Examined Nature and Found Many Penguins

Nothing like starting the day in the sun.

Today is an absolutely spectacular sunny day in Tasmania. Woke up this morning to sun streaming through the windows and my pets loving it.
Fed them, fed myself and hopped onto my Beo scooter and headed for Kingston for the "monster" book sale advertised in the newspaper. Beautiful ride to Kingston which is about 20 minutes south but unfortunately I didn't find even one Penguin.

Hopped back onto the bike and headed back through Hobart, across the Tasman bridge to the Willows Tavern to catch up with the Ulysses club which is a bike club for 'growing old disgracefully" persons.

The Bothwell-Kempton area. Beautiful isn't it. 

As the group was split between going away camping this week-end and staying behind to ride on Sunday we had a fairly small group, maybe a dozen bikes. We headed into the Derwent Valley to Hamilton for the first stop of the day at the bakery for morning tea.  The food is good but it is pricey. I only had a drink as I didn't need food yet.

Then we took the route east towards Bothwell where the few left stopped to sit outdoors in the sun in front of another bakery and I headed south towards Hobart as I wanted to stop off at a small country second hand book shop I have been meaning to get to for ages.

This little shop has been in existence for a little over 20 years and is a small building in the man's yard. It has lovely old books in it and when I asked if he had any old Penguins his reply was, "Heaps".

Kempton Bookshop with treasures inside

He was right, there were heaps and I bought heaps.  He is a charming book seller who doesn't tend to hoard his books by putting such high prices onto them that noone will ever remove them from his possession. The books are carefully selected and laid out in a manner which are easy to find. It is a charming little shop where I listened to the sound of his typewriter as I was able to take as much time as I needed to examine all of the Penguins.
He had one good sized shelf just for Penguins and there were many more scattered throughout the shop that I will have a closer look at the next time I am up that way.

The Penguin Shelf

Not only are the books reasonably priced but he gave me a decent sized discount as well for buying so many.  I  had a really good day.  A long bike ride in the sun and a pile of old Penguins at the end of it.

On the way home I took my time through the lovely countryside that is Tasmania and enjoyed 'nature' stopping to study a goshawk and an echidna.  One of my goals on my October challenge (here) was to be aware of nature and I was surrounded by it today.

                                                                                   

A goshawk

Koko loves it when I dump my "new"Penguin books
on the floor to sort them. Notice the map of Tasmania on
Koko's  face. The white above his eyes is Bass Strait.

Next time one of you drives down the midlands of Tasmania be sure to stop into this old book shop in Kempton. It is one block back off the main road through the town and there is a sign. Or ask anyone as everyone in the town would know its location.