Two Wheels not Two Legs

Two Wheels Good, Two Legs Bad.

The Animal Farm version of today.

So, Wednesday's exercise consisted of me riding the route of the charity bike ride I arranged for work last year, around the local South Notts villages of Cotham, Sibthorpe, Hawksworth, Scarrington, Car Colston, Screveton and FLintham before making a fast (ha ha) ride home.

Just like the charity ride last year, it was a rotten headwind all the way out, to the extent that my second 20km home was twice as fast as the outward bound journey. It was good to get a long 40km ride in however, to try and get the calories burning and the legs spinning in time for the dread winter commute.

I also saw some autumn cyclamen, Which I've been hoping to come across for a while. It wasn't really a sightseeing day however, it was just a little grey and gloomy, and I could see distant rainclouds I didn't want to get caught in. Metaphor for life! I stopped for the churches, for they had flowers growing and in Scarrington's case Cockerel's strutting, and the Screveton giants are always worth a viewing, especially as swallows and house martins feed themselves up around them.

Next day or two, they are gone for warmer climes, as I wish I could be.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 20.09.17

No Cricket but Biking Instead

I  could have played cricket today, for the local side Upton in a friendly match, but frankly after the long season my back and left leg were very sore after yesterday's match. , I tried to have a bit of a run about but it was very very sore, so I had to cancel.

Skip won't be pleased about that. Neither was I, as it was a great day for cricket, and Upton is a nice ground.

So had to make the best of it, and decided to take a rare opportunity to cycle for pleasure on a nice day for it, for a bloody change.

I took myself out into the country lanes, listening to the cricket on Test Match Special, and enjoying the sun on my arms and legs. I visited the Sibthorpe Dovecote, a scheduled  ancient monument that had over 1000 nest holes inside it, and the Flintham Community shop where a can of San Pellegrino orange and pomengranate went down incredibly well.

Their drinks can rightly take their place alongside Barrs, and if they are reading this they can feel free to send me some free products!

When I got back, I wanted to have a serious read in the garden, but ended up falling asleep in my sun chair. Almost like the middle aged man I am.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 27.08.17

Cup of Tea and a Spitfire

Busy day today, where I awoke nice and early to blue skies and rather than be exhausted as with the two previous days, I was going to get out there and enjoy the day.

So not far off 10am I found myself sat at Rumbles, large tea in hand, and my ears plugged into the Archers trial omnibus - you git Rob - when suddenly a new sound reached my ears...the unmistakable throaty roar of a World War 2 era aircraft.

Straightaway I remembered it was the RAF parade in town today, and I had forgotten. Normally I try and watch in town and watch as a the displaying aircraft does a couple of flyovers above the market square, but at least I was lucky. I got to have a good view of the Spitfire from the park.

The clipped wings identified it as a later mark Spitfire, and indeed the engine note was more raspy than the Merlins of the earlier marks.

A bit of research identified it as this mark 16 with a later series Merlin built by Packard in the US. What a joy to see it!

The afternoon took me out on another 30km bike ride, with a strong breeze making me favour a ride out to Flintham so I could have a tailwind on the way home. Today I visited the little museum and community shop, where I figured it would be nice to stop ad having a drink; a great idea, as it mean I could ride the wind back home averaging 32kmh!

More warm weather coming to enjoy!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 12.09.16

Riding out to Flintham Hall

I had business to attend to in Flintham village today regarding my charity bike ride - all the organisation is now in place, hooray hooray - and so having had a very pleasant if not sunny ride out to the village, I decided to mosey on over to Flintham Hall to have a look.

Sadly it's not open to the public, so I'll have to think of some other way of getting a look at the ornamental lake at one end of the grounds. The bit I could see over the church wall, a church with some very flashly inscribed old gravestones - was the conservatory end of the building, which looked very light and airy indeed from the view I had.

The posh gardens were out of view, but there seems to be a large complex of orchards and various mini gardens around the main building. I have a feeling that Mr Ponders would have loved it if he had visited, seems like his kind of place even if no sconces were for sale. The parklands looked huge, I'll wager there are a fair few deer kicking around in there.

Gosh it was a muggy day, I ended up cycling 30km in the end, and as soon as I got home I just knocked back about a litre and a half of various fluids in a single gulp!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.09.16