not far from here!

and this is the view I got...

But more of that in a bit.

Well I've been overwhelmed by the response to my Friday posting of Gothic Daughter, not so much the comments/kudos but the number of reads, Trixie has scored numbers in just two days that even Gaby takes several months to reach! I'm putting together the continuing threads at the moment and I'm already looking at ideas for a follow on 'book 3' - watch this space as they say.

So, the second half of the week has turned increasingly warm, even if it has clouded up a bit this afternoon after several days of sunshine. I trundled the bike out for a while on Thursday, another session taking in plenty of deserted Cotswold lanes. It was into the 20's by the time I got back, having run out of water long before the end of the 130km ride.

I had been planning on a run on Friday but the tweak in my 'good' leg was still there so instead I ended up doing a shop - well I was queuing for longer than shopping but at least the sun was out!

Yesterday, Saturday, I decided to get out a bit earlier and so by 08.00 I was already some kilometres into a ride that eventually included many km of disused railway, a climb up onto the Mendip and another 120+km banked. The early start did mean a couple of cooler hours riding but even so I ran out of liquid again. If you are into railways, the lines I rode were the Strawberry Line from Conksbury to Axbridge, the Apple Line from Midsommer Norton to Bath and of course some length of the Bristol - Bath path, maybe a quarter of the total distance. That first picture was from my mid ride stop at Axbridge looking south towards Bridgewater.

And so to today. It being Easter Sunday, straight from breakfast I donned my Domestic Goddess hat (not an actual hat of course) and started preparing dinner, nothing too fancy but a bit different. String beans, cauliflower, carrots, sprouts and mash eventually joined the 'lamb toad' - my own culinary invention, neck of lamb cooked in a batter pudding, coated with mint sauce which crusts in the oven - hmmmm! There was dessert too, a rather tasty peach and strawberry crumble which we had with custard once the main course had subsided.

After all the chef-ing, I took myself out for a short walk as the days exercise allowance - it was only 5km but it was nice to be out in the sunshine, just a light breeze keeping things to just comfortable and surprisingly few people about, pretty much everyone sticking to SD. The donkey rozzers were out though, an effective enforcement interface when needed.

There is of course a new Gaby chapter today, Better News certainly cheers the Wunderkind before a spate of theatricals at the Sebenschuh restaurant!

Well that's a wrap,
take care and i'll be back with more on Wednesday
Madeline Anafrid