Its the first of the month!

And of course for any with a leaning towards Welshness, Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus!

February has ended but not before throwing us a bit of a weather curve ball, a blast of Arctic air which has brought enough airborne ice with it to give the Northern lights an outing at least as far south as the Somerset levels! Further north the curtains of light have been quite spectacular and with more icy blasts coming through we may see more into next week when temperatures even down here are expected to return to negative values. There have been a few light showers but its been essentially dry and fairly bright, there are blue skies above east Brizz as i write this.

So what have i been up to? Well we had our excursion on Sunday for Aunty Bev's birthday - a roast dinner in Stroud followed by some canal chasing before returning for more cake. So that's it on the birthday front for now although i'm already planning for the Grandson's 5th in April.

On Monday i took myself to Sweden - well i've not had meatballs for a few weeks - its an excursion, food and exercise in one hit on a bright but cool day. But then i got to thinking about the summer and going away for a trip, my last proper holiday was in 2019 and in my emails was a catalyst, an early booking discount to get me into Europe that ran out on the 28th. Those summer trips have often been the bedrock of storylines for the Gaby and Nena sagas and i've missed the input as well as mental reboot a fortnight of roaming furren parts gives me.

So i pressed a few buttons, had a thunk and hit book, birthday largese covering the deposit for a trip late August / early September. The plan is to go from the coast across to Aachen then follow a bike trail to Luxembourg before going down the Moselle to Koblenz on the Rhein, Gaby country! From there its basically down the Rhein back to the ferry, an essentially flat ride. Most of the riding route is completely new to me although i have visited a lot of the cities in the dim and distant past.

All i have to do now is sort out financing things, i'll be camping but i still need to eat etc but i'm sure over 6 months i can pull the funds together. Having something to aim for usually acts as a bit of a bum rocket for me, here's hoping!

Tuesday then, the last day of February, my enthusiasm for riding was low so i thought a shorter ride would be best. I had a destination for a stop in mind so i set off to do a loop through the jumble of hills that sit to the east of The Mendip. I wasn't in the mood for anything too dramatic, avoiding the longer and steeper climbs before dropping past Midsommer Norton to Radstock and then along the bike route to Wellow for my lunch stop. My food eventually turned up, just a burger and chips, but instead of my usual twenty minutes, half hour it was closer to a full hour before i set off again, my legs complaining a bit at the return to effort.

Along the bike trail and back through the tunnels to Bath where i had a brain fart and instead of the easy bike trail i elected to take the road up to the race course. And it is up, from the river to the top is a gain of 200m over @ 2km with grades topping 15% and averaging over 7% and yesterday the wind was blowing directly down it! Okay, not my wisest choice but i got there, the remaining ride was easy by comparison finishing just over 91km and the 918m of up meant i racked up 9.9m up per kilometre, doesn't sound much but take out the down and thats almost 20m per uphill km, the most intense climbing i've done for a while!

Well that's me for today,
For now, Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid