well I suppose this late in October that's only to be expected!

There are plenty of green leaves about still but increasingly, the reds and yellows of autumn are appearing, the early droppers are losing leaves, there's a keenness in the air and some damp riding on the largely south westerly winds hereabouts. Autumn is an untidy season of muddy roads, puddles, drifts of fallen leaves blown about by gusty winds, I guess its natures way of clearing out the detritus of the warmer months before the clean crispness of winter arrives. For those of us who spend a lot of time in the outdoors its a few weeks of uncertainty, uncertain what the morning will bring, uncertain what we need to wear, its a challenge before things settle down again.

It's certainly been a mixed bag the latter part of this week, temperatures have reached the mid teens but cool winds have made it feel closer to single digits, wet carries on those winds despite blue skies and sunshine. I might still be riding in shorts but bare arms have, I think, become a memory as far as 2021 is concerned, heck, I've even broken out my woolly hat!

Lets catch up a bit then. So far the weather hasn't interrupted my usual routine so on Thursday I headed out for a 'recovery' ride after Tuesdays monster 170+km effort. The patches of blue and periods of sunshine belied the coolness of the wind as I made my way in a vaguely northerly direction up to Berkeley, home to the famous scientist, Jenner, the man responsible for our use of vaccines. There is a museum but I headed around to the 'Castle' where I rested in the sunshine to eat my sandwich's.

The weirdest thing happened as I sat looking towards the Cotswold edge ten miles away, a dragonfly settled on my leg! Of course, by the time I had a camera sorted it had flown off only to return a few minutes later for a repeat. No idea what the attraction was but it was pretty cool nevertheless. Anyhow, I took a meandering route back to base, just 100km and only 650m of climbing, short(er) and flat(er), just about right to keep the legs turning without expending too much energy.

Friday I felt lost, I couldn't concentrate on anything and even a short walk did nothing to help. Indeed the old grey matter was churning but the connection to my fingers refused to happen.

And so to Saturday. I didn't want to do a monster ride but on the other hand I wanted to go a bit longer than Thursday, I came up with a route down into east Somerset, the oft overlooked area between the Levels, Dorset and Wiltshire. The forecast was dry but overnight rain meant the ground was damp and that westerly kept me bejacketed as I made my way from the Avon, around Frome and into the choppy countryside towards Bruton. The roads were mostly traffic free, villages small and hills rolling as my route followed the railway line southwards. The km were adding up and my stomach starting to suggest it wanted topping up so I found a nice bench just outside of Bruton for my repast, 80km already canned.

The return options ran from a long diversion out to the coast to avoid a lot of climbing or tackle the mess of hills head on that would return me to the Avon and Cabotville. As even the latter would be @ 50km that got the nod over a potential doubling of the already ridden distance, the route wasn't quite arrow straight but there was little variance from a direct northwards ride through the crush of folded landscape at the eastern end of the Mendip. The sun made a more solid appearance and with the wind vaguely behind, I finally felt warm enough to take off the jacket even if my arms were still covered.

Up, down and repeat, twice, five times, by the time I started the final descent to the Avon valley it was @ 10 roller coaster rides later, some not made any easier by the massacre of hedgerows leaving potential puncture material strewn across the tarmac. I was actually still feeling quite fresh as I covered the last few km's but the failing light was a reminder that I'd been out for @ 8 hours, 8 hours in which I'd amassed 140+km and just shy of 1700m of ascent, mostly in those return miles. If the weather is kind I should be back on target for 10k miles for the year by next weekend, it still needs quite an effort to reach but its almost within touching distance!

There's more from Gaby today in the latest chapter of Ontario, #27, Farmed Out. I'll admit that its not exactly action packed but questions are answered and its time to partee in the Ahrtal!

Several suggestions have been made for future stories/formats, rest assured I've taken those thoughts onboard, my biggest issue at the moment is converting the results of synaptic activity into written words, if I could cut out the physical typing element I'd have reams of work done!

That's about it for today, i'll be back with more from Rhod on Wednesday,
Tack,
Madeline Anafrid

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