5-8°C, sunny and calm.
Fresh, mild warm air the at doesn’t smell of spring yet. It’s still dark early but uncharacteristically mild. Storms are approaching.
Does this route look rude to you? No? Okay, it’s just me then.
10°C, sunny out but bands of drizzle in the afternoon, light S wind.
In the morning, feeling lively, I took on some hills – Dalton and Bannister. The Arrow is great for long steady miles. The steel frame soaks up the bumps along with 28C tyres set to 70psi. That was a nice ride, not even the rain made it cold.
The frame needs some attention. There are some rusty pits hidden beneath one of the tubes.
10°C, sun, light breeze and dry.
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.
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.
6°C, light SW, dry but flooding everywhere.
I’m impressed with this new light. It offers up to 600 Lumin for only £30. For my needs, the spread of light is a little more than ideal. I want a second light to have plenty of reach. The other lamp illuminates potholes and the road kerb
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.
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.
11°C, gales from the west. Otherwise sunny
This house in Formby is under renovation at last. The designs are on a board by the road and it keeps some of the original. There are big modern metal and glass things to bolt on. They’re not exactly subtle integration, but at.least something is happening.
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.
6°C, fresh breeze from NW. Dry.
I still like cycling at night. This is late twilight, about 6pm.
7°C, quiet and cool.
A fine November day, surface water everywhere after recent downpours. I felt the magic on this ride – so that’s why I bought this bike. The poor machine got caked in mud especially after plunging into a deep rut. It then looked like gravy.
What a satisfying day, the distance is not great but it took 3 ½ hours.
Micycle 