to end September and welcome October!

Yep, its been a bit of an Indian summer hereabouts so far this week. A reasonable amount of sunshine, mid teens c temperatures and just as importantly, dry!

Monday turned into, well, a fairly standard Monday. A few chores in the morning then i took myself for a walk down to IKEA essentially for entertainment but i grabbed some lunch and a new wooden spoon whilst i was there. On my return, some hours and kilometres later, i got the lawn mower out and gave our tiny patch of green its first haircut since Easter, a little bit of order in an increasingly wild looking garden.

Tuesday is of course my usual bike ride day and my regular destination is Clevedon out on the coast. Its not a long way, @ 30km if you go direct and you can avoid doing almost any climbing too, so ideal for a 'recovery' ride. Of course you can dress things up with some hills, trails and extra k's if you want something more demanding but i set out thinking i'd just have an easy meander.

It had been over a month, nearer two in fact since my last mucky burger, so i treated myself to a double mucky with salad (to keep things healthy) and enjoyed a sit in the sunshine as the world went by around me. Eventually though i needed to move but which way? I decided to play it by ear which can have some interesting results, even if you kind of know the roads.

On this occasion that meant using some lanes which are less direct, steeper, narrower than my default choices past the airport and across to the Avon valley where i picked up the bike path to take me back to base. Several of those climbs were well into double digits, one was signed at 20%, so much for gentle ride, a total of 101km with 730m of up put paid that idea, lol.

And so to today. A slightly cooler start to the day, a day filled with all sorts of domestic chores! Laundry of course, I like to wash my bike gear after every ride, nothing worse than putting on smelly, sweaty kit, then the next job, after a bit of shed tidying, was a trip to the shops. After a month of not really doing much grocery shopping the cupboards were looking a little bare so i set out to fill up on some basics, preferably without spending too much. By the time i'd visited 5 stores, i think i was still within budget and i have food enough to get me well into next week.

Back at the house i filled the bird feeders, harvested some rhubarb then made it into a crumble before starting the prep for our evening meal, steak thanks to Aunty Bev, i supplied the veg and cooking skills! It was a fine repast if i do say so myself, steak, roast potatoes, mushrooms and roast veggies followed by the crumble with custard - a meal fit for a queen.

I still haven't actually put 'pen to paper' but i have been putting together the bones of the next Gaby book in my head. I know, i need to work on May Queen too but compared to Gaby that's simple. It will of course include the popular elements you all tell me you love, bikes, travel and a bit of humour as our heroine finds her way through life's ups and downs.

So that's it for today, its the Bun Fest Sunday so things may be running a little late for the new Gaby chapter, but for today,
Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid