as they say in Niedersachsen

Its a glorious morning here, blue skies, sunshine of course, barely a drop of wind - spring has apparently sprung and England at least has slackened the Covid restrictions a little more. Oh the shops are still shut, the pubs closed and we can't stay away from home but we can meet more people socially and going out more than once a day is allowed. Its still a long way from 'normal', cases amongst teenagers have sky rocketed but over half the adult population has now had the first jab of vaccine.

In a perverse way its looking like we may have things under control unlike much of Europe who are experiencing increasing infection levels despite more draconian restrictions. Its not being helped by continual politicking over the vaccines which will affect take up rate and levels of take up the EU want to introduce vaccine 'passports', at the moment its looking like they'll be the ones who don't qualify. I hope things get sorted out soon and we can all return to some degree of normal.

So what's been going on in Maddy's world? Well after a bit of shopping and a short walk, Monday afternoon I continued with the painting project, most of the walls in question now have the first coat, the back of the job is broken, maybe 3 more sessions and I'll be done.

Yesterday, that's Tuesday, with a mild forecast I set off for a short ride - I really didn't fancy doing a huge mileage. Well I suffered a deflation before I cleared the city centre which sort of confirmed my choice of ride, I continued on, climbing out to the airport and on to my first stop of the day. Nothing spectacular, a converted windmill and a prehistoric monument whose exact type is disputed, it could be a robbed long barrow or a disc barrow - we may never know. It was a strange paradox, a couple of fields away, a fleet of airliners stood dormant waiting for a change of fortunes, but on the common it was quiet enough to hear the skylarks joyfully welcoming the warmer weather.

Then, using some new to me lanes, I made my way south and east across the Chew valley to my lunch stop at Hinton Blewett, a little place looking out onto the eastern Mendip. I only had about 25 miles under my belt when I set off anew, a route keeping as much as possible to the higher ground as I continued east to finally drop into Aqua Sulis. From there its a gentle ride back, on this warm afternoon i did stop for an ice cream on the way, eventually stopping with 83km on the clock - not huge but perhaps more than I'd expected earlier.

That's the end of March riding, I've got my numbers, if not back on course, heading the right way after the shaky start to the year, with luck and a bit of effort by the time we can travel more freely I'll be back on course.

Today is/will be quite busy, when I've finished here its out to the Post Office, a grandson needs his Easter egg and this year his birthday falls a couple of days later so that's two parcels to send. Afterwards its shopping, the stuff I missed om Monday essentially - well a girl has to eat. And then its a cornucopia of small bike jobs at which point i'll be able to relax a bit - phew!

Today's Gaby, another long edition, is ch.20 of The Visitors, Gab's is back. It's day two of the trip to Germany, with the missing bag, Drew doesn't get much choice in the matter of his appearance and it just gets worse! Well worse if you are trying hard to hang on to your male dignity that is. And to prove I'm not infallible, there's a continuity issue in this chapter - I've left it in to see who picks up on it - eagle eyed readers should leave comments.

It has been requested that I produce some sort of timeline for the series, the question is, what level should it be at, what would you like to know? Again, let me know by commenting below.

So that's March done with, the next post, the final episode of Avoidance will go up on Sunday which is of course Easter so i'll send you Easter greetings now which, thanks to the Synod of Whitby, heralds the start of 'summer' and a return to milder weather (mostly) for those in the northern hemisphere - sorry Antipodes, hope your winter isn't too bad!

Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid

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