Beernem and Bruge mini break- Day 1

After the funeral refreshments, we suddenly realised it was quite late and we had to get to Dover to get our DFDS ferry to Calais.  It was a bit of a close thing but we managed to get there with 50minutes to spare before the ferry departed at 19.35.  You're supposed to be there 60mins before your departure time but we were around 45-50minutes!

It was pleasant getting a ferry and we found a big sofa and sat with a cup of tea and arrived in Calais around 21.55!  We then had a very easy drive from Calais to Beernem in Belgium although we had to stop for Petrol- it was pretty much a straight drive along the E40 motorway!  We were feeling very guilty about our host, Veronique at  Het Soetewater having to stay up for us.  We finally arrived around 23.25!  She showed us to our room (with much grovelling from me!) which was gorgeous! It is called the Caramel room. You may recognise the name of this B&B as it is where my lovely blog friend Ann (Polyester Princess) stays when she travels to Bruges!  We'd spent ages looking at accommodation (last minute!) in Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp and were finding it very expensive and not as lovely as you'd expect for the cost and then I SUDDENLY thought of this place, searched Ann's blog and discovered to my delight, that they had availability for 3 nights.  We got a package deal which included breakfast, a picnic for two, bike hire and 3nights which seemed great as everything else we looked at was more expensive with accommodation only.

We went to sleep. Annoyingly, I didn't sleep amazingly, such is the curse of me and new/strange beds! It had nothing to do with the sumptuous room.

Photo from Het Soatewater website.

The next morning, we got up around 8.55am and were ready for breakfast quite late.

We entered into Veronique's lovely breakfast room and were greeted by her and the guests who were in the Nougat room.

On our table was a 3-tiered stand a bit like the one below.  One layer had cheeses on, another with cured meats and the other with smoked salmon.   Both were  garnished with cucumber, tomatoes, spring onions, grapes and radishes.  There was a basket full of delicious rolls, breads and croissants.  Veronique came in and poured us a glass of homemade/homegrown rhubarb and apple juice and  to take our hot drink order plus orders for eggs.  We ordered scrambled egg style, plain without any meat or cheese.

The food was delicious and in addition, there were homemade jams and on the table, granolas, cakes and pastries.  It was all very welcome and the atmosphere was calm and peaceful.

Veronque came to talk to us about our package and when we would like our picnic and also the Tapas platter we had ordered.  We decided to get the picnic that day and we asked if we could borrow the bikes as we wanted to cycle to Bruges. 

After we had packed our bags, we went to get the bikes and took the very easy route to the canal/river to cycle the 12km to Bruges.

It was quite overcast but dry and the cycle was very pleasant and gentle.

We arrived in Bruges and found ourselves a place to park the bikes.  We went for a wander around and stopped for a Brownie (C) and Hot chocolate in a quiet cafe on a side street.  I LOVE going for Hot Chocolate in Bruges as you always get a bowl of the chocolate drops to stir into your hot milk as well as a chocolate on the side and sometimes a biscuit too. I saved half of my chocolate drops for a later snack.

After a scoot around, we decided to cycle along to see all the Windmills around the edge of the city which we enjoy doing and stopped for our picnic by one of them.  We took photos for several people of themselves in front of a Windmill.

After this,  as we had started quite late, we decided to head back to Beernem before it got dark

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CBC recorded this video of us (me) cycling.  Not sure how he can cycle AND film at the same time.

Back at the place, we relaxed and read and snoozed and then we headed out to find somewhere for dinner.  It involved a bit of a random drive around.

Sadly, I didn't recall the place we ate but the chef/waiter was very friendly and helpful.  C had fish stew and I had a pork cheek stew.

We were very happy to return back to our comfortable room to rest.

The plan for the next day was for CBC to cycle from a village near Ghent and I would spend the day exploring Ghent.

xx

HERE

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TARDIS Tuesday - 13th Doctor cosplay challenge!

 I'm not sure how we got into conversation about it but somehow one of my year 6 pupils and I ended up talking about cosplay and she asked me if I could/would cosplay a character.  I happened to have a mug with a cartoon version of Jodie Whittaker's initial 13th Doctor on my desk.  I pointed at it and said, "Ok, I could cosplay that character!" and she laughed and said, "Really???".  I told her she had to remind me the night before the next lesson, via the school messaging system, and I'd give it a go.

