even if you aren't Christian religous everyone likes Easter right?

So, i'm back in Cabotville after my brief sojourne to GOC. I hadn't been sure how i would fill all the days but it worked out quite a nice break in the end, trips out with the family, a great day visiting my kinder, time spent with friends and even a mucky curry!

I mentioned last time we were heading off to North Wales on Wednesday, that turned into a great trip. Its a fair drive from Sheffield but late morning saw us heading to Betws y coed before heading over the Pen y Pass below Snowdon down to Llanberis and out to Caernafon for lunch. By this time it was very pleasant, after eating i had just enough time for a quick whizz around the Castle (where the Prince's of Wales are traditionally invested) before we started the long journey back. It wasn't straight back tho', a shorter stop at Bangor, a look at Conwy and Llandudno then a stop for ice cream at Colwyn Bay broke the journey. A 350 mile roundtrip, good job the car is quite frugal on the jungle juice.

Thursday was of course more travelling but this time the return to Brizzle. The late afternoon departure meant that it was late evening before i lugged my case back into the house, tired and generally travel weary.

My next trip north will be in June, i'll be riding then, my main destination the York Cycle Rally but i'll fit in the usual visits too, i think that will effectively be my main holiday of the year.

Friday was spent catching up on the laundry before Aunty Bev suggested a trip to the nursery to purchase some 'cheat' veg to plant, ie we avoid the fussing about with seeds by buying potted seedlings and the curious paper strips impregnated with seeds. I did get some flowers into the trolley too and we had a nice pot of tea and some cake before heading back and getting some of it in the ground..

Oh and after several months of having my natural hair colour, i died my locks Apricot, a sort of pale pinky orange! Look i was a bit bored and the pot was on the side - its not like it won't have washed out by next weekend!

Saturday is usually a bike ride and yesterday was my first two wheeled day for over a week. The forecast was warmish with lighter winds, i set out southwards in just shorts and short sleeves unsure of where i was headed. South from Bristol inevitably means crossing the block of higher ground known as the Mendips, the road bucking up and down and up again before running off down into Shepton Mallet. The kilometre count was low enough that i was encouraged to continue southwards to Castle Cary where, after some prevarication, i turned towards Bruton with a vague idea of a route back to the Avon valley.

This area of northern Somerset is beset with some quite lumpy hills which technically aren't part of the Mendips but are sort of attached to that lump of higher ground. from Bruton the road climbed back into those hills before taking me through Frome to start the next leg up to Bath. A short stop for my banana then a lumpy route that eventually put me into the Avon valley downstream of Bradford, the remaining distance, not hill free but certainly lacking anything of great substance. Which is just as well, by the time i'd transited Aquae Sulis the unfamiliar heat and hills had taken a toll, i wasn't bonking but i was quite tired, a short stop helped then it was the last 20km leg back to base.

I'll admit to two further recuperative stops before i got back, tired and rimed with salt. It was 'only' 120km but there were 1290m of vertical gain and an average speed of over 24.5kph, not too shabby for a broken grandparent riding solo.

And so to today. I made an early start on the laundry, fortified myself with a bacon sarnie then headed to the garden to finish the planting started on Friday. Today it was parsnips and beetroot before Aunty Bev fortified the last bed with manure, then it was the turn of runner and broad beans, peas and more carrots. (the first carrots and soring onions went in on Friday) So hopefully we should have a good crop of onions and potatoes previously planted to join the various soft fruits (blueberry, raspberry, gooseberry), rhubarb and cherries established last year - we should be well set come late summer! I did get a cucumber plant but that needs to be kept sheltered so thats in the 'lean to' for now.

I will get some more 'bee' plants in, if nothing else they'll add some colour, next job this afternoon is cutting the grass before starting on the roast lamb dinner we'll have later.

There is new Gaby today, The Angelic Host is chapter 16 of Fame.

And as we head into the second half of April i'll be hitting the keyboard with some vigour to get the next arc of Book 27 finished.

So there we go, all up to date,
thats it for now,
Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid