Author Archives: essiep

Forsythia

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6°C, cold bright start.
Lodgers: is there something in the lodger-landlord relationship that resembles a parent-child one?
“I see you have helped yourself to my laundry tablets, would you replace them in the next few days. They are not actually part of the deal.”
In fairness, this lad doesn’t depend on my shopping and then put empty boxes and bottles back in my cupboard. There must be something that turns an otherwise adult male into a teenager though. It’s like a pet dog that behaves like a puppy when they want food.
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Dust devil.

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18°C, clear blue, light wind.
Ride with MapMyRide! Distance: 80.92mi, time: 05:21 pace: speed: 15.09mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/273429400
The bike ran smoothly, all that work in the winter to replace bearings and so on, has transformed the bike. Gone are the annoying clicks, skipping gears and poor handling. It feels new, and more comfortable than I can remember for years.
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Then, a natural phenomenon not seen by me for years. A dust devil swept across a ploughed field near Clifton Campville. I stopped to watch, fascinated. Not seen one since the early 1990s.

Bank holiday.

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12°C, getting warmer.
Not my favourite choice this weekend, you can guess what I want to do. What I have to do is all domestic. For each of the last few years, Mayday has seen me camped in Wales, in between mountains. This year, I am moving stuff around in the house to, potentially, make space for a second lodger.

There will be discoveries, long lost possessions from my life, and from others who have gone.

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Whitebeam unfurling leaves in early May.

Worms.

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12°C, sunny.
Ran a session at work to teach the kids how to erect tents today. Their walking about on the grass brought lots of earthworms up to the surface. As you can imagine, teenage girls didn’t all react at all well. although, one had the courage pick one up and chase the others girls with it. In reality, no courage was involved, she was simply not  perturbed by any disgust instinct. Mayday was a  very exciting day for that earthworm; enough to make their other days seem quite dull. A day from wriggling and giggling depending on whether you are an invertebrate or not.

Ever the typical teacher, I took a moment out to explain why worms respond in that way and how it means that patch of lawn must be healthy.

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A day of firsts.

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14°C, sun, cloudless.
Rode Racelite: MapMyRide! Distance: 35.95mi, time: 02:12,  speed: 16.4mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/262780484

A day of firsts, first ride in shorts, first without a helmet, first butterfly in the garden, first bumble-bees. All that work on that bike has succeeded. Before setting off, I took the bottom-bracket out and carefully re-fit. The ride was silky smooth.
BTW: if I count the rides, this year to now, it’s over 1,200 miles.

Pond

No signs of any frogs. yet.

 

Held fast.

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17°C, strong SW wind.
The crank that gave so much trouble yesterday did hold today. At home, I tightened with all my strength and took a rest before adding another eighth of a turn. It held through quite a vigorous ride home, 33 minutes is about as east as that route can be.
Relief.

Arrow: Late for work.

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10~16°C, windy with sun.
The bike felt good, to start with. I had to stop to adjust the saddle and then found the front brake loose. It was only tightened a few turns. Okay then for the next 4 miles. There is a big hill half-way, and this loosened the left crank. That damned bike shop didn’t finish the service properly.
Then the journey got really annoying. I tried 2 garages, a builder’s merchant, a plumber’s and even a bloke in a lorry. No-one had a 7mm Allen key. Everyone had 6 and 8mm keys (like I had).
I got there in the end, late. Not sure whether there is any permanent damage to the left crank. Those things are not cheap.