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Or any other exclamation of disbelief!
Our mini heatwave has broken, things are back to normal, rain, overcast, sun - and that was just before lunch today! Indeed there was enough wet yesterday to cause my ride to be postponed until today hence the late posting.
Thursday however, I did go out for what was supposed to be a gentle ride which turned into 125km and nearly 1500m of climbing! I didn't really go anywhere, a loop around Bath essentially with lunch on the Somerset Coal Canal - surely one of the shortest in the land at @ 500m long! By the time I got back I was be-jiggered but I soon revived with a series of fluid top ups.
Friday was a bit warm to do very much and then Saturday was a bit wet to do much!
Which brings us to today. My plan was deliberately short, a shopping trip to the Thatchers Cider factory at Sandford, not for me I hasten to add, although I do like a drop of fermented apple, no, this was a present for my kinder. Now I could have just gone to the local super market and bought the same stuff but I thought it'd be nice to get it at source so to speak - I rode through some of the orchards on the way, the smell is sublime. Of course I couldn't leave it at that so despite being loaded with several bottles of cider I then took a less than direct or even level route back, accumulating most of the days 850m in the last 60km of the 100km ride.
Today's Gaby is Salvation, part 14 of Ontario in which Maddy, she of the stowaway and traipse through Germany, finally gets rescued. It was a bit sad at the end as she finds herself in the Ahrtal, I keep thinking of the devastation that was visited there 9 days ago.
That's it for today, time for supper which tonight is rhubarb pie, mmmmm!
Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid
Comments
Flooding ...
I used to work for the USA Federal Emergency Management Agency. It's always Bad ..
Fortunately for me, they "kept me in the back room" doing computer and IT stuff , so I was hardly ever out seeing the full extents.
Two biggest takeaways:
- Never ignore an evacuation order. In a developing disaster (hurricane/cyclone, flood, wildfire), evacuation, and then rescue, can become impossible ... You are free to disobey the order - and the authorities will try to find your body ...
- Never drive (or walk) into standing or moving water ... the road under the water may gone, washed out. Six inches of moving water can knock a person down, a foot can sweep away a vehicle ...
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Hope the cider is well received ...
I much prefer the 'unfiltered' (cloudy) cider. I personally think the filtered stuff is for children, and hardly worth drinking...
And I like hard cider enough that I 'ask' some yeast to make me some. I 'doctor it up' with some extra sugars, like maple syrup, brown sugar and teas before fermenting. When I went vegan, honey mead went off my menu, so the "extras" are my try at approximating.
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Happy travels!
cider
Real cider that is, doesn't have anything other than H2O and apples, certainly no added yeast! Adding other fruit after fermentation is okay but nothing else. Even cloudy cider has been filtered to remove most of the pulp, raw cider (scrumpy) isn't very pleasant to drink and doesn't keep well. I bought 6 types yesterday of varying strengths and sweetness, single apples, blended etc - its a long way from cheap supermarket product!
The biggest issue with the German flooding was there was no warning. (well apart from the rising Rhein but there was no opportunity to evacuate in most areas hit) The Ahrtal is a narrow twisting affair which amplified the effects of the high rainfall, any flood controls were simply overwhelmed in minutes. It was like a rapid high tide in Brizzle where the range is @ 10 metres! If you are in the way of that there is little you can do.
Madeline Anafrid Bell