Day 103: Wallington Wines, outside Canowindra

Remember that time that we biked across the country?  It wasn't that long ago, really.  Remember the day we had four flat tires on our shortest day of biking.  I gave a long explanation of a certain plant--the goathead, or puncture vine--that was the problem.  It turns out that they aren't just in Washington state.  They're also in New South Wales, where they are called catheads.

And they are nasty.  And everywhere.  They seem to be spread easily by sheep, as they get embedded into the hooves or wool before dropping off and making more misery.

Our first day had nothing really to do with wine.  We took a tour of the winery, which had a feel very reminiscent of farms and ranches I'd visited in West Texas.  It had rained quite a bit the week before, which delayed harvest, and made the grass much greener than anyone could remember for a long while.  You'll notice as pictures go on that the grass reverts back to brown within a couple weeks.

After the tour we weeded some cat heads from the guest house (see above picture), mulched a few gardens, and then headed into town with the head of the winery, Margaret Wallington.

Town is Canowindra (pronounced Ca-nan-dra).  About 1,000 residents, give or take.  The main street is charming enough, with a grocery store, a green grocer, several craft shops, a rare/used book store whose original owner and her daughter are known as some of the best rare or esoteric book finders int he world, and a couple bar/hotels.

We helped Margaret load up a dresser she was buying from some friends in town, and headed back to the winery.

And we got to see our first sunset there.

You'll see lots more pictures like this in the next few days.  I didn't get tired of looking at the sunsets, or taking these pictures.

And we were about to get really familiar with views like this:

One row after another of grapes, all to be picked by hand.

Nice, huh?