8°C, sunny & brisk W. CA:30 miles
It’s always a tricky one to decide when to return to riding the bike. I’ve had nearly two weeks of with what should be the winter’s heaviest cold. Suddenly, yesterday (Friday) I felt ready to get back on. That fizzy legs feeling had come back but there was ice on pavements as I walked the dogs early. One more day I decided.
10°C, clear, RW wind+chill. CA:26 miles
Rode to the usual cafe today, ate some simple cyclist’s food & came back at a plodding 13.5 mph. Perhaps it was too soon to ride after that awful cold of last week. Near Catton Park, there was the most unsettling sight. A pheasant, in a puddle of all places. I went back to check it and the poor thing was still alive. It had a head injury, a slightly broken end of beak with a little blood dripping. Apart from that it seemed reasonably alert. No attempt was made to flee my presence.
I have no idea what to do in this situation with these poor creatures, so I picked it up and placed it on a patch of longer grass in the sunshine. A vain hope I know, but maybe it could warm up enough to take off.
8~5°C, gales with sun, scudding clouds
I have sand in my hair, my ears and eyes. The dunes on Formby beach were fuzzy with drifting sands, so I climbed up to the top of the dunes to escape. It was no better up there, the swirls of sand were whipped up the slopes by the gales and took off on the mini-summits. The force of the blast made steady photos impossible too.
PC frustration- I have new CDs and can’t load them to my iPod. The external wireless receiver failed in install properly tonight. I nuisance when iTunes runs on that computer not this laptop. Annoyance grows when it takes so long trying all the alternative methods with a few re-starts thrown in. It even began to look as if the USB ports were not working properly. Maybe the motherboard drivers have a problem. The list goes on.
7°C, fog. CA:29 miles.
Got the ride, but the air was thick grey which sucked all the colour out of the land (except the orange streetlights I suppose).
Formby Beach
14°C, SE winds, sunny. CK:48 miles.
12C, clear, NE light. CR:61 miles
Mushrooms live rather well on roadside verges, this was an un-missable display, like clusters of eggs.
Coprinus comatus, the Shaggy Inkcap?
Even on this small scale, you can see it’s a fuzzy photo. I carry my phone with its pinhole camera on bike rides. Sometime this winter, an upgrade- but to what? My next phone should have a really good camera, and by that, it must have a good lens, control over exposure, colour balance and optical zoom. Does such a camera-phone even exist?
17C, rain then sun, wind lightening. CR:70.2 miles
After a few days off the bike, today’s ride felt easy, right up to the 70th mile. Only early sunset stopped me doing more. Home, the dogs were caught working on a puzzle. the chocolate box must have had a second layer, it just had to!
15C, clear but winds strong. CK19 miles.
Not up to a full ride today so playtime on the fixed-gear bike instead. I tried doing a track stand on a quiet road. Erm, it’s not as easy as it seems. The problem, for me I suppose, is fear of falling off. Very slow speed control is okay, but kicking backwards to cancel a leftwards fall is, so far, impossible.
More time another day.
14°C, rain. CR:?
It would be dry if I'd left it in the house
Sunday is cyclingday, so I wake to rain and a washingline full of wet clothes. I face a grim choice: finish the last bit of painting in the attic, or attack the pile of marking while I wait for the clouds to lift. It’s a tough life.
16°C, towering cumulonimbus- they missed me, just. CR:48 miles
Late ride today, with only limited time before sunset at 19.15, so you want to freesteady miles, unimpeded by traffic, then this happens- it’s milking time. Those ladies weren’t in a hurry, many stopped at that big puddle on the right to drink, others just toddled off on their daily routine.
Blimey, those ladies looked full.
Micycle 