Here is one very poorly looking rape field. Some patches were normal looking but acres & acres look dry, brown dusty and quite dead.

This is rain I can live with, it is interrupted by bright sunny spells while the dark clouds brew up on the horizon. Stygian.
I ought to comment on the 19/20 politicians who have been fiddling the books in Parliament and the House of Lords too. It all seems too obviously corrupt to be worth mentioning. I can only hope they are treated in the way we would be if it were us in our jobs doing the same thing. But wait, only a few are suspended pending an investigation.
Cattle: here are the cows that chased Rosie & Bess last week. They look nice enough…

Seeen near Abbost Bromley, Staffordshire, they had their backs to the wind.

LPs: William Fitzsimmons- in vinyl is still at work, I can’t carry LPs on the bike. Looking forward to hearing that album in its entirety.
Work: going back has been a bit of a start; like a shock but less so (I’ll reserve that word for things like seeing a pheasant getting run-over on the A515). Wednesday cracked it though, after some days feeling terrible, I went to bed before 22.00. You should do that too sometimes. Now I feel normal.
Normal: actually, I don’t. Today’s 70 miles was harder than it should have been. Perhaps I didn’t eat enough yesterday to feel normal today. I was too tired and desperate to get home to shoot some photos of blooming rape against darkening cumulus clouds. I missed a pearl there (not in a knitting sense).

Cycle– shortened by heavy rain showers, not a problem themselves, but the two punctures in one day is teetering on annoying.

Headaches: another approach to dealing with them is reading glasses. I almost forgot that I had them, so out of the habit of wearing them am I. So I can beat them with reading glasses, less caffeine and better hydration.

I laughed at a van today, normally they are not very funny, especially the dirty silver ones with company logos all over them. This one had on the back door:

10°C, NE winds, clearing, c=51 miles

I have:a fridge, it will take some installing- it was origonally part of a fitted kitchen- you know the sort where you can’t tell which door has a refrigerator behind it. On its own though, the fridge is quite industrial looking, so I’m going to use the cupboard thing that it came in. However, it will need some wood-work to install it. Recycling.
Seasonal: I am sneezing and have itchy eyes. The only plants doing anything right now are some harmless flowers and the willows are sporing. They will have to take the blame.

A reliable source (PixieJojo) tells me that these ridges were cut by farmers during the 1940s. They were under instructions from the Govt. ministry who hoped for an increase in yield. I can see their thinking.
The rest of the ride was in sleet which changed its mind and became proper snow.

8°C, S winds, high cloud. C= 56 miles

First Snowdrops are getting earlier each year- even though this has been a cold winter.


I’ve regained my faith in Live Spaces, the networking features do actually seem to work. They are not just nicked from Facebook, well actually they are, but I felt some pressure to stick around and not blog anywhere else.