Jailbreak!

 Despite various rehab exercises I've been doing, and also sitting like a lemon with a freeze pack wrapped round my ankle, the tendonitis isn't settling down much and I'm getting frustrated with having to rest the tendon all the time. 

It's not good for my mental health, and it isn't good for you, dear readers, as it means I haven't got anything to show you. 

So, fed up after a mix up at the chemist with my repeat prescription, I just went home, got and my bike, and headed off to first take a look at the lake, and then journeyed up the N64 cycle path to Cotham.

An unpleasant vision in a bright red waterproof - that I had to stuff in my rucksack as I got far too warm - I flushed all the redwing from the hawthorn bushes along the track. The crows were far more composed, cawing in disdain. 

It was a grey day, with flat light, but I was just relieved to be properly active outside. It wasn't a long ride, only 15km, and it is clear that my fitness is suffering, but I intened to try and keep getting on the bike for short rides when the weather allows. 

I owe it to my brain and to you.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 28.11.22

Winter Thrushes on the Bicycle

I'm writing this while listening to "Starless"  by King Crimson which is an awesome piece of music...

So after an exhausted day of nothing yesterday - My Black Friday duties totally wiped me out - I decided I needed to make a good go at today, cold or not.

So in the morning I made my way to  the park for a cup of tea on my trusty Rockrider, and then in the afternoon managed to get out for a sunset 25km ride, with a gentle breeze it seemed like a bloody nice thing  to  do.

And I worry I'll get very fat indeed if I don't do it.

So out I went along the cycle path with the low sun lighting up the turbines of the wind farm and reflecting off the solar panel plant. It even made the rubbish tip glow in gold. Rather oddly I thought, the gulls and crows feasting  off the rubbish were flushed by my presence from about 100 metres away, silly feathery things!

It was on this cycle path that I saw my first winter thrushes of the year, flushed from the berry laden hawthorns alongside. Trouble is, with the sun behind them they just looked like black shapes, until they flew past me and I caught a glimpse of pale bellies and grey rumps; fieldfares.

Odd that I should see fieldfare before redwing. Normally the latter are easier to come across just outside of  town in early winter.

So I kept on riding as the sun set, and re-murmarised a flock of about 50 starling who thought they were going to have a peaceful roost in a tree next to the road to Thorpe village.

It was a good ride, and I took a bit of pride in myself for  doing it.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.11.18

OK, Let's go for a Ride

So, buggered heels and blistered feet aren't affected by cycling, so I decided more or less on the spare of the moment to go out on my clunky old mountain bike, on the old favourite Cotham - Elston - Thorpe route, a hack of about 23km.

Took me just over an hour, and was highly enjoyable. I was looking for winter thrushes and didn't see a single one, but there were some nice flocks of chaffinch ransacking the berries in the hedgerows.

In the ploughed fields herring and black backed gulls hulked about, looking for whatever pickings they may. No buzzards or owls - thought I might see an early owl on the move as the light was fading.

So nothing major seen, but I was glad to be riding again.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.11.18

An Evening's Cycling

Well, I thought I'd really messed today up.

I was up and about like a flash this morning, checking in at the library, checking in with work, getting my shopping done, and lunching like a boss.

On granola.

Well, I was lazy and needed to use the milke.

Yes, I thought. I've got the whole afternoon ahead of me, I shall not waste it!

I then was stricken with one of those times where the energy just seems to drain out of me. I ended up lying on the sofa dozing for two hours in dreamless sleep, occasionally waking up and being unable to move.

It was after 3pm when I was able to get going again. The sun was dropping in the sky like the lead weight my head had been that afternoon. Was I going to walk? Was I going to cycle?

Despite the cold and approaching sunset, I decided to load myself up with lights, and go for a cycle.

I'm really glad I did! I got 25km in in about an hour, on a beautiful crisp evening with the sun looking beautiful low over the land. The Hawton guinea fowl were on the rampage again, the Cotham donkeys were taking in the sun, and various buzzards flew up from their hiding holes as I trundled noisily by, including one really enormous specimen.

It's going to be a cold winter, the newspapers tell us. I shall not waste it.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 30.10.17

A Cotham Hideaway

I awoke to rain at 8am, put my phone on charge, and read Oliver Sacks' excellent autobiography "On the Move" for two hours while wondering where I could perhaps go on a long walk to.

Next thing I know, it's 2pm and I'm waking up from a doze furious with myself!

Luckily the rain had stopped by then, and the although the skies were still battleship grey it was actually rather warm and muggy. So after a pate and pitta lunch, I saddled up my steed and headed off for a cycle with no particular destination in mind.

It was after I set off that I remembered this post on the Nottinghamshire Villages blog, and decided to ride out to Cotham to find this little footpath I'd always missed before.

Cotham is only a tiny village, and although it has a very pleasantly un-ornate church and surrounding countryside rich in bird life, I'd never really thought there was much to the village.

Not having a pub maybe doesn't help in this regard!

I found the the little row of 17th century houses quite easily, it is virtually the only side street in the village, and then found the charming, if slightly intrusive I felt, route through the private gardens of the listed cottages. I immediately wished I owned one, it would be a wonderful place for a writer to live. Writing by night, drinking large jugs of icy fresh lemonade in the garden by day. With a cat close to hand.

The last house had a larger patch of land, where a group of chooks were huddling under a bush from rain that wasn't happening. I continued around to a narrow tree lined path that opened up through the cunningly constructed rustic gate at the end.

This opened up onto a large field, a far reaching view of...nothing very much. A lot of grey sky and farmland looking towards the village of Elston. I'm sure on a warm day it be a lovely spot in it was a field of oilseed rape mind you, just not today.

The path seemed to wind around the field boundaries, and I was a cyclist today, not a walker, so I returned to my bike. As I suspected, the path emerged on the Elston road, and resolved to perhaps do a training run out in this direction.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.10.15

Entrance to The Row

Winding paths

Lovely gardens

The path narrows

Snuggling poultry

Along the path

Rustic gate

A very cunning latch!

Wide open space

Cotham sheep