for the last time! Well for now, i shall be back.
Its been quite an eventful month, one that i'd rather not repeat although there have been some good days, but on Friday i will be back on a bus to Brizzle. Things with father have settled down, his time in the convalescent home will depend on the physio so there is no necessity for me to stay longer, my brother should be about for visiting purposes from Friday. The other thing delaying my return south has been my back, its not right yet but i should manage the journey without too much discomfort by travel time.
I went for a ride yesterday - partly to test the back and partly just because! I could have done an easier ride but where's the fun in that? Nope, i headed north out of the city and up to close on 300m over the first 15km before leaving the city bounds. Then it was a rolling ride to Penistone (laugh all you like but its pronounced Pen-is-tun) and up to the Hartcliffe Tower at 364m before the drop to Langsett and the spotty TdF cafe where i stopped for some lunch. (eggs and beans on toast if you must know)
From Langsett its possible to return to Sheffield almost fifteen miles away barely turning the pedals as the direct route follows the River Don along the valley. However it can be quite busy so on my departure i decided to take a slight deviation and roughly follow the route the Tour de France used in 2014 part way across the Strines road before cutting back to the Don. The Strines road is not flat, running along the eastern edge of the Peak District National Park it crosses the upper reaches of five Don tributaries in a series of often violent descents and climbs punctuated by hairpin turns and narrow bridges. Its not for wimps, hard men ride it south to north, because its steeper, the TdF and on this occasion me headed south!
I was glad to reach the turn for Bradfield, the wind now pushing me towards the city having returned to its environs just outside of Langsett. Even this bit wasn't flat reaching well over 300m in a series of stiff climbs behind Bradfield with views across the Loxley valley (home to Robin Hood). Then it was a long descent to Hillsborough and a return along the Don to the house. It was only 60km but the up was only 2m shy of 1000m, a fair workout for me and my back!
I'll not deny my back was sore but its been worse riding the Levels so things are looking up a bit. This morning i've booked my coach just two sleeps away, i'll get in a last ride oop north tomorrow before packing Foxy away, i'll start the other packing after visiting Pater this afternoon.
Next up hair. I set you guys the challenge of influencing my hair colour for the summer months, the 'poll' is still open but i'd like to get some more input, here are the samples again.
There have been a variety of suggestions, i won't influence you by giving numbers but all the above have had votes plus a suggestion that i change my eye colour! Yeah i know my pale green eyes are a bit wishy but i can't do much about that on more than a temporary basis! I'll be making a decision over the weekend, i'll do the great unveil the following weekend, I look forward to more views and suggestions!
Lastly today, believe it or not, I turned sixty earlier in the year and i've not had a party! Surely that's not right so i'm proposing to have some sort of 'do', most likely in September, nothing fancy, just a gathering of friends for food and drinks. It'll be informal, tiaras and long frocks are optional lol! I've no particular venue in mind, it could be a picnic or a pub, most likely in the general Wessex area (think Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire), at this point i'm just looking for some idea in interest in joining the celebration so if you fancy it drop me a note.
That's it for today,
Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid
Comments
"Dicey" Body-Bits and cycling; & eyebrows.
Please look into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle. There are >a lot< of models, and sigh, generally pricier than uprights. But they might be easier on your back and such. (If I recall, your shoulder 'took a hit' in a tumble, maybe a year(?) ago?)
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How do I "stuff" your ballot box, the one where we are 'voting' on your hair color?
I want to vote many times >against< the eyebrows of the orange-haired Lady, whose eyebrows look to be painted on, in Hazard Orange.
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PS: {Yank here} What, where or who is "GOC", please?
in answer to your questions/comments
I am aware of and have even ridden assorted recumbents - they just don't suit the sort of riding i do, regardless of the cost. Yes i injured my shoulder in a spill almost 3 years ago now but it was far from the first and unlikely to be the last!
You can't 'stuff' the ballot box but you could give some very strong hints and i'm not beyond bribery!
Have to say i kinda agree with the orange eyebrows, they is not subtle!
