MSLive failed yesterday, so this post is posthumous.
Cycling: Blackbirds use ground effect whilst in flight to gain extra speed for less effort. Here in the UK that often means using flat hard surfaces like roads. Today, one Blackbird ended its life doing that. It was struck by a car near the River Tame and fell like a rag-doll into the road not far from me. As I rode past I could see that it was still moving, I wasn’t even sure what it was until close.
Like that story I told here a few years ago, I picked it up, in the vague hope that it would recover. No injuries were visible, its heart still beating, and heaving rapid breathes. It’s eyes started to close, and the breathing got lighter, the little yellow beak slowly lowering. After no more than a minute, the breathing stopped, I urged it on to no effect. The moment had passed I thought when its beak opened slightly with a film of saliva in the corner.
I put it on the grass.
Such a beautiful creature, one of the finest songbirds (more so being a male). Such a waste,
The photographs were taken less than a moment after it faded from life

nine in one ride, remarkable. The winter bike is handling perfectly, it’s not been that good for years! But I am anxious about a ripple in the paint on the top-tube. It could be a symptom of a crack underneath.

The National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas is very good. The main wall is about the same proportions as Stonehenge, but there is a slit just left of South in two walls that line up with the sun on guess which hour of which day? A slightly sad note i has been posted on the doors, apologosing about the number of memorial trees that have died due to last summer’s flooding. I can’t help thinking – what do you expect? You build your site on the flood-plane of a major British river, the land is really marshy, and much of it is below river-level. More trees will be killed next time it floods, hardly a rare occurance.

NB the iPod is working really well. I’d like to find out how to remove the built-in games, they swallow up about 400MB out of the 4Gb this model has. Those and the operating system I suppose. Now- how do I uninstall those games?

Riding out across the Sittles farm estate, I heard what sounded like Opera, drifting across fields from the north. Curiosity drew me into the Alrewas Arboretum where a grand Remembrance Sunday event was held. thousands of people were there, loads of ol’ vets and military big brass. They’d just had a ceremony ( my arrival was just after 11.00am). the event concluded with a flyby by a Douglas Dakota painted in army colours- see photo.

Arrow: is back on the road, after three months. The brakes are better than ever as is the handling (after adjusting the headset properly) . Had a decent ride despite being beaten back by the rain. It was warm and sunny otherwise.
Back to work tomorrow….

I don’t know how she’s done it, but Rosie has a Facebook profile. I hope she doesn’t post anything too rude on there, it’s meant for humans really.

64 miles today, see photo. Feeling much recovered, cold over & done with. Other cyclists said that loads of us are grumbling about lost weeks on the bike, all due to pathetic little viruses. I reckon that I’ve lost about 2,000 miles’ worth this year. Taking pictures while riding is a little tricky, a really good way to fall off probably. this camera doesn’t seem wide-angle enough though, it needs a 28mm equiv lens. Also, there is frustratingly little control over shutter speed so motion blur is not as much as ideal for this kind of shot.

Crows. We have a fiery autumn, not actual fires, just the colours of turning trees. Every decent sized tree seemed to be surrounded by large gangs of crows, all cawing.

The River Tame has flooded: Oddly the R.Trent hasn’t. I suppose that the Tame sources in an area where the rain has been heavier.
Three times I was turned back by impassable roads while cycling today. It turned into a search for photo-opportunities instead. The river Trent was full but not overflowing, so travelling north was clear.

Below is a picture of a road that I use on most Sundays rides, I’ve never seen it like this. Five or more years ago, the Tame flooded up top the road’s edges, but didn’t actually spill over. The surface was like this for nearly a mile, so I didn’t attempt it on the bike. In practise, this all means that we can’t get to the east from here- the river cuts us off and all the crossings are blocked.

FFI:The R. Tame sources near Birmingham airport and rambles around Warwickshire before turning north. Since lots of streams join the river, then in practice, rivers have many sources and the designation of one starting point must surely be arbitrary.

Wormwood: is a plant, it turns out, one that leaves poison in the soil, hence the book title discussed yesterday. The book says that "Chornobyl" is the Ukrainian word for Wormwood. I will try to find out the British name for it. It’s of the Genus "Artimesia", Tarragon is a member of that group too. Absinthe Wormwood is used as an insect repellent, especially fleas!

Seems like a good book so far by the way.