16.02.2025 42km starting at -5C/23F Brrr! 😖

 ~o~

 Sunday 16th 20F/-6.7C [7.45] The coldest hour is just before dawn. There was a dusting of snow last night. Today will be cold and sunny. Never getting above -1C/30F.  

7.45 Up at 7.15 after a quiet night. Another nose bleed. The fish have been fed. Display cabinets lit. Only 61F/16C in the room. Time to fire up the stove.

 8.10 Walkies! 

 8.50 And back again. The lanes beckoned as the sun rose over the local hill. It took quite a distance to walk off my lower back pain this morning. A few Redwings were foraging on the prairie. Otherwise it was a quiet day for the birds. 

 I was too warm on the outward journey. Then shocked by the chill of the slightest breeze after the turn. Simply pausing made the chill go away. My walking pace was causing the wind chill. I removed my double fleece hat and was more comfortable after that. The sky was almost bereft of cloud. One tiny strip in the distant northwest was all I could find. Which meant I was being blinded by the sun on the way back.

 9.45 23F/-5C. It is much too nice out there to be sitting here. A ride? To what end? The roads have been salted and seem fine. Damp but not slippery. The flea markets are all too depressing. 

 Hoarders, only pretending to offer items for sale. When all they really do is take used junk off the streets and keep it. Much of which looks worse for wear than most charity shop offerings. At least the latter sort the best from the worst and usually present it far more appealingly. If I stay at home I'll only get depressed. Or waste the day away on YT. Right. The e-bike it is! 

 10.30 Ready.

 12.40 29F/-1.7C. Sunny with a NE breeze. Back from a 42km ride. It was very cold on my face and hands but the rest of me was fine. I rode down to the south coast. To look at an old farm we might have bought cheaply, but didn't. Then I rode on to a summer house area. Which we visited a couple of times. There were lots of Whooper swans on the sea. 

 I meandered on the way back. Taking a route on a whim. Despite my hands aching constantly with the cold. I bought some fresh rolls in another supermarket. To leave the dry, over-baked ones to go in the bin. Or perhaps to be toasted. 

 My nose must have bled all morning. My right glove was covered in blood where I had wiped my streaming nose so often. There were a few bloody streaks on my jacket but who cares? Nobody will notice an old fart. Not even in a dayglo jacket with blood on the shoulders.

  Dinner was sausage, mashed potatoes and peas. I washed up while the potatoes simmered. 

 10.30 16F/-9C. It is already colder than predicted for the low point between 6 and 8am tomorrow morning: 8C/18F. It is only supposed to be -7C at the moment. I am trying to get the stove to burn a little longer than usual tonight. With a couple of large logs well alight before reducing the air supply slightly.

 ~o~