or not.

Last Thursday HMG announced the next band of Covid restrictions and as had been expected Bristol has joined the north of the country in the highest level - tbh its a bit borderline but that's the way it is. Today they are saying these new restrictions may run to at least February and possibly into March, a whole year taken from the economy and of course peoples lives. Its not just the UK of course, the latest restrictions in Germany have scuppered my Xmas plans, the trip cancelled by the operator on Saturday (at least we don't lose all our money on it), guess its a bottle of white and the Queens speech.

In other news.

Thursday looked set to be a pleasant day, cold but sunny, I set off then to visit 'not' Yorkshire. It was a bit murky at first but as I headed north east across the Cotswolds it brightened up, still cold but by the time I reached the water park it was clear blue above, the shiny orb casting deep shadows. A short climb took me to Driffield then a few more lanes to my lunch stop in Barnsley, not somewhere I'd usually stop but this one is a bit more genteel than the one oop north, the bus shelter had copies of Country Life, flowers and an unvandalised time table!

After eating I started a laney return, looping around Cirencester before heading to the local high point above Wootton, all 250m of it, then down into the sub Cotswold vale and back into the setting sun. 150km, 1000m up, cold - an average 2c but a good day nonetheless.

Friday was back to pounding the keyboard, more Gaby flowed across the keys then after dinner it was preparing and posting my recent endeavours on Kindle. That actually went pretty smoothly this time.

Saturday then, an all too different day for the last ride of November. The forecast said overcast but dry, well it didn't exactly rain but the day turned out damp and quite foggy. With an easterly breeze I set off with a stop around Avebury as my carrot. Down into Bath then the A4 up Box Hill to Corsham, Chippenham and onto Calne before tackling the climb up Cherhill onto the North Wilts Downs.

I stopped to eat before Avebury on a handy bench but the cold and damp wasn't conducive to lingering, the moreso as, as I've found before, phone signals are somewhat iffy around Avebury! I dropped past Silbury Hill which loomed from the mist then turned to follow The Avenue up to Avebury and its rings. From there it was north towards Swindon before turning west for the return.

Lyneham, then into and along the Avon valley before starting the climb across the Cotswolds. A stop behind Leigh Delamere services to replenish the energy levels then across to Castle Combe as the light started to fail. I'm not sure what alerted me, but a glance at the back tyre confirmed it, a rapidly deflating sensation, bgr. Well I can't complain, its the first flat since March, wheel out, find the hole, check the tyre, thorn - which then took nearly 20 minutes to remove as it had somehow gone sideways through the tread.

I still had about an hours riding to do but now I needed the lights not to be seen as much as to see with. Since I finished salaried work, I've not often had to ride in the dark, I used to have to do it a lot, commuting or even to just get a bike ride in, you need a whole different set of skills. There's nothing to see so you concentrate on the road more and you get good warning of other vehicles on the country roads which makes the narrower examples a bit more relaxing to use! I returned to base with another vertical kilometre of climb under the belt and 140km distance leaving me just shy of 1500km for the month.

So to today. Its the first Sunday in Advent, whilst a lot of decorations are already up, I generally wait until today to start the festive season, indeed I should have been heading to Gaby country for the Weihnachtsmarkt's today. This afternoon will be sorting out my meagre decorations, writing cards and wrapping presents most of which will be delivered in a very old skool postal way - this side of the Pond we have working postal systems!

There is new Gaby, chapter 21 of Avoidance, Outside In is todays offering. Gaby and Manda embark on an intense training ride ahead of the trip to Spain and Jen makes an unscheduled stop home before dashing off to a race in Norway.

That's about it for today, take care and carry on,
Madeline Anafrid