Defibrillators at Caunton

A little bit of time off work, and as usual the weather has changed before my holiday starts - hello wind and rain! But today has not been too bad to be fair, not too breezy and plenty of sun until late afternoon.

Now the wind is blowing, oh by jingo.

I managed to get out on my bike today; the long walk has been out off for a bit as I'm still a bit stiff in the legs post-season. I rode out to Caunton on the Sheffield road, shock horror an A-Road but luckily far nicer to ride on than the A46 or A17.

I rode out to Caunton, which has just been doing it's best kept village stuff and thus is full of flowers. The bus stop is like Kew Gardens, there is yet another bicycle by the roadside, this one covered in more flowers rather than painted yellow, and then there a red phone box with a flower pot in it!

It also has a de-fib machine in it too, and also acts as a magazine exchange, so you can read Granta or Cosmo while zapping yourself. It's the first such phone box I've seen actually being used for community stuff, which I love.

A lot of the ones round here keep getting burnt out!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 11.09.17

Making Friends on a Ride

Another day, stresses of yesterday forgotten, and I was out on the bike again.

I wanted to explore my strange fascination for small watercourses by following the Caunton Beck to the titualr village, and visiting the wonderful ford there that I always loved as a child.

To say that Nottinghamshire is mainly rather flat and boring, it was a hilly old ride out there, with some steep climbs rising into both Norwell and Caunton itself. Everytime I encountered the beck, I photographed it, as it winded around the villages in its leafy little cut.

The villages I rode through - Little Carlton, Bathley, Norwell and Caunton - are all old fashioned constructions, with lots of barns and gable ended houses, so they were obviously all popular breeding spots with hirundids. There were certainly lots of them in the air today, swallows and house martins, flying over the villages hunting like mad for the insects the muggy weather had brought out.

There were lots over the fresh cut pasture fields as well, swooping low where the machines had been.

I eventually get to Caunton and enjoyed revisiting the ford, which as ever seemed so much larger when I was a child. But you, know, cycling is a lonely business and retracing my route out of Caunton, it was lovely to make friends with a lovely furry cat of most unusual colouration.

No one else was going to give my legs a rub when I've finished.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.09.16