Lo and behold, a week later, she messaged me to remind me so I duly prepared.

The outfit in question:

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-jodie-whittaker-costume-outfit/

Image from Radiotimes 

This is my 5th appearance of this outfit on the blog, the last being October 2021 (really?? I had no idea it was so long ago!).

Here it is:

This is the first time I have ever worn the coat to school (the rest of the outfit, on numerous occasions).

I was asked if I was dressed as a wizard by a year 3 pupil, there were lots of nice comments about it from staff and teachers but only my year 6 girl realised what I was dressed as!  She grinned like anything when I said to her, "This is for you!" and said, "You have inspired me to cosplay one day!".  Not quite my job brief but it was nice to make a quiet girl smile.

The coat was a really happy 2nd hand find a while back, the top came from Berksha (2nd hand), the trousers from ASOS (not the regular culottes but I couldn't find them). My boots are from Leggero and my socks from CBC's Olympic opening ceremony costume.

The weekend went well.

Friday, my Samba band performed excellently at the interschool festival.  They really sounded impressive and we got the audience grooving!

The trip to Scotland (Ayr) via Northumberland (Whitley Bay) and back via Hexham went well. 

CBC and I arrived at our hotel in Whitley Bay on Friday night around 11.40pm.  It was past midnight by the time we went to sleep. The alarms went off at 3.15am.   CBC left around 4am to head to the starting line.  I woke up properly at around 7.45am to find a message from my Godmother asking me to call her. Weirdly, I had been thinking I needed to call her, as her husband, a dear family friend, had been in hospital with a broken arm.  It was awful as she said she wanted to speak to me as she thought he was near the end. It was such a shock! He'd gone in with a broken arm but as a result of trauma and treatment, he was going rapidly downhill and was near the end. We cried together on the phone and she asked me if I would play flute for his funeral.  I was deeply moved as they are musicians and know many very good musicians.  As it currently stands, he is still going, so please keep him in prayer. His name is Leigh.

After crying and talking to Mum, I went down to breakfast where I had a delicious fried breakfast and some cereal. I packed my things and then headed for a walk along the gloriously sunny esplanade.

I then walked to the Metro station and got the train back to Newcastle Central station.  I waited for the train to Edinburgh, then changed for a train to Glasgow Central (which was SO slow and crowded- the man next to me had a stinking cold and coughed in my face the entire journey and his toddler kept kicking me and spreading out!) finally I changed for a train to Ayr and walked 20 minutes down to the seafront to find the Chase the Sun finish line!

I waited an hour and 15minutes for CBC who came in at 7.15pm.  He had completed his 200 miles and he was within the first 50, possibly 40! I was super proud of him and he was VERY tired!

We walked to the hotel where there was a dinner for the finishers (sadly not for me) and then I walked/ran the 20minutes back to the station (he cycled) where we caught the train back to Prestwick where the B&B we had booked was. It was a lovely quiet place in a lady's house.  Comfortable and quiet.  He promptly fell asleep on top of the bed. I covered him with my duvet, watched Doctor Who, showered and went, very comfortably, to sleep.

The next morning, we woke, packed and ate a brief breakfast.  We headed for the first train of the day.

Prestwick- Glasgow Central; Glasgow Central to Carlisle; Carlisle to Hexham.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch with CBC's mum and then she drove us to Newcastle.

We got the next train back to London, then the tube across town and finally, the last train to Essex.

It was exhausting but fun!

Hope all is well with you!

The Broomway

On Saturday night, CBC and I went out for a late cycle.  We left home at 7pm. We were going to do the Barling Loop- Barling is a village near Southend which has beautiful Christmas lights and CBC wanted to show me the cycle. It was beautiful and cool but then CBC decided to extend our ride.  However, when we got there, he decided to extend our cycle to Shoeburyness.  As we were going, we saw a sign to Foulness Island, so we decided to follow the signs and go and see if we could go to the edge of the water to see the start of the Broomway at the Wakering Stairs.

The Broomway is dubbed as "the most perilous byway in England"  It has gained this notoriety by how disorientated those who walk it can get especially if the conditions are poor and the fact that you are pretty much sure to drown if you are still out on the sands when the tide comes in.  Over 100 people die a year on it.

To reach it, we had to enter MoD land and ask to go through a barrier to reach the Wakering Stairs.  The roads leading to here beyond the barrier were totally empty and it was really surreal.

