Winter Thrushes on the Bicycle

I'm writing this while listening to "Starless"  by King Crimson which is an awesome piece of music...

So after an exhausted day of nothing yesterday - My Black Friday duties totally wiped me out - I decided I needed to make a good go at today, cold or not.

So in the morning I made my way to  the park for a cup of tea on my trusty Rockrider, and then in the afternoon managed to get out for a sunset 25km ride, with a gentle breeze it seemed like a bloody nice thing  to  do.

And I worry I'll get very fat indeed if I don't do it.

So out I went along the cycle path with the low sun lighting up the turbines of the wind farm and reflecting off the solar panel plant. It even made the rubbish tip glow in gold. Rather oddly I thought, the gulls and crows feasting  off the rubbish were flushed by my presence from about 100 metres away, silly feathery things!

It was on this cycle path that I saw my first winter thrushes of the year, flushed from the berry laden hawthorns alongside. Trouble is, with the sun behind them they just looked like black shapes, until they flew past me and I caught a glimpse of pale bellies and grey rumps; fieldfares.

Odd that I should see fieldfare before redwing. Normally the latter are easier to come across just outside of  town in early winter.

So I kept on riding as the sun set, and re-murmarised a flock of about 50 starling who thought they were going to have a peaceful roost in a tree next to the road to Thorpe village.

It was a good ride, and I took a bit of pride in myself for  doing it.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.11.18

OK, Let's go for a Ride

So, buggered heels and blistered feet aren't affected by cycling, so I decided more or less on the spare of the moment to go out on my clunky old mountain bike, on the old favourite Cotham - Elston - Thorpe route, a hack of about 23km.

Took me just over an hour, and was highly enjoyable. I was looking for winter thrushes and didn't see a single one, but there were some nice flocks of chaffinch ransacking the berries in the hedgerows.

In the ploughed fields herring and black backed gulls hulked about, looking for whatever pickings they may. No buzzards or owls - thought I might see an early owl on the move as the light was fading.

So nothing major seen, but I was glad to be riding again.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.11.18

Sibthorpe by Bicycle

I haven't had a run out on the bicycle for a fair old while, and I didn't want to waste a lovely day JUST gardening, although I sheared down the dead cow parsley at the back of the driveway and took out some of the more lethal looking clusters of nettles.

I needed a bit more freedom and fresh air than that, so off I went on my bicycle to see the strange storehouse at Sibthorpe, the round building like a Mycenean Tholos tomb above ground. It sits next to the small, shallow River Smite, whose banks were well populated with glittering banded demoiselles.

Various butterflies flitted about; large whites, small torts, the odd comma. No-one was stopping to chat.

I carried on the road round to Elston, to the windmill house, and saw a beautifully floral wall in Thorpe. All the time realising that I'd forgotten to bring a drink and that my mouth made a desert seem wet.

Fool. But a nice 30km anyway.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 03.07.18

A New Adventure - A Run to Thorpe Village

Today I determined, would be a run into new territory. But where to go go? At my current level of fitness, I've pretty much reached the extreme of my running range with my runs to North Muskham lake, and there aren't many other places I've not visited that are in range.

However, I remembered that although I've cycled through Thorpe village often enough, I've never run there, so I decided that was the way to go. Especially as I had previously noted that there was a footpath leading out of the village that I could explore and thus avoid having to retrace my route back, something very very OCD brain hates me doing. 

I hadn't even got to the village when on arriving at the Farndon A46 flyover, I had the joy of spotting a lapwing engaging in a tumbling courtship flight, although I couldn't spot who he was trying to impress; and then as I got nearer, a small flock of swallows swooped above, seemingly heading for Thorpe as well while a group of their cousins sat rather more lazily on a telegraph wire. 

I wished as I was sat up there with them. The journey seemed so much shorter on a bicycle.

Thorpe is a tiny hamlet, with a population of less than 100, but it's been around a long time. Henry Tudor raised his standard here to prior to the War of the Roses battle at East Stoke about a mile to the south-west, and supposedly there were Roman artefacts and a fortress named "Ad Pontem" nearby (Ad Pontem = To the Bridge???). The Fosseway would have passed through the area, and there have been many such finds around Newark. 

The church of Saint Laurence stands within the settlement, behind a somewhat intimidating horsey type residence. All around are houses I could never afford in a thousand lifetimes, and no matter how pretty a place it is - and the old houses are not so old on closer inspection - there's no pub, and no shop and a very long hike to either.

Speaking of hiking, so many public paths are incredibly badly marked in the Newark area it's untrue. As I ran out of the village, figuring I would be able to get home through the fields as a path was indicated, I found myself running along the edge of farmer's fields thinking I was perhaps technically trespassing. And then I would come across a yellow arrow in the middle of nowhere, and you would follow where it pointed for a bit until you came to the edge of a field, then nothing! Had the same problem when running to Southwell last autumn.

Thus I found myself running underneath a 300 foot wind turbine, probably not recommended. 

I didn't get chopped up like ham by a stray blade however, and made it home safe after covering 9 miles. Now I know why those Tour de France cyclists have massages all the time.

Si

Suppose this will be Thorpe village, then

Yours for more money than you'll ever have

Private pond, complete with squabbling canada geese and goslings

St Laurence Church

The Manor House, now a posh B and B I think

White house

Still plenty of blossom here

Busy blossom customer

For some reason I always like to see these village info boards

Dragons

Rabbit hole

Quo Vadis? across the empty fields

Wind turbine

Oil seed rape

Steps not for tired legs

Found near home, clumps of this speedwell like stuff

Hello! It's a tawny mining bee!

Love these colours