Photos from the saddle

A beautifull, all be it chilly ride to Uriarra in the Brindabella's early this morning. Stunning land out there, especially blanketed in fog at sunrise.

11 Year anniversary today

It has been 11 years since my lovely Jem and I got married up in Townsville. So much has happened in our lives together since that it seems like a whole lifetime ago we were saying our 'I do's' at Seagulls Resort in front of all our family and friends. I cant imagine (or remember) life without you Jem, your the best!

In a doorway at the Pompei ruins in 2003 (William is hiding)

New park again!

Japanese

We hadn't been out to dinner at a restaurant for quite some time all as a family, so Jem and I decided to take the boys out to a new Japanese restaurant just down at Gungahlin the other night. Yum!

Bath time bliss

Jacob in the bath in his own little world having a lovely time relaxing by himself. He had no idea I took his photo, thankfully the bubbles were well placed! And yes he is alive.

New park!

The new playground at the Arboretum has officially opened and what a spectacle it is! Something special to say the least. I have definitely seen many a park in my time as a kid myself and now more so a parent, trust me this one is amazing. Restaurant and coffee right next door with majestic views and plenty of space for the kids to run safely. Could be my new favourite hang out in the ACT!

Frosty

Just another school drop off, although its starting to get a tad chilly here in the nations capital. On one of the mornings last week there was still frost covering the woodchips at 9am and the slide had a layer of thick ice!

Hence the ski jacket has appeared most mornings -

Photos from the saddle

Climbing out from the low point at the Murrumbidgee River near Wallaroo and reaching the top of a tough little climb, looking back gives you a panoramic view of the surrounding hills and the start of the Brindabella ranges.

Imaginate

I'm not sure whether to be more impressed by the incredible riding skill and tricks in this video, or all the work that must have gone in behind the scenes to make the set. 2 years in the making, take a look inside the creative mind of Danny MacKaskill in his new film Imaginate -

Little back seat cousins

Yesterday Kate and James picked me and Lucas up in their car. The two little boys in the back were having a great old time sitting right next to each other, so Kate snapped this cute picture of them both -

Great Granny Ivy

The boys only great gandparent, Ivy came to visit us all in Canberra this long weekend along with Nana (Diana). We spent most of the weekend hanging out with them around here or at Ben, Kate and James's house. She is 87 this year and apart from a recent fall resulting in a broken wrist, she is doing really well.

Photos from the saddle

The turn around point at the Murrumbidgee River this morning during my chilly morning ride

Trail building Kowalski style

If you know anything about mountain biking in the ACT then you would have heard about the mysterious trail builders known as the Kowalski Brothers. They are synonymous in the single track circles for making wonderful trails of which all can enjoy. They were the original Mt Stromlo trail designers before the devastating fires of 2003 and have been building trails for decades......so they clearly know what they are doing! At the moment they happen to be the chief single track designers and builders out at Kowen Forest. A Forest that is home to more than 60kms of sweet flowing single track!!

I have been meaning to get out to a track day for a while now and as they are building a whole new section that will be unveiled at the Kowalski Classic in late September, they have been quite busy of late. So with shovels, rakes, saws and mattocks at the ready I set of with William and Jacob yesterday morning to get an insight and lend a hand in trail building for the first time. You may often be able to help maintain a trail but there cant be many opportunities that come up where you actually get to witness the birth of a new single track, one that will be eventually ridden on by hundreds, if not thousands of riders.

Apparently Alan who was in charge of marking out the route is going to call this section 'Effing' as it will be Effing high (more than 900 metres above sea level), Effing long and Effing fun! Sounds 'Effing' alright by me!

 Clearing the branches between trees (The boys were named honorary 'Branch Managers' by Alan)

 The trail starting to take shape

Cleared and ready to move on to the next bit

 A fresh trail ready and never been ridden on before!

 Sweet sweet single track. Kowalski Classic? sounds like a plan!!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

We asked the boys randomly today what they wanted to be when they grow up. Here are the interesting answers we got -

William - A Rubiks cube champion and a Postie.
Jacob - A teacher, baskteball and soccer player.
Sam - A rockstar.
Lucas - A spotty leopard.

One of those could be alot tougher to achieve than the others!

Resolution

Ok Mr Corby you have once again given me chills listening to one of your songs. First with 'Brother' last year, now with the new single 'Resolution'. -

Lucas time

I have gotten used to having Lucas to myself now on at least 2 days of the week. It is lovely getting out and about with just him. He is a delight! Wont be long before there will be at least 2 days a week without him when he starts school next year. The boys are sure growing up fast!

Little Lukey at Costco after just finishing our shop up and having his lunch.

Ed Sheeran and the 'Funny Statue'

In the month of May I took part in an online Strava run challenge to see how many kms you could ride in the 31 days. In 18 rides and 27 hours of riding for the month I finished with 702kms. I like to think thats not a bad effort considering I did 75% of that riding in the dark and freezing cold by myself.

Most early morning rides I did were close to, if not less than 0 degrees and always pitch black. I would generally start off on the same route and pass this one same statue all lit up, the same statue the boys like to refer to as the 'Funny Statue' as its really random, in a random spot next to a bus stop and appeared one day out of the blue. I have no idea what it signifies but it began to be a comforting sight after a couple of weeks of solo frosty 5am rides!

I also generally had my ipod on and although I have thousands of songs on it I seem to get bored with a lot of them, apart from a few. This month I would have listened to Ed Sheerans 'Give me love' countless times on the road bike and surprisingly still love the song. It for me became May Massive's them song.

In June Strava have launched another identical challenge called 'The Junedoggle' although it also coincides with the official start of a frosty Canberra winter, even shorter days and hasn't stopped raining so far today! Maybe not.

The 'Funny Statue' just down the road from our house

Ed Sheeran in the 'Live Room' with this very cool mix of Give Me Love. He goes very 'loopy' at about the 4 minute mark, awesome!