Snowy Lunch Walk

Nice big snowflakes dont land all that often. So before they all melted, today we went for a lunchtime walk from the office up onto Top O Slate. Lovely pootle.

 Took this one because it reminded me of a Joy Division album cover.

Shhh dont tell the husband

I ventured out on the bike in the snow and ice yesterday. It hadn't dawned on S when he left for work that the only way I could get to the midwife appointment was by foot, pedal or two busses.
Since we'd had a hard frost overnight, I imagined that the snow and ice would most likely be crisp and after the Monday morning rush-hour the main roads would be ok. My deduction was spot-on and I enjoyed a slow ride through the woods and park with my fat, lower pressured tyres making a satisfying amount of crunching sounds as they rolled over the ice and snow. Any glassy looking bits, I walked around and over the whole of my 11 mile trip, I hardly lost any traction on any uphills.

The ride took a long time, mostly because almost every dog walker I passed fancied a bit of a natter (having mondays off work is brilliant for this; people out & about during the week seem to have more time to say hello and it makes the world feel like a friendlier place as it seemed when I was growing up). I popped into the garden centre in the park to pick up part of my mum's birthday pressie (I dont recommend carrying ceramic pots in back packs, but my fatter tyre bike has no pannier rack) and made a detour to get butties and a couple of Manchester tarts for lunch with my mum.

It feels like yonks since I last embarked on an epic monday ride, but these little blasts through the trees still bring a lot of calm and restore my sanity after I'm either stuck in buildings or braving the town centre (both of which make me very grumpy).

Due Date Approaches

The view from my settee

Other than a mere 7 miles on Monday through the park & woods to mum's, and 27 miles on tuesday to a work meeting and home, the bike has not seen any action this week. The weather has been wintry and although I usually love a nice snowy ride, I'm taking the sensible option of not taking to the streets and bridleways.
My bump has dropped, so I'm into the last stages of pregnancy. Soon my body will be my own again.
To anyone venturing out, enjoy this lovely weather, I'm incredibly envious of you all ;-)

Windy Days

Unless I'm commuting (which includes a 7 mile stretch into a full on headwind), I LOVE cycling in the wind. And this weekend has been very blustery indeed.
So I took myself off to join the ctc's extra-short ride yesterday morning. Alas, nobody else turned up and the leader wasn't too well, so I ended up having a solo ride exploring some different lanes around Pendle and popped in to see some relatives for a catch up (and brews & biscuits).
An easy 19 miles with a mere 1450ft of climbing (under par for my usual rides, but I chose some lower level routes to avoid the worst buffeting on national speed limit roads). 

The wind certainly helped push me up one or two hills that took no effort & I even had to holler 'watch out' to two lasses crossing a road who hadn't seen me approaching as I flew up a road with some strong gust assistance (they crossed from behind some parked vehicles at a diagonal angle & did apologise). And I certainly had to pedal hard on most downhills - so very little freewheeling.

I'd felt my blood pressure was more normal this last week, so thoroughly enjoyed the time pedaling since I've been taking it easy recently.
And with my bump increasing in size, and only a few weeks left before I'm due, the cycling felt just as easy as normal; definitely easier than walking and less disconcerting than when driving (when any big movements feel incredibly weird - there's much less moving around going on when I'm pedaling).