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The top window has a special place in history.
Rapunzel's tower?
#beerienteering
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49930859336_71e054af94_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49930859336_71e054af94_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j5dGV7 ]DSC_1145[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
Stunning day out there, sunny, dry, but damn it's bumpy at times.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49934288242_bd53ca7f37_5k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49934288242_bd53ca7f37_5k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j5whdb ]2020-05-25_12-55-17[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49933464868_3216810a01_5k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49933464868_3216810a01_5k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j5s4s5 ]2020-05-25_12-55-11[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
The top window has a special place in history.
Fox Talbot.
Early ride in Wharncliffe for us.
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With a view like that I hope you had fish and chips😉
Took the summer beast...
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...out for my sprint session today.
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6 x up that 6% at max watts then 20k home. Was very beautiful and still with the whirring of the 50's, except going through Epping Forest cap park which was jammed with shouty people and cars.
Blissful.
Well 1 a day isn't needed anymore so I went for a second. Took a cold tinnie, a camera and a 100-400 lens to shoot some of the birds I've seen on my regular stops on the route home round the fields behind the house.
The last few days: loads of birds, several pairs of Red Kites especially including several low altitude low speed cruises up the field edge no more than 15ft from me.
Today: Nothing.
Have a bee and some daisies.
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Dales was mentally busy today, so I went high and cheeky to try to lose the crowds.
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More #beerienteering today. 64km which pretty much killed me. It just feels like I've lost loads of fitness, likely the after-effects of CV19. Still, a lovely, if slightly breezy, day so no hurry.
Loads of insects around now
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49934997373_fc59245bc0_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49934997373_fc59245bc0_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j5zV1z ]P1060524[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49935510416_b60bf4b30a_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49935510416_b60bf4b30a_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j5Cxw9 ]P1060519[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
Huge swathes of bog cotton
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49934997133_7193136ffc_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49934997133_7193136ffc_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j5zUWr ]P1060533[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
But the highlight came when I sat down to have some food and saw a bird flying over.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49935509821_9c83c9fc6a_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49935509821_9c83c9fc6a_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j5CxkT ]P1060523[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
Looked hawk-like, but too big. Too "fine" in features to be a buzzard or eagle. Then I saw it heading to its nest.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49935813197_d27e04cd1d_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49935813197_d27e04cd1d_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j5E6wv ]P1060522[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
Osprey!!
Managed to find some new (to me) gravel routes this morning
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The kids in the village still finding more ways to be creative. This is a 'rock caterpillar'.
@eddybaby - absolutely!
@scotroutes - well done with the Osprey! I have actually seen one, with a fish, a large chub it had caught; it flew close enough to be able to identify the fish from the size and colour as it went past the bridge I was standing on, then it perched on top of a utility pole munching on the fish. Sadly not close enough to get a decent photo with my phone. I was on a bridge carrying Sustrans Route 4 from Chippenham to Calne, couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing.
From my wander out to the post office and bird food shopping this afternoon...
These are just coming into flower, on a grass verge opposite where I used to work on a large industrial estate in Chippenham. I don’t know anywhere else where they grow, and there’s a lot of them there at the moment. Beautiful things.
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Could have just ridden up the bedrock riverbed in Littondale today. Not a drop in it.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49942589736_66710734fa_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49942589736_66710734fa_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j6fPXo ]IMG_20200527_123637-2[/url]
Eldest daughter threw the teddy out of the cot when she missed our Cutgate ride on Saturday, we forgot to tell her about it. Decided to go back up with her tonight for a quick blast.
We were the only ones out riding and only passed a couple of walkers
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These are just coming into flower, on a grass verge opposite where I used to work on a large industrial estate in Chippenham. I don’t know anywhere else where they grow, and there’s a lot of them there at the moment. Beautiful things.
Bee Orchids. I thought they were mainly in the South East, guess they're slowly moving West?
Cloudier today, but still bone dry and hot. Too dry really, some of the trails are like corrugated concrete.
Mostly flat XC and quiet lanes with a few steps & drops between the chalk cliffs. 3 secs over the existing 1:45 kom through a pea field. Gonna get that this lockdown.
Bee Orchids. I thought they were mainly in the South East, guess they’re slowly moving West?
Yes, there are a couple of places in the area where they used to grow, but this site is just so out of the ordinary, literally right in the middle of a big industrial estate, but it’s the only place on the whole estate where they grow. I can only think that topsoil for landscaping was brought from somewhere where they are more common. I haven’t seen them anywhere else in north Wiltshire in many years.
There’s another site about ten miles away on a nature reserve where Marsh Helleborines grow in their hundreds, AFAIK the only inland site in the country, they normally grow in dune slacks on the coast.
Magical evening ride - dust, sun and the call of golden plover.
Bloody lucky to have this on our doorstep.
@sandwich
Yes, Freston Folly. Apparently you can stay in it! When it's not lockdown, obvs..
@ready That's one of the directions I head for extra hills from Eastern Ipswich.
Anyhoo today's jaunt was out to Woodbridge, Easton and Debenham before heading home. This is the first pic of the series, there's a large panorama out Kenton way that should stay on Flickr as it's 15MB on it's own.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49944860863_191d49838d.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49944860863_191d49838d.jp g"/> [/img][/url]Woodbridge by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/mycams/ ]Mike Hams[/url], on Flickr
A walk in East Lothian. You'd never guess, but it's quite windy in the place they built the windfarms:
Change of scenery:
Gave myself heat-stroke sunbathing on my "roof terrace" yesterday:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAuiTJ7jfsS/
This bugger snuck up on me while i was walking in the fields behind the house.
