is upon us which means the full on Winterfest is a mere 10 days away!

Not that i'm counting or anything, i'm certainly not religious but the festivities do give some focus to an otherwise 'dead' part of the year.

So, what have i been up to since my last post? Well Thursday i had a bit of a walk, partook of the IKEA seasonal lunch then set to to finish the next Gaby chapter. The lunch, think a Christmas dinner with meatballs instead of turkey, was actually rather good, with my Family card it was under a fiver, pigs and and a Yorkshire pushed it to £7, about half the cost of anywhere else!

Friday then, well Aunty Bev suggested we do a car/bike day, the weather looked okay-ish and so we journeyed the hour or so up the M5 to Worcester (Woos ta) to explore a bit of the NCN (National Cycle Network), specifically NCN422, 41 and 45 to the south and east of the city. The weather Gods were having a bit of a laugh, the promised dry and sunshine eventually arrived after lunch but not to be put off we each set off on our chosen rides in almost not raining conditions.

My route was eastward toward Pershore, just 10km from where we parked the bus, i was just getting into it after maybe six/seven km when i lost all forward drive. A quick look identified a broken chain, no problem, i can sort that except when it came to it i couldn't, the joining link i thought i had wasn't in the tool kit. What now? Well Pershore was just over the next hill, worst case there would be a cafe and shelter but there was also a bike shop.

And so i walked, scooted and freewheeled into the town and an exchange of £10 had me back on the road. If you are ever in the area, check out Echelon Cycles and the town is quite nice too. The on/off drizzle finally abated as i headed towards the foot of the Cotswolds and my eastern most turn point, which also marked the end of the helpful tailwind.

But it wasn't too windy, the grey skies slowly changed to something a bit brighter and i made my lunch stop in one of the quite pretty little villages. Fed but sadly not watered (i forgot my bottle), i started the run across to Tewkesbury where the Stratford Avon joins the Severn, after the recent rains, the low lying meadows were under a lot of water for miles. From there my route sort of followed the M5 northwards all the way to Croome Hall where i met Aunty Bev with the car, 75km in all, an enjoyable day in the saddle despite the mechanical.

Saturday actually turned out a better day on the whole, weatherwise, dry, sunny but a bit chilly. Other than a few little chores, my main job was writing the next Gaby chapter, we finished off Thursdays Cottage Pie for tea, 'kin luvverly!

I wouldn't of usually ridden today but a fine forecast and a well spaced week prompted me out for ride four of the week. It started out as a saunter down to Bath but quickly transmogrified into an 85km loop out into Wiltshire, mostly on quite familiar roads that i've not used so much since my regular Cheltenham lunch stop closed. It certainly wasn't the warmest of rides but the outward wind assist didn't result in too much of a slog back.

First job when i got back was to post the next free Gaby chapter, thats Chapter 26 of Balancing Trick, for your entertainment.

I'll be cracking on with the writing tomorrow, Patreons can look forward to more uploads before Wednesday's blog. Quite what else the week will bring i can't say, but i'm sure it will include bike riding and writing.

Well that's all for today, see you midweek,
Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid