and more!

But more of that shortly, lets catch up on the week first.

Well the week didn't start off that well, Monday arrived damp which put the kibosh on doing much outdoors, just as well I had writing to do! But even that didn't go as well as I'd hoped, the chapter tantalisingly close to completion but my brain turned off at 10pm. It had been a frustrating day, maybe Tuesday would be better?

Tuesday of course, is a ride day, a much needed chance to get my head in order and exchange four walls for open countryside, the forecast suggested a dry day with a wind out of the west, it could be worse! And so I set off for another Tuesday in Wales but first I had to get there, which wasn't helped when my first two roads towards the bridge were both closed, resulting in extra kilometres around the diversion. To add insult, when I got to said bridge, the usual open track was closed which meant another trip around the block to get to the other side, grrrr!

Once over the waters though, I headed towards Newport, detouring through Caerleon to avoid the city and pick up the Risca road. Its not a continuous climb, it climbs, drops then climbs again through a succession of former mining communities for several miles before a steeper and more intensive climb across to the Rhymney valley, one way going north towards Merthyr, the other south towards Cardiff. But neither of those were my target, today would be an addition to my cheese collection, Caerphilly (Caerfilli hardly seems worth the effort to make it 'Welsh' does it?) Anyhow it was at least generally downhill and most of the traffic was on the 'new' road so it was quite pleasant and all the better when I reached the impressive castle in the centre.

Lunch at the castle had always been my intention, I found a bench that overlooked the outer curtain and its moat and luxuriated in a hard earned rest after ninety kilometres riding. The castle isn't open again yet so after a few snaps from outside I returned to the road to start the wind assisted return to the bridge. Well that was the idea, in reality, for the most part it wasn't against me but dodging past Newport on the seaward side then keeping to the lanes meant a less than straight line eastward!

A quick stop for ice cream at Chepstow then back over the bridge to England and yet another convoluted route to navigate west Bristol! the clue was at Caerphilly but nevertheless the 188km I ended up with was a surprise as much as the 1400+m of climbing, there not having been the intensity of uphill effort my previous Welsh trips have supplied.

And so to today, I was pretty keen on getting that chapter finished so after the laundry that was next up, then sorting out the 'book' to go onto Kindle, shopping and finally sorting out my BC posting for the day, phew!

So onto that posting, yes the second instalment of Book 26 is close to being available, it should be live this pm under ASIN: B08DV7FCFF, i'll post the direct link as soon as its available. STOP PRESS! as I've been composing this blog it has gone live! So here is the link:-

Which brings us neatly to todays pair of postings, Chapter 18 of Summer Girl is Celebration and the penultimate part of Summer Loving, Nanna has Gaby reminiscing over a past family reunion.

Tomorrow I'm aiming on completing a bakers dozen of imperial century rides in July and hopefully, on Friday, I'll get in a nice longer hike to bring the month to a close. I think that about wraps things for today so its time to say

Tschussie and I'll see you next time!

Madeline Anafrid