Saturday Morning Bike Ride

Yesterday morning dawned fair and just a little frosty. I consider not going for a bike ride and cleaning (or starting to clean!) the house instead... ummm what a choice - let's see, I think bike riding wins! Fresh air and exercise are both badly needed. I missed my cycle last week as I spent the morning partying on down with 4 and 5 year olds - the grown ups were practically forced to partake of the abundance of party food on offer so not a healthy alternative to cycling really.

I put on my woolly socks (nice to have them back - they'd been missing for a while having disappeared into a stuff pile which is now no more - sorted!), so with toasty toes I set off up my favourite road out of the village.

Pesky power lines rather spoil this view overlooking a pond in one of the fields along the top.

My bike poses beside the Clochoderick Stone just before the crossroads where I turn right...

... along what has to be my favourite little stretch of road. It's only a few miles long but holds many lovely views. Prior to taking up my weekly cycle rides last summer I had driven this road several times and thought nothing of it, it's only since cycling it that I appreciate all it has to offer.

Once Spring arrives and the temperature is a little warmer there'll be lots of lambs out in the fields round here, I can't wait!

For now though there are just mummy-to-be sheep...

... and frosty fields.

Now we've reached the little knoll of trees which I always like to photograph. A beautiful bare winter branch arches over it, silhouetted against the pure blue sky.

And here it is again, fronted by a lovely old gate with the red gate post. The last five photos were all within a couple of miles of each other...

...by this point I've left my little road, cycled a couple of miles along a B road, turned off back onto unclassified roads for perhaps another 5 miles before I stop at the little loch in the woods for some more photos. It's covered with a just a thin layer of ice. I make sure I don't go too close to the edge as I'm a little clumsy and seem to get easily tripped by brambles and other evil branches so don't want to risk falling in!

After the little loch I'm approaching one of the other villages close by to ours. On the way I pass the farm of the Vietnamese pot bellied pig (himself nowhere to be seen) and spot these four geese walking towards me down the road.

They turn into a field and show me their bottoms as I pass.

Agnetha pauses from his/her breakfast to give me a look...

As does Annifrid. (I was an Abba fan in my early years)

The morning's too nice to head home straight away, so I take another loop round the back roads before ending my run. I wish I'd realised just how lovely the morning was to have been and I would have gone for a longer and better planned ride. As it was I just toottled around the back roads fairly close to home, but at least I escaped out for a while!