And last but by no means least, GOC is Gods Own County otherwise known as Yorkshire, the largest of the English counties or shires! Think US states) If the UK is a microcosm of northern Europe, Yorkshire is a microcosm of the UK with landscape from extremely rural (the most remote house in England is in GOC) to the industrial conurbations of the sub Pennine cities of Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield. Within the current 12000 square kilometres (it was bigger back in the day but both sea erosion and political meddling have stolen 4000 square kilometres in the last 100 years and at Domesday in 1086 it stretched from coast to coast) live 5.2 million souls. There are 8 cities in the county, the largest is Sheffield with half a million population, the smallest Ripon with just 16 thousand. look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire for more useless Yorkshire facts!
so what colour are you voting for?
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Thanks & "hair vote".
Thanks for GOC info (my search of Google & Wikipedia had gone poorly).
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I sent along some color suggestions, replying to your first post asking re: hair color. I started by looking for "light finger".
I put your picture in one Window's window, the possible colo(u)r in another, and by carefully 'jiggering' the windows, put the color sample over your (fore)head. Then I backed off a bit to see if I >thought< it would work.
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"What works" (color, clothing and such) is just so peculiar and personal, I once found myself in a room with another guy and two Ladies. One Lady was trying to decide if a blouse would 'work'. Both guys, >and< the other Lady all thought it was just fine ... but our 'fashion model' turned it down. Go figure.
Riding over Strines
Anyone who can keep going riding over Mortimer Road is doing pretty well, bad back or no, especially the run up (or going South down) the notorious Agden hairpin.
The Langsett /Wigtwizzel/ Bradfield bit of Mortimer Road is one of my favourite bits of tarmac anywhere in the world, and was (briefly) my daily commute a few years back whilst I was staying with family up there, and, of course, we were there in High Bradfield as the TdF whizzed past, nearly a decade ago. The road up there still reads "Ay up TdF" gradually fading as the years pass. I'll give you a wave as you bus past Nottunun, mi duck, later in the week.
Lucy xx
"Lately it occurs to me..
what a long strange trip its been."
I actually don't mind going up Agden,
you at least know what to expect, going down you have to ride the brakes and come to almost a stop on the corner, there's no chance of carrying anything into the climb out. TBH its the climbing out to either end of Mortimer road that's the worst bit depending on where you are in Sheffield that could be a minimum of ten miles and from where i used to live, as much as twenty to reach the Strines end! You don't get climbing like that around Brizzle!
Hills don't fret me these days, i just take my time!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
The first time I rode over the Strines road ...
... was when I went to have lunch with my sister who was a mature student at Huddersfield University. It was also the first time I rode 100 miles+ in a day. I was about 45, so 1985. The last climb going north was a bit of a grovel and the mobile tea van was a welcome sight.
The last time was on the way back from Ingleton when I was about 56. By the time I got to the start of the Strines I was knackered but the YHA was closed and the pub B&B was full so I had no option to carry on. It was dark and my dynamo front light went on and off as the front wheel stopped each time my pedals went over TDC. Luckily the Strines pub was open so I had a decent meal. I still had to stop for a bar of chocolate to get up the steep hill home.
It's even harder on a tandem!
Thanks (I think) for reminding of some memorable rides in the days before I got too old.
think i'd have to walk
with a tandem!
I've not actually ridden northbound for five years but there again its not a road i've used often ever as its too close to Sheffield! Next time i'm up with a bike i'll go northbound after checking the wind direction of course! It used to be a once a year ride on the club runs, lunch at Langsett Cafe as it was then, it was always a miserable place but the food was ok, it wasn't unknown though for some to abscond to the pub over the road, then we'd do the reverse of my route yesterday, Penistone then back down the Don valley, the last few miles a mad 20+ rider chaingang for the sprint into Hillsborough where we'd start to go our separate ways home - them was the days!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
I like all the colors except
I like all the colors except the green one. IMHO the green is too dull. A bright neon green would look better. Also I think neon blue should look nice.