When you reach the Wakering Stairs, you find the start of the Broomway.  It's situated on the Maplin Sands and in theory all traffic can use it.  It was the only foot access to MoD-owned Foulness island until a road bridge was built in 1922 over the Havengore Creek.

The Broomway is 6 miles long and goes through the Maplin sands 400m from the shoreline.  Both the river Roach and Crouch meet here causing dangerous whirlpools when the tide comes in. Here's a BBC article about it here.

You can read more of the history of it here and I've linked to Googlemaps here so you can see how the causeway really does go out to sea, as it were.

When we reached the steps, the tide was completely out and it really did feel like we were in a nuclear wasteland! It was so utterly quiet and still.

This is the beginning of the path out- I walked on it for about 15metres and then got scared when the sands got swampy and walked back!

It was really exciting to have finally come to see it at last after scrutinizing it on the map before and all the more so, because we weren't expecting to do this!

We had to continue on our journey as it was getting darker and we needed to get home.  We headed towards Shoebury East Beach as CBC wanted to see what East Beach was like.  Unfortunately, this was a silly decision as I managed to get a puncture. Usually this would not be a problem, CBC could change my inner-tube but for three things:

1.  When we went to Norfolk, he just discovered that when they did his adjustments, they didn't replace his little tool bag that sits under his saddle which has Allen keys, spare inner-tubes and tyre lever.

2.  The spare inner-tube in my bag had a puncture in it.

3.  I had forgotten to pick up my rucksack as we left so I had absolutely nothing with me!

At Gunners park entrance, CBC decided to cycle home to go and pick up the car and to come and collect me. As I didn't have a phone, he told me to just keep walking along the seafront but stop when I reached the Kursaal.  

I did that, wheeling along my bike with a very sloshy back tyre. It was about 3miles from there to the Kursaal and it took quite a long time.  I saw lots of people and enjoyed hearing the sounds of the sea but I was sad not to be able to complete my cycle ride.  As time went on, I became worried in my head as it had got dark almost immediately after CBC left me and I was fretting about him having absolutely no lights and having to take the back roads back home which are used as a ratrun and have no lights. I prayed fervently, as I walked, that CBC would be ok.  It seemed such a long time and I was worried.  Amazingly enough, about 4 minutes after I reached the Kursaal, he pulled up in his car!  

Here's a photo from Gunners Park.

It was an adventure, definitely!  Perhaps, a bit more forward-planning might have been better for this but I certainly enjoyed visiting these places I've never seen before!

I found a video of people walking the Broomway here:

Have you ever walked along a causeway or a dangerous path?

x

A year of commuting by bike

And so as we reach the end of the Whitsun bank holiday week, it marks a year of my commuting by bike (as well as the 2 trains).
What a difference it had made to me, riding my trusty stead, Delphi each day!
In celebration of Delphi, here are some highlights!

Highs

• Cycling over to my Mum's by bike. After I'd been cycling for a month or so, I took the trains and cycled the 3 miles to my Mum's house by bike.  It was SO nice to be able to come to hers under my own steam without relying on CBC to have to take me over or Mum to come to me.
• The torturous walks in the rain are halved in terms of time spent in rain! Walking to the station takes about 14 minutes (at a fast pace). I can cycle in 7. At the other end, walking took 10mins; cycling takes 5mins.  Yes, that's only about 12 minutes saving but if your train journey alone (plus the minimum waiting time) is already 1 hour and 5mins, that saving of 12 minutes is a real boon!
• When the trains were suspended for 2hours on a Friday a few weeks ago, this would have usually meant a 2 hour wait. But with Delphi, I was able to cycle the 3.5miles to an alternative train station which could get me nearer to home (where CBC could pick me up) and feel like I was doing something. I felt a real sense of achievement doing this. 3.3miles is not a lot to most cyclists but to me, it was a real big achievement driving on some quite major roads. I was scared as I had forgotten my helmet but I survived.
• When I am 'late' now, it means I am less 'late' as it were.
• The fact I can fold her up means that I can take her into shops, put her in the boot of the car, it means she can come on vacations where I might need a form of my own transport.  
• She's a beautiful shade of blue! Everyone thinks she's a beauty!
• At weekends, where there have been engineering works, it means my long journey is just a little shorter. 
• Having a pannier bag means when I have to lug shopping home from Lidl opposite school- it is being largely carried by my bike rather than the arduous trudge a half mile at one end and then a mile at the other end with very heavy bags with food in.
• People talking to me!  So many people love to see Bromptons! It's always a talking point!
• Confidence in cycling!  I feel so much more confident at cycling and my sense of balance is so much better than it was. I can go on small paths and go through the posts on the way to the station, I feel more confident going fast and cycling by myself on the road.
• She's SO much easier to get onto than Celeste, my road bike.  As she has a low cross-bar, I can get on in a dignified manner instead of the awkward way I get onto Celeste!
• One Sunday, I had gone to play flute at my old church and had ridden my bike to the station to get the train. On the way back, I discovered that CBC and his brother had cycled to the marina near us and gone across the river to a town. As it turned out, the timing was perfect as I arrived at the interchange station for the trainline that led to where they were and was able to get the train there and cycle to meet them. I was then able to join then for the journey home cycling in the sunshine along to our home. In the past, I would have missed out but not this time!

