Well there's a mob of them attacking the bird feeders with some gusto so i presume they're hungry!

So here's a poser for you, in the UK at least, sparrows come in two varieties, House and Hedge. But we haven't always had hedges and houses have, historically not been conducive to small avians so what were they called before? the same goes for Housemartins of course.

Anyway, i digress. The weather has been, if not hot, not cold either, a surprisingly cool westerly has prevented things getting into the 20's very often but high teens is just about shorts and short sleeve weather and the little bit of damp has come through over night so its not really impacted anything other than the need to water the garden!

Thursday then, i set off without much of a plan but by the time i reached Bath i had the idea of heading out to Trowbridge before taking a more northerly loop back to base. I have of course done variations of this a few times since arriving in Brizzle, on this occasion it felt pretty comfortable, the wind was a nag but really, well it was a nice day out. Somewhere i accumulated over 700m of up and covered 103km.

Friday, well i went shopping for some supplies for my camping trip. As the only engine i'll be using is me, it was a case of selecting a range of 'pot' meals, enough to last 7/8 days, i've been caught out on previous trips and especially as a lot of my route is very rural, i wanted to be sure of having some food available. I guess in total it's about a kilo or so more to carry at the outset but the load will decrease every day. Of course i won't just be eating rehydrated stuff, i will stop for real food at lunchtimes, even if its just a sandwich or bag of chips.

That filled the morning, then, after lunch, i set myself up in the garden to work on my current modeling project, the six storey round keep/tower. The plan was to cut out the window apertures, some 18 of them and fit the window frames, then add a couple of architectral elements. Given the largest opening is just 10mm x 10mm, the smallest 2mm x 5mm, it was a time consuming job helped only slightly by the pilot holes i had previously made. Next job will be the roof before the whole thing hits the paint shop.

On to Saturday then. The forecast looked okay although it was a bit grey as i set out for a loop across the Cotswolds to Stroud. The wind seemed to be in my face whichever direction the roads headed but by the time i reached my lunch stop it was knocking on 20c and the sun was having the occasional peek down on things. The return kept me on the flatter ground near the Severn for most of the way before cutting across and back into Brizzle. 127km, 900m of up, not a bad day really, i finally seem to have regained some of the fitness i lost around Easter, just in time for next week's Yorkshire odyssey.

Which brings us to today. I spent the morning sorting the bike out for the trip, fitting racks, fixing a couple of niggles and so on. Then it was onto the kit, sorting the bags, finding all the gear and doing a first pack of all the gear. I'm sure it won't be the final pack and i haven't even started on the clothing yet but, at a push i could be on the road in under an hour.

I have of course posted new Gaby this afternoon, Dry Run is part 39 of On The Edge. Then it was cooking Sunday lunch/dinner, steak & ale pie this week followed by homegrown raspberries with our peaches and icecream as dessert. I do feel that i've accomplished a fair bit this week.

Patreon supporters can get the fifth free instalment of the guide this evening, the next will follow midweek.

I'll be back with more rumblings midweek but for now,
Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid