and other historical weather events!

Here in north west Europe we kind of expect a mixed bag of weather this time of year, the recent run of warmer, dry conditions was atypical but we've now entered a period of more usual phenomena. Yep, showers and sunshine are giving us some less predictable days, only the gusty wind is a constant.

Monday was a funny day for me, i ended up having two walks, one to post some stuff and a second to get some food. To be honest my mind had taken a day trip and not told the rest of me. I did put the mower across our patch of grass - it probably won't get done again for a while as part of my attempt to get more insects into our green patch.

I thought i'd do a shorter ride for Tuesday's exercise given the likelihood of some damp so i set out to do a clockwise variant of my 'regular' Clevedon burger circuit. First notable thing of the day was a Muntjac deer walking across the bike path 10m in front of me as if it hadn't a care in the world! They are quite small, think medium size dog, which is what i thought it was at first sight, it always cheers me to see them but i was surprised by this one being in such proximity to the busy path and nearby housing.

I wasn't even an hour in however when i started to get some gastric discomfort, often i can ride through it but on this occasion it got to the point that i couldn't ride any further. You don't need detail but a short stop sorted the issue and i was on my way. Things were still not 100% but i pressed on as from this point it was easier to follow my plan than cut short in both distance and terrain.

A mucky burger didn't seem such a good idea so i settled on a chicken burger instead, tasty but not what i had set out for. I was feeling a bit better as i set off for the much shorter return leg but within 5km i had to make another stop! Yeah, TMI, but afterwards i did feel a lot better even if i felt some urgency to get back to base and proper facilities. I had to stop to watch the swans grazing, easily a couple of dozen all in one field that they favour for 'nesting', from a distance it looked like a flock of sheep.

Back across Bristol - i've got an almost traffic free route i favour, and back to the house to turn the GPS off at 85km covered. There were a few spots of damp but i managed to stay dry, no one actually likes riding in the wet.

Today? well we've started the day with some showers but it's brightened up now - i won't need to water the plants at least. More legumes are poking up from the soil every day and the root veg are now making an appearance - to be honest, given the size of our beds the volume of veg produced is really just a token nod to our consumption, a few kilos of taters, a few meals worth of peas and beans and a crumble or two from the fruit. But something is better than nothing even if on this scale its not exactly economically viable in terms of time spent, material costs etc but i guess it is therapeutic and satisfying to produce at least a little of what we eat ourselves.

The rest of the week continues with the mixed weather, my usual ride routine may get switched about a bit as we go into the long Easter weekend (Happy Easter if you are that way inclined). I'm still planning to visit Imber, its quite a long ride so the weather is quite important to do that. As for today, well i guess i'll take a walk this afternoon, nothing too exciting, but you can't be sat all day can you?

That's all for today, i'll be back Sunday with more Gaby,
Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid