Okay, so strictly speaking its still spring but with blue skies and long days it feels like summer.

Yep, the weather continues to stay quite warm and sunny and the forecast is for more of the same for the next week as we head to the Spring Bank Holiday weekend.

So what have i been up to? Well Thursday i set off dor a gentle ride, out for tea and cake out near the Severn then a toddle back through the lanes. Well the first bit went to plan but after the stop, well it was too nice a day to just go straight back so i extended it a bit - okay, a lot, eventually climbing onto the Cotswolds, finally getting back with 104km on the clock! So much for a short day, but really after the cool, damp and windy start to the year you really don't want to miss the good weather.

That said, on Friday i did spend most of the day inside writing, completing another new Gaby chapter, more of that in a bit. I did get in a little walk but if i'm not careful this writing lark will feel like a 9 to 5!

Saturdays are usually the day i do a longer ride, could be any day but thats just how it seems to go. With a forecast of 20c i set off with a vague idea of a lunch stop at Royal Wootton Bassett which is @ 50km as the crow flies, i'd have a tailwind back and a few twiddles would give me a bit over 100km. I set off, it actually felt a bit cool on bare arms, but by the time i reached Bath it was comfortably warm and i started adjusting my plans in my head. Which is how i ended first at Lacock before climbing the lump of ground that gives access to Calne and the north Wiltshire Downs, its but a short ride then across to RWB.

But the devil got into me so i ended up back on the A4 climbing past Cherhill towards the Unesco landscape of Avebury. It was full of grockles on such a nice day and anyway i already had lunch plans so i continued towards Swindon before cutting the corner to lunch. 80km done. toastie, tea, cake and a can of pop later i set off for the promised tailwind return and for once the weather came through giving enough assistance to take the sting out of the climbs. I got back and stopped the clock after recording a relatively fast 140km weith over 1000m of climbing, with the low gearing on Foxy atm, i was spinning out quite a bit so i was quite pleased with a 23kph average for the day topping out with close on 60kph as i descended towards Brizz.

Legs ache a bit this morning but i'll live, after all i need to try and reduce the tan lines gained from just a week of bare arm/leg riding! you certainly get some interesting fashion looks from riding.

So today i've already posted the next Gaby here, that should keep you going until next weekend. And the new stuff, well hopefully there will be a new 'book' up on Kindle in the next couple of days, need to come up with a title yet so watch this space! Oh, and whilst we are on the subject, Amazon print have announced an increase in production costs for dead tree books, to be fair they've been held for several years but it does mean there will perforce be increases in book prices from June 1st so if you want to beat the price hikes order your printed Gaby etc this coming week at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=maddy+bell&i=stripbooks-intl-ship... As is my usual practice, i'll do my best to keep these increases as small as possible (i essentially get nothing from print sales) and of course this doesn't affect the price of Kindle editions.

Thats it for now
tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid

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