What bird is it.i saw one just the same some weeks back
Red Kite
Dusty as **** out there this morning.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49948273966_4d488183d0_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49948273966_4d488183d0_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j6KXFm ]IMG_20200529_103531492_BURST009[1][/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/ ]multispeedstu[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49947773348_caca41a704_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49947773348_caca41a704_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j6HoS1 ]IMG_20200529_103531492_BURST010[1][/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/ ]multispeedstu[/url], on Flickr
http://imgur.com/gallery/2R016Rz
Third ride post covid and I think I'm past the worst. New bike is seriously fast. Managed to get a pr on my fave local descent. Great to be back out there. Although I found some trail sabotage on a cheeky section. Only the third time I've ridden it so I'll probably not bother again if people get that upset about it! Generally I avoid cheeky stuff so I can live without it.
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Nice wee run up the raiders road in galloway, passed numerous adders basking on the road
gorgeous out there today. Clarity of air, just right combination of heat and breeze, and smells of pine forest and sounds of bird song to assault all the senses. If I could bottle it up and sell it I would be a very rich man...
A little panorama from my descent. If you look closely in the far distance at about 11 o'clock you can just see me house 🙂
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Brilliant couple of hours at my (semi) local spot, covert woods. Trails are running the best they have been for ever.
Oakley DRT5 did it's job keeping the sweat out my eyes, new evoc hip pack kept me hydrated and not drenched in sweat.
Jeffsy looking resplendent in it's summer coat of dust.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49949079282_005dcd4aa3_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49949079282_005dcd4aa3_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
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Only 10 miles/1500ft climbing, and I was properly rusty at the start - was getting back into the flow by the end though.
A couple from the other night I forgot to post, At the top with of cheddargorge it was a cracker
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Another dawn start for us. Wandered out to the Peak, parked up at Fox House and went for a play in Blacca Woods and back via Houndskirk Moor. Apart from a couple of joggers we saw no one. Sun was up but a cool breeze made it chapel hat peg weather.
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@Tracey that cannot be your daughter! You must be wearing well, you look like sisters - thumbs up! 🙂
Anyway, a bit of a meh-mood ride for me today, but still it was very nice out:
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Thanks for the compliment 😉. I have two. We should have been going here on our next trip in a couple of weeks to Lake Garda and the Italian Alps but we pulled the plug on it last night
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Will be happy if when we can get off somewhere in the camper
Old fashioned XC ride today on some inappropriate bikes.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49951823266_289143f966_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49951823266_289143f966_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j759Lb ]Clee Hill in the haze.[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/ ]multispeedstu[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49951323543_48026382be_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49951323543_48026382be_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j72Adg ]Faded.[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/ ]multispeedstu[/url], on Flickr
More from me by following the link as there's panorama pics of spuds!
Pillory and stocks at Ufford Church
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Keeping to The Old Ways by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/mycams/ ]Mike Hams[/url], on Flickr
Local loop.
First time back on the bike for a while for me, and Woburn Sands was definitely living up to it's name today!
Bone dry blast out into the Dales this morning.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49956413397_ba3f56c26c_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49956413397_ba3f56c26c_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j7tFfn ]31052-2[/url]
followed by a stop-off at Bowland Knott for a sandwich and coke with the missus. From there it looked like a large chunk of Lancashire is on fire again (at least two large fires visible from there), presumably thanks to idiots with BBQs.
Didn't actually ride anywhere today, well if you exclude a bit of trackstand/endo turn practice on the patio, but found an hour to catch up with a bit of bike maintainance on my old fathful Zesty. Couple of new bearings, new gearcable, cleaned / bled the brakes and even found time to give her a quick wash, and she still scrubs up ok for an 8yo bike 🙂
Very warm in Essex today...
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Glen Doll on Saturday
I'm still working 4 day weeks so managed 2 Peak rides in the last couple of days, on my own Friday, with the Mrs today.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CA3ExUcHp94/?igshid=1kpbu0g99ajni
Sweaty road ride today
Cooler day out on the motorbikes yesterday
On the way up yesterday
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49955181171_f29b98c0a0_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49955181171_f29b98c0a0_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j7nmX6 ]P1060541[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49955461782_cd3b9c23e6_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49955461782_cd3b9c23e6_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j7oNnd ]DSC_1168[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
On the way down today.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49955180176_9a854871ce_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49955180176_9a854871ce_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j7nmDW ]P1060553[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
Railway line at Broughton with the boys
[url= https://i.postimg.cc/02c8DShJ/IMG-20200531-133805.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/02c8DShJ/IMG-20200531-133805.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
Followed by a pedal over to grizedale
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And a look at the resurfacing on parkamoor ☹️
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That's right ladies and Gentlemen, it's officially dust-o-clock round here!
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Weather is due to break (might have already) so a spin up to Loch Einich for a wee paddle.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49961383327_3d7c147c0b_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49961383327_3d7c147c0b_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j7V9CP ]P1060561[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
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Lucky I had my mudguards on!
Lucky I had my mudguards on!
TBF - I got a very wet arse today.
But riding through a loch will do that!
Dear Deirdre
Her next door keeps giving me meaningful looks behind her partner's back.
First food not from our kitchen since lockdown started and, goodness, it was delicious... and as I'd ridden into St Andrews I could have a beer with it! 🙂
Want. So much want.
Horse burger??