Monthly Archives: Dec 2019

Twycross by Arrow.

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10°C, sun, light breeze and dry.

Stopped by the bunker

The photo was taken near an underground bunker by Elford. Such a strange structure which now has a visitor’s book. Not an official one, but an old sketchbook with a few mindless comments and badly drawn porn.

A slow and steady ride which passed Twycross Zoo. This time of year, their hedges are bare so you can see in. I looked in and two giraffes looked out.

Just like old times when I lived here, the miles effortlessly rolled by on he near empty roads. My mind wandered all over and the effort to ride got lighter and lighter. This bike used to by my steady winter ride (and commuter) but now I have others.

One thing I always like about these silhouette shots is the halo around my head. It’s something in the way leaves reflect light back along their path. I don’t mind the shallow ego boost nonetheless.

Muddy hours on the Mustang.

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8°C, grey start turning to rain.

Weather change: we’ve gone from cold and clear to mild and damp. My house hasn’t kept up. The windows were steamed up this morning, remarkably – on the outside! The house must be colder than the air.

The flooding is remarkable, saturated soil and large ponds in any dip a field may have. I put the CX wheels back on the gravel bike. I’m so glad I did that with today’s conditions.

Hour and a half mudding.

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7°C, sunny with light wind

Coming to the end of the wettest autumn I can remember. Black gritty mud coats most roads and puddles hide portholes. When I get time, I’ll put CX tyres on the commuter.

What about this little painting? It’s acrylic onto A5, painted while the others were watching Strictly. That makes it about 1 ½ hours or so. It needs a little work around the left eye and hand; about another half hour.
I found this quite tough in comparison to oil paint.

  • Sometimes you go back to a colour on the palette and it has dried up,
  • blending is rough when applying new colour to dry paint,
  • the colour changes as it dries,
  • the surface is chalky,

Most of these problems could be solved by using a slowing agent, the problem they introduce is that they look milky. All of those problems could be solved by using oil paint.

Ninety minutes at night

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6°C, cold and dry.

A 1½ hours after work. This is a return ride after over a week of feeling poorly. I’ve really felt the cold but, unsurprisingly, it’s not noticeable after the ride.

As you can see, the speeds are quite low, partly because of restrictive warm clothing. Ironic that I overheated slightly. A week of no exercise does make the cold air more biting.