hello August.

After the record breaking temperatures earlier in the month, we are back to typical UK summer weather, wind, rain and if we are lucky 20c. Its not a lot of wet but enough to keep Mr Blue Sky and his friend Sunshine largely out of the picture.

Anyhoo, it was dry on Thursday so i set off to do a loop into Wiltshire given a more easterly tint to the wind, suggesting an easier return later. Up onto the Cotswolds above Bath but my intended route straight out to Chippenham was shut so at The Shoe (strange name number 1) i had to hit the Fosse Way before cutting through Castle Combe (apparently famed as Englands prettiest village - its okay but i can think of many better) and Tiddleywink (yep its a real place). Eventually i got to negotiate the horrible roads of Chippenham as i continued east towards Calne along the A4.

Calne is the sort of western gateway to the North Wilts Downs but rather than follow the main road towards Avebury, Silbury Hill and Marlborough, i angled off for the climb over to the Vale of Pewsey before looping down through Devizes to my lunch stop by the 16 flight of locks at Caen Hill. The sun broke through for a bit as i munched my lunch then it was back on the road for a fairly direct ride back via Melksham and Bath before stopping for tea and cake at Warmley. Somehow it was under 900m of up but it was the longest ride of the month at @ 135km.

Friday, other than a short excursion for milk was mainly spent at the keyboard as i bashed on with the new book. It was late evening before i finished the chapter which is now on my Patreon page. It was a difficult write as will the next one be, the subject matter is difficult to write about without sensationalism and/or high emotion, i hope i've got a reasonable balance (no its nothing sexual) I'll crack on with the next part tomorrow with the aim of getting the next part of Smell of the Crowd ready for Kindle next weekend.

So to Saturday. I wanted to go for a ride but OTOH i wasn't feeling like doing anything too strenuous. I set off to do a loop through the rolling country between the Cotswolds and the Severn, an area popular with 2 wheeled traffic of all power options. I really wasn't very enthused and even tea and cake at the old port of Oldbury did little to ignite a flame of enthusiasm. I headed back, pleased to end the ride with a 'mere' 91km but an average speed of over 25kph. We had curry for tea which lifted the spirits a bit but i guess i'm suffering from travel boredom - too often on the same roads and nowhere new, i really need to get my bum in gear!

Today is more of that grey, breezy stuff after some overnight rain, i'll get out for a leg stretch of some sort after a bit of lunch. Tomorrow is of course not a Bank Holiday but August 1st is Yorkshire Day, across GOC the White Rose will be flying alongside the Ridings flags to celebrate everything that is great about the region. Maybe my absence on our '4th of July' is whats affecting my mood, we will be having a celebratory Yorkshire roast dinner so thats something to look forward to.

Back to today, there is a new Gaby chapter, Swiss Roll for your enjoyment. The team set out for their first activity of the 'training camp', this is actually based on a ride i did myself on Christmas Day 2018, the photo i've included was taken that day on that actual back lane. The next few chapters have a lot of content based on that Christmas trip and others to that region, desk based research will take you so far but there's no substitute for personal experience when it comes to setting 'life real' fiction.

Well i've not eaten yet today so i'll end here as my stomach is rumbling,
until Wednesday then,
Tack
Madeline Annafrid