my knees started to complain really loudly, the weather decided to treat us with some of the most beautiful Spring weather ever. Clear blue skies, gentle breezes and I was off the bike. I couldn't even do a decent gym workout, I had no way of getting rid of the frustration. Mr Carl offered his best consolations, as well as ice packs (when I over did it) and tea, but there was little I could do to get rid of the spring cabin fever I was suffering from.

Gardening is much better than shopping!

 








Then to torture myself even more, I went shopping. Not the fun kind where it involves a mouse and a credit card (or at least a book store) but the awful kind that involves clothes and shoes and walking around actual stores! As it turned out it was a blessing in disguise, as I finally purchased the hiking boots Mum kindly offered to get me for my birthday. This gave me the brilliant idea of heading out for a walk. Of course it would still be limited, but I would at least be outside!

Native Orchid

 




So Mr Carl and I booked ourselves a bush walking date. He even came back from a ride early to accompany me on my ramblings. We headed up to Anstey Hill as I was hoping to check out the native orchids that I had seen there before.

The Flowers of Spring!

 






Anstey was just the medicine the doctor ordered. A gentle stroll up an abandoned quarry stopping every 20m or so to take pictures. It was probably the slowest 2km I'd ever walked, but I had lots of photos. The flowers were out in force and Mr Carl endured numerous botanical lectures as we meandered along the path. The weather was fantastic and the new boots were supremely comfortably. The Spring Grumps had been well and truly beaten.

Tiny Little Sundews

More Orchids

Not just flowers

Really tiny ones

 

Beautiful Eucalyptus

 

 

To top it off, dinner that night was held in the company of friends, discussing the Vuelta and generally enjoying life. Sometimes it's good to be reminded, it's not all about the bike!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flower of spring - the Wattle!