Jingle all the way!
Okay, i'll stop, give over already.
So, December the First, the grand finale to the second Covid blighted year is here. Hopefully i'll get to see my family later in the month, hopefully i'll spend christmas in Germany, hopefully. But things happen so quickly with this pandemic, restrictions on movement, the need for an endless pile of documents if you can travel and thats without Brexit complications here in the UK, container shortages, driver shortages - heck, even beer shortages (apparently). On the one hand then, i'm looking forward to the festive season, on the other i'm dreading it and will 2022 really take us back to something like normal?
So what have i been up since the weekend? Well if you recall, i'm a bit light on the bike riding to reach my 10,000 mile target for the year - its doable - just, but it means i need to make a big effort over the next 3 weeks. Monday was the start of that, the first of a number of 'shorter' rides on what would otherwise be bike free days, Monday was a bit over 50km utilising a loop down to Bath and back via Keynsham. It was another cold ride, it hovered @ -3c for the first hour and climbed all the way to 0c for the remainder but at least it was dry.
With that under my metaphoric belt, Tuesday ran close on double the distance but whilst it was a chunk warmer, it was a bit damp, no real rain just patches of drizzle. For the first time since Covid started, I sat inside at the cafe stop - pie and chips, tea and a respite from the weather for a few minutes. It was one of my 'regular' destinations, Weston SM, a ride out that can be very easy or quite testing depending on the route, on a scale of 1 to 10, yersterday was perhaps a 5 - some early, steady climbing on the outward leg followed by a mostly flat return.
Today, after 3 bike days, was my day 'off' of serious exercise. The day started with making a cauldron of veggie soup with Spaetzle which we enjoyed for lunch then i made a bread and butter pudding - we'll have some with custard after our evening repast.
What i haven't done is much writing, its not that i don't know the plot or have writers block, rather its been an inability to concentrate for one reason or another.
I'm afraid that i've not got you anything new for you to read today either, what i had been intending to post i've been unable to find in my files, i'm pretty sure its not lost but I can't put my finger on it.
There will be more from Gaby on Sunday and if things go to plan i will be a good chunk closer to my cycling target!
Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid
Comments
Here's an idea...?
How about getting a two-wheel trailer for your bike. Then... you could call in at the Brewery Shop in Devizes for some liquid refreshment.
I get my beer from the Brewery. No shortages there. The two breweries in question are Hogs Back (Surrey nirvana is my favourite tipple) and Hepworth (near Pulborough, Sussex Ale in my preferred tipple there.)
Just a thought...
How big was this 'Cauldron' of soup? Using that word gives me an image of 3-4 gallons of liquid and a wood fire underneath.
Samantha
Cauldron
I imagine perhaps a hundred-gallon bowl of liquid over a wood fire, perhaps stirred with a wooden staff by a crone dressed all in black. A Halloween image, perhaps.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
the cauldron
Was/is only a couple of litres but the soup came out great. Now Aunty Bev makes her stews in a huge pan, enough to feed half the West Country!
As far as beer is concerned - there are plenty of breweries and cider places closer to Brizzle if I was that bothered, it bothers me not whether I have alcohol, think I have some mead somewhere which needs drinking!
Madeline Anafrid Bell