and sorry its a little later than usual.

You can blame the weather, not today's or even yesterdays but all the way back to Thursday! A duff forecast for the day of Thor put my ride back to Friday and even though the weather was okay, i generally like a rest between rides so Saturdays ride became Sunday. And it truly was horrible on Thursday, I got up a bit earlier than usual and set off for the Swedish shop under leaden skies, essentially to partake of their breakfast. It was a bit drizzly by the time i got back.

Aunty Bev was going to Cardiff on business so i opted to keep her company for the drive which saw me browsing the shopping lanes of the St David's Centre and anywhere else that was under cover. The weather was truly horrible but by the time we got back to Englandthings were looking better, we could at least see the River Severn on the return.

So Friday i was out on the bike, nothing special, just a bit of a bobble out to Clevedon then after satisfying my stomachs request for a burger and tea, an equally bobbly ride back. A hundred and five km banked but not very quickly!

Saturday, well i couldn't get settled on anything so i did laundry, fixed a flat, got some shopping, made a pizza for tea - somehow that pretty much filled the day!

And so to today. The wind had just about flipped direction from South West to North East so i set off to do a loop up on the Cotswold massif. It was overcasy most of the day, there were a few spots of wet but mostly it was cold and windy! Yeah, most of my ride, certainly the first three hours, the temperature hovered between two and three c, it did reach the dizzying heights of six centigrade later, once i'd descended the Cotswold scarp. It stayed pretty much dry, todays 109km topped me out at over 330km for the week, the highest weekly total so far in '22.

I am dragging back the target deficit little by little but i'm still the thick end of 500km behind, a piffling amount at this time of the year with all the long days of summer yet to come.

I have posted the next part of Gaby - Fame, Part of the Family is a continuation of catching up with Bernie.

So whats doing this week in the Bell Tower? Well tomorrow is time for some baking, hopefully a few words of the next Gaby chapter will be composed, Tuesday I have a friend coming to visit then on Wednesday i set off on a mini adventure. Mostly due to Covid, its been two and a half years since my last bike trip of more than a day so, having got some Birthday money last week i thought it was time to put that right. Its only an overnight job but on Wednesday i'm heading off to Minehead, a place i've never been to. After a night in a posh hotel, (okay it claims 3*'s which is posh for me, booked on a half price deal) i head back via the eastern edge of Devon to catch a train back up to Brizz. So 2 days, a couple of hundred kilometres riding and a change of scenery, hopefully it will get the juices of travel flowing again and return my thuse.

Of course, the knock on effect is that the usual Wednesday post may be delayed depending on connectivity in the boonies of west Somerset.

For today though, thats all folks!

Madeline Anafrid