Lows:

• The day I went into my music room at school to find Delphi knocked over a Tom tom drum with paint work scratched off the main frame. Horrible class had been walked through the room by one of my colleagues rather than going through the hall. Horrible class do not know to not touch something that isn't theres.  Horrible child lied about doing it despite being dobbed in my several others.  This caused an upset with the colleague who walked them through.
• Being patronised by several men on trains when I've tried to collapse my bike down in a confined space and made mistakes. Go away, I know how to put my bike down but if there's not enough space...!!
• The time the chain got stuck!!! I had no clue what to do!
• 
  

And that's about it!

It has been great to become more independent thanks to Delphi!

My sincere thanks to CBC for a much-used, much-loved present.  It took me about 6 months to learn how to put her up and down and ride her but the subsequent time has been wonderful!

A lazy weekend for some!

Hi,

How are you? Well, I hope. 

Well, I spent today at school cleaning/sorting/tidying out the music room (and the cupboard of doom in the hall)- stayed for about 5.5 hours.  Was glad to get it done at the start of the holidays and indeed, I HAD to do it now as the cleaners need to do the deep clean and that frankly wasn't possible without this! 

BUT, the weekend was a nicely relaxed one!

I got up around 8.45 to water the garden and then we headed to see the piano. We met my Piano technician friend L there who gave the piano the once over and said it was a good piano so we are going ahead with buying it (Friday).

After that, CBC wanted to head to Leigh-on-Sea to go and fetch a birthday present for his sister. I had already purchased her a cute Tatty Devine notebook and a pretty Citronella candle in a teal ceramic pot but he wanted to get something.

We went into a very fancy florist where he bought her a money plant in a pretty pot (very expensive though!) The florist was arty, fun and quirky and very hip which is very Leigh-on-Sea.

After that, CBC wanted to stop somewhere for a drink/brunch so we went to our favourite cafe, Stop The World, where he had Eggs Florentine, coffee and a smoothie. I had just a smoothie because I didn't want to be spending lots of money  on the first day of the holiday.  It's a very lovely cafe though and I LOVE their veggie breakfast usually which consists of Halloumi, grilled tomatoes, tomato salsa, spinach, broccoli, asparagus oh and mushrooms but I swap those for avocado!

 After that, we headed towards home but CBC decided we should have a walk and so we went to Belfairs woods which are a very pleasant place to walk- I've walked there once before but it was very muddy that time!

We ended up walking on the golf  course as part of our walk and sat on a bench and watched someone teeing off which was hilarious from behind!

In the woods, we saw this very pretty Green man carving.

 There was also vast quantity of Speckled Wood butterflies around. There were some other varieties but they were very skittish so I didn't have the chance to identify them.

The woodland parts of the walk very pleasantly shaded.  Out in the sun wasn't soo cool as I hadn't put on any suncream as we were originally just out to see a piano!

 The grass is very parched everywhere.  Maybe just one day of rain might be ok?

 Back home, I had some leftover sandwiches from the staff tea party as my version of lunch/breakfast and watered the garden and put some washing in.
I noticed how happy my Aloe Vera is with life at the moment.  We recently bought it a new big pot to live in and it has spread out and grown profusely up and outwards.

 Plus, several babies have been born!

