6th March 2019 Will the torment never end?

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Wednesday 6th 38-41F, dark grey with a light breeze. Still undecided which forecast to trust. Eeny, meany miney mo? Sunshine and showers or dry and cloudy? Who knows?

A walk to the lanes in a thin, cold wind. My efforts were slightly hampered by the twin moraines of prickly twigs slashed from the roadside hedgerows. I amused myself by kicking stray branches and the odd tree trunk into touch [i.e. the verge.] Basically anything which might hinder cyclists was removed from their path.

Will I get a ride today before I become too weak from hunger to manage the hills? I had been digging under the wire, for ages. But badly miscalculated how much space a touring trike actually needs to go through a tunnel.

The tunnel started under the trike shed. I was sneaking the waste soil out in the saddle bag on officially sanctioned, shopping trips. Letting the spoil trickle out through a flap in the bottom of the bag, onto the farmer's muck spreading on the roads, had made my efforts all but invisible.

Then The Head Guard noticed the rear tyres were already flattened by the weight of the soil as I was being body searched at the security gate. So finally, my ruse was discovered. I was sentenced to dragging a second, ABUS Mini U-lock along on future shopping rides. Which will make any hope of soil carrying completely impossible.

Now I have two Abus locks aboard my back tyres look flat all of the time. So I will have to watch out for pinch punctures. This is despite pushing the pressures up to well over 200psi on the Twin Peaks, track pump. All the plans of mice and mere tricyclists..

It turned very wet in the afternoon. Which meant going shopping in the car. Grr! Foiled again!

Thursday 7th 45F, dark grey and breezy. Rain and gales promised. It stayed dry for my hour and half walk along the marsh. Then up through the steep fire breaks and back along the soggy track. Everything was very wet from yesterday's rain. The beck was flowing very briskly too. While the marsh lake was inhabited by only two Coots. One shy, which literally dashed off across the water and one seemingly indifferent to my presence. Not one duck in sight after the many hundreds last year.

Later, I disturbed two large geese which were grazing on the field. Which was their cue to do three complete circles around me while complaining noisily at the interruption of their breakfast. Surely one lot of farmer's crops is much the  same as any other, or so I would have thought.  A vehicle had lost control on one of the blind bends in the village and damaged the ancient, concrete barrier. Fortunately it held and steered the vehicle back onto the road.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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