My little Lily turned nine today – stunningly quickly … as these things go … Elsie jumped in to Lily’s bed extra early and we opened a couple of pressies and cards – but on her return to School Day we decided to leave the proper festivities until later today. Happy Birthday my lovely girl.
A holiday is a holiday is a holiday. This was just a great opportunity to get away from work, home, routine, and all that stuff and have a lovely time together. It’s very straightforward. For that reason alone it was simply superb.
It’s one of those rides. One of those ‘have to do it every so often’ rides. One that you look forward to and dread in equal measure. The Mary Towneley Loop is a 44 mile extension to the Pennine Bridleway and is a doorstep challenge for me, living 4.5 miles from the route itself. It’s too long to do in all but the brightest and longest summer evenings but it’s not quite a day long ride. It’s hard, but at times very rewarding, and you always seem to come out of it much fitter than when you start it. With c. 6,000 feet of climbing it’s bound to be. I love doing it, but I really hate it too.
Continue reading “Love/Hate Relationship: The Mary Towneley Loop”
After a massive stint of work it’s now full-on holidays for a couple of weeks. The first time that I’ve taken more than two consecutive days’ leave since October 2010 and it’s a game of two halves. Some UK time first then a bit sun and sea in Menorca to follow. Continue reading “2011 Summer Hols part 1: Old Beckstones”
A new bike is such a treat. It seems to rekindle an existing love. A bike ride that’s too local and familiar to be fun suddenly takes on an utterly new dimension. It’s like that early period of a new love in your life when the mundane can provide a totally unexpected thrill. Continue reading “New love means increased virility”
Keep hearing the likes of David Millar and other authoritative names in the professional cycling world talking about how bike racing is getting faster and faster. It’s sometimes hard to grasp these things, and indeed to say whether such things are hear say or recieved wisdom. I have a bit of data of my own to share… Continue reading “Faster all the time”
My mum reached a very respectable 3 score and ten yesterday and we went up to Kirkby Lonsdale today to enjoy some lovely weather, cakes, food, and company. It seemed very strange but incredibly rewarding to meet a few people from mum’s life that I haven’t seen for many many years. At least three people I enjoyed chatting to today are people I haven’t seen since I was younger than ten years old.
Obviously a lot of water under the bridge but it’s amazing to feel an instant connection to some people because of a shared past. I’m pretty sure mum enjoyed herself but hardly had a moment to pass the time with her on a busy day. We get some better quality time together in a couple of weeks… To be savoured.
Some photos here… On Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/minnellium/archives/date-posted/2011/07/10/?view=md
n. Medical Term. An impairment of health or a condition inflicted by carrying a bicycle up steep hillsides repeatedly, in obsessive manner.
I love this when it happens for some reason.
Inspired to snap this whilst out on my bike on Scout Moor last night and it always makes me think of the Cinerama lyrics from the song ‘Airborne’
“I was watching you from the observation deck
Until your plane became a shiny speck
And if I wanted to sentimentalise
I’d say the planes drew kisses across the sky“
Very simple almost inconsequential lyric that always triggers something in me.
Just a quick bikey update…
It’s been a slightly unorthadox ‘summer’ so far for me on the bike (I mean summer in that context as being after the clocks change!). Started okay at the SiS Crits round the fast 1 mile circuit at Preston. Continue reading “Summer Made Me Cross”
They all grow up fast, don’t they. Elsie’s third birthday last week seemed to mark a bit more ‘moving on’ in the household and confirmed any suspicion that time goes by ridiculously fast in life. It fell on a ‘normal’ work day for Katie, a school day for Lily and hence a nursery day for Elsie, but the mini party we enjoyed after was a lovely little celebration and what it lacked in length it made up for in intensity. Elsie basically was cooked by 6pm and had to retire to bed (on her own request!)
Continue reading “Elsie – Three as a bird”
… from a 2 year old. Something familiar in my youngest, Elsie. A second-born, she’s grown up watching older sister doing everything she can’t do, so when she finally was allowed to ride a ‘pedal’ bike last Thursday, she went about it so vigorously and enthusiastically that it’s been a bit of a shock. Continue reading “A lesson in bike riding”