 After that, we headed over to CBC's Sister's house where his Mum was also. She's pregnant at the moment- due in 2 weeks and has a 23-month boy who was having a meltdown when we arrived.  Luckily, that was instantly abated as he was curious about us!  I ended up going off with him to inspect the hoovers - he likes the hoover and he seemed very happy. We gave her her presents which she seemed to like and then took his Mum out to dinner at Prezzo so they could do the Bed time routine in peace.

When we returned home, I did some more work on Another Day of Sun (part of my list) and CBC prepared for Sunday's cycling ride from London to Southend.

CBC set off at 6am to London and I slept on!
At around 11, I rode to the station on my Brompton to get the train to Southend Victoria to meet him at the finish line.

Unusually, Abellio Greater Anglia were giving away free ice-creams to everyone who travelled on the train so I had a 99 before leaving the station.  Here it is with my bike!

 I cycled down to Priory Park and waited at the Finish Line for CBC.

 There he is at 12.10ish!  I then stood around for 2 hours or so as he and his two cycling pals had some beers and chatted and tried not to get too impatient!
We rode back to Southend Victoria, irritatingly missing a train by 2 minutes which meant 28 minutes wait.

 Back home, I decided I should really tackle the bag of present from school, most of which hadn't been opened in the hurry on Friday.
18 boxes of chocolates is perhaps a bit much for one person to receive and not very healthy though I appreciate the gesture.  1 box had already been given to my piano pal.

 These were the non-chocolate gifts

 My favourite was this pair of cat-themed gifts which I DID open on Wednesday when the boy gave it to me.  I said, "Oooh, I love them! Did you choose them?" to which he replied affirmatively and when questioned how he knew to choose them, he commented, "You wear a lot of cat-themed clothing so I thought you might like them!"  How utterly thoughtful for a 9-year old boy!

Here are most of the cards minus one or two that were upstairs already.

There were three bunches of flowers. I gave one to my neighbours as I don't have enough vases for 3 and it seemed nice to share the joy (which I also intend to do with chocolates).

It's nice to be appreciated.

Later that evening, I cooked a dinner of pasta with green vegetables and passata and then finished Another Day of Sun!  

Task 1 completed!

How was your weekend?

xx

Style imitating Art: On the Road

Last week, for Style Imitating Art, Salazar from 14 Shades of Grey chose 'On the Road', a GIF for our Style Imitating Art inspiration.

“On the Road” GIFs by Chinese artist Oamul:

What a sweet Gif! I love all the flowers 

Here is the outfit I created for this inspiration.

Since the picture features a lot of green foliage and a bicycle, I chose to wear my Boden bicycle dress as the base item.  It is lovely and light and floaty for this warm weather.

To give a nod to the myriad flowers, I added this Magenta rose corsage and my Nan's flower necklace plus my oldest flower crown which originally came from Monsoon Kids Bridesmaid range!

The final touch was my Irregular Choice Bed of Roses Posie  shoes.  It seemed right to stand in front of this rambling purple shrub 

I did ask my Gardening friend what they were called, was it Cranesbill?  But, alas, I have forgotten what he told me so if your flower name memory is greater than mine, please leave a comment!

How would you have interpreted this one?

xx

Magic Beans

Today, I headed over to my Mum's house.  It was so nice to see her and after we went out for lunch, she showed me her crops in the garden.  I was astounded at the sight of tomatoes galore, pink lemonade blueberries, gargantuan raspberries, olives, full-sized butternut squashes and monster patty-pan squashes!

 Her garden looks so beautiful. I was delighted when she gave me four pattypan squashes to take home to eat.

We returned home from her's via a visit to the French patisserie we love (which meant I skipped in and out of 4 charity shops. Sans purchase!), She had also lent me a bean slicer/stringer.
Because the one thing that hasn't grown so successfully for my Mum this year, is runner beans. She began germinating 5 seeds in a plastic cup with earth for me and some for her. She gave me mine within 3 days of doing that.  Mine have clearly been at the steroids as they bulging and thriving whereas hers has been rather shrinking violets.

Today was the day to pick TWELVE runner beans! Lovely long ones. I was SO proud

 After I'd prepared them and placed them in a saucepan ready for later, CBC and I went out for a cycle. Bearing in mind this is my first cycle ride in well over a year.  It was about 6.30ish.
What did I face as part of my maiden cycle of 2015:

• Newly laid lanes with grit, mud lying everywhere
• On the narrowest lane of all, going up hill, a car appeared and I had to get off my bike and squeeze myself into the nettles to let him past.  I have NEVER encountered a car on that road.
• DARK,DARK lanes.
• Torrential rain.
• Thunder and lightning
• Going off the main road to avoid danger and ending up on a dark (it was raining by this point) covered lane, downhill with grit and my riding glasses fogged up and sliding everywhere.
• A puncture

Er- terrified might describe my mindset at many times in the journey.  Luckily, CBC had ridden off to fetch the car and rescued me when I had almost reached home bar about 400 metres with my slidy punctured tire, informing me that yes,that was a puncture!

As I had a restorative shower, CBC prepared dinner

 The most wonderful vegetarian dish featuring:

• My runner beans
• roasted pattypan squash slices with garlic, thyme, olive oil and some comte cheese with baked chicory.
• Quinoa with fried mini plum tomatoes and red chilli. 

Would you like a closer look?

 It was utterly sublime! I recommend quinoa cooked in this way (boiled and then added to the frying tomatoes and chilli).

To accompany it:

 The first taste of my fresh-mint plant, again started by my Mum but really thriving now!  It was also delicious.

Because we've been away for over two weeks, the garden has been looking rather sorry for itself. My Cos lettuces, SO perky and happy, have gone to a crisp, courgettes leaves gone largely brown and crispy, butternut squash plants drowned; swiss chard, hanging on for dear life; tomatoes thriving but with too much foliage and not enough tomatoes!
But...

I did pull up some more chantenay carrots.Er, those two are a bit massive eh?

The onions are starting to come through and as I mentioned, the beans are doing well.  

Hurrah!

What about you, dear friends? How does your garden grow?

xxx

Le Tour!

And so the Tour de France kicked off today! How exciting it is here in England! On Monday, the road outside our school is going to be closed for the Tour!  Our brilliant deputy-head organised a 'Tour de France' breakfast today for all those children who come to school on bikes and scooters (yours truly was photographed on her pink scooter!).  We got a 'highly commended' for our school travel plan and loads of children now come to school on bikes and scooters. Yellow jersery, King of the Mountain bunting adorned the school too and all was good fun!

In honour of Le Tour, I donned my Greater Plains bicycle dress, (shamefully and blatantly copied from Char) and wore my lemon slice necklace which looks a bit  like a bicycle wheel (also shamefully copied from Char, but from a different source) along with Cath Kidston 'Sweet pea' shoes, Per Una green shrug and a navy/floral Baker Boy hat (alla French biking hat).  I always enjoy wearing 'themed' clothing for days and am always cross at myself when I forget about a special day at school which has happened 3 times this year (and I am berated for it since I am 'the expected one' to participate!)

The above photos were taken at my interchange station on the way home. I had 20 mins to wait for my connection so I decided to see if I could take some surreptitious timer photos on the train platform (the train featured is the one I got off).  Propping it on the seat of a bench, I somehow managed to look nonchalant and normal despite 2 platform guards, 2 cleaners and 5 general lurkers/passengers walking past.  Aha, for the silent, no-flash camera!

CBC was in France till about now (he's just come through the door) so because I didn't have my music club on after school, I went to hang out with my two best teacher friends in the local town- we ate food, had ice-cream and chilled at the flat of my Canadian friend before she went off to dance class. I really like our friendship and gutted that she is only here for 3 more weeks. Oh how I wish she was staying!

I then went to Sainsbury's to get some snacks (and eek, a jumper and trousers!) for CBC's and my journey to Herefordshire tomorrow.  I'm so excited to return to Abbeydore for this biennual concert. Here were my posts from last time here and here and here.

We are going to spend Saturday night in Hay-on-Wye, the town of books at our favourite organic B&B, so I won't be staying in the Old Post Office again, though I was offered a place!

Hope all is well with you.

Oh and I saw it as a 1980's cassette. Yes, I am old enough!

x

Linking up to Hat Attack with the Style Crone and her amazing hat creation!



and Fashion Item Friday with the super Renae

Joy in a pair of wheels

Today, CBC and I went out on a 27 mile cycle-ride.  It was the most WONDERFUL day with perfect conditions.  Last Sunday was the first time I have cycled in a year and a half when we did a 14 mile round trip to Ingatestone in Essex.  It was a lovely day then although I was a bit nervous since I hadn't been out for so long and went on one of two very busy and scary fast down-hill roads.  I could barely walk after, my legs weren't used to the exertion.

This time, I felt a lot more confident and we avoided the scary road to Stock and took a back road instead and rode for a lot longer.

You may or may not know this, but four years ago, around about this time, was the first time I ever managed to ride a bike- I could never do it and my parents divorced at the crucial time when I might have learnt how to ride. Almost five years ago, I met CBC, an avid cyclist and he managed to teach me around about the May after we met.  After an initial attempt in Hexham on a rented bike, we went to my local park with Betty, my Mum's old Bickerton original fold-up bike, and in about half an hour, I was cycling! It was SUCH an exciting moment and something I will be eternally grateful to CBC for.  A year on, we rode the London to Brighton cycling race- 54 miles!!!  I was really happy at my achievement!

Anyway, since we were so tied up with the wedding last year and with other things going on, I never managed to cycle with CBC.

Today, we set off and rode to a really pretty village called Writtle. Its main claim to fame, as it were, is the agricultural college, it's possible it was where my Grandad first learnt about bee-keeping or at least, he went on some courses there I believe, I'm not sure exactly.  I went there many years ago with my Nan (I called her Mamgu) and Grandad, but don't remember much about it.

The weather was beautiful today and the roads weren't too busy although we had to ride one stretch on the Ongar to Harlow road which was a bit busy.

There was a wonderful moment where I was cycling down a gentle incline, sun streaming down on me, wildflowers on either side, fields of beautiful (but smelly) oilseed rape on either side, and I remembered this was always how I had imagined it would be before I could cycle!!!

We had a pleasant lunch in Mouro, a lovely tea-room in Writtle- I had BLT sandwiches and a chocolate milkshake.

I hope this will be the first of many and I hope I can make it up to the 55 miles we achieved cycling from our home to Jesus Green in Cambridge some years ago, and perhaps even exceed it?! It was a perfect way to spend the bank holiday, even though my legs are aching...

CBC's arty shot of his bike and I...


Here I am cycling back up Swan lane- on Celeste, my bike.  I named my bike after a friend's child and an elephant...


Do you enjoy cycling?

x

Things that have made me smile this week!

Hello! I've had a really nice day all in all!  I thought I'd make a little feature of things that have made me smile this week.  Lauren at Someone like you has a feature called Life's snapshots and I really like this.  Here are some of my highlights...

 Card-making with my bigsister.  There's nowt nicer than raiding someone else's craft stash!  I've made this for our younger sister's birthday!  Quite pleased with it! I used her nesting dies and her Bigshot die cutter- amazing!  (linking up for another Monthly make for Annie the Felt-fairy's make a month challenge)

 I've tried to create a lovely rockabilly style dress using layers of a dress and 3d pads.  It still involves recycling- her old wallpaper that was taken off the wall to make the dress!

 Thai Green tofu stir-fry!    Twas really tasty including Cauldron tofu, clear spring buckwheat noodles, asparagus, tomatoes, cabbage, carrot, red pepper, courgette.  Nommmmmmm!!!

 My gorgeous virtuosic blackbird who serenades me as I walk down the street. You have to hear him- he has an impressive concert programme-ranging from cheeky chappie to R2D2, Vivaldi's goldfinch concerto!  I whistle to him back (which always makes passers by give me weird looks!) and sometimes I feel like we're having a conversation but I suspect this is wishful thinking!

 Playing with my gorgeous niece!  Very cute!  And he animated dinosaur is also amazing! 

 I love the name of this shop!  Halcyon is a word I adore and I love all it's meanings including this wellknown phrase!

 Cycling and CBC!  Here is he finishing the Orchid 100mile charity ride!  He's amazing as well as being really lovely and cute!

 Tame squirrels in Lake Meadows.  This guy had no fear!

 Frisky ducks!

 Excitable pigeons! And the interloper...

 Dressing up like a little girl!  I found this cute Jack Wills mini-dress in the charity shop last week for a real bargainous fiver.  This would cost at least £70-120 new and CBC and I love going into Jack Wills when we go to Cambridge!!!

 The pink panther mini-coach I saw in West London! My favourite character as a child!

 Having an excuse to play on kids play equipment!

 Seeing a Chelsea pensioner in Soho!  I read Billy the Kid by Michael Morpurgo and so I smile whenever I see one!

 Coriander!  A massive bunch of it- I had stacks of it in my stir-fry and even more with this yummy salad and fishcakes!

 Er- trampolines!!!!!

What's made you smile this week?!