Our garden is showing the first signs of “going over”, when many plants are looking past their best. We do, however, have quite a few blooms which start later and so are still at their peak.
My local hill.
Today I rode my E bike, based on an aging Trek Fuel EX8, to my local hill, Healey Nab. It’s quite clear when you reach the hill that it doesn’t get the use it used to get and for several years has had no official trail maintenance. Vegetation is growing too close to the trailContinue reading “My local hill.”
A trail ride in the sunshine.
Sunshine has been at a premium in Northern England recently. Yes, it’s been warm overnight due to high levels of cloud cover but the days have generally been cool and overcast. The Jet Stream has been way to the south of us, often stretched across the Bay of Biscay, which puts us in Arctic airContinue reading “A trail ride in the sunshine.”
So, whatever happened to mountain biking?
I’ve been writing about my mountain biking for over 5 years but recently I’ve written very few posts. I’ve mentioned a number of times that I’ve had to radically alter my riding due to a heart valve problem, which developed suddenly in June of last year. This has meant that I must not stress myContinue reading “So, whatever happened to mountain biking?”
Flower of the Week, 16th July 2024.
So much is happening at the moment that, rather than focusing on individual plants, I’ll show you a view of parts of our back garden. The garden is looking good despite the fact that, due to “Global Warming”, we’ve only had a single day that was vaguely warm! Still, it’s saved us from having toContinue reading “Flower of the Week, 16th July 2024.”
Flower of the Week, 17th June 2024.
When we moved into our house in 1997 the garden consisted mainly of lawns and rose beds. We removed every single rose as a reaction to this but over the last few years we have reintroduced them. Rather than dotting them along a border on their own we have used them in a mixture ofContinue reading “Flower of the Week, 17th June 2024.”
Finding the way to ride an E bike.
On a conventional mountain bike I’ve always undertaken several different types of ride. Sometimes I’ll repeat a circuit, trying to maintain consistent lap times and reaching exhaustion on the final lap. On other occasions I’ll session a downhill segment to work on my skills at the limit of my ability. Often I’ll undertake a trailContinue reading “Finding the way to ride an E bike.”
Flower of the Week, 29th May 2024.
When we moved into our house, 27 years ago, it had a typical 1950s style of garden. Much of it consisted of open brown soil, dotted with rose bushes. It took us a long time to want roses again after we’d removed all of the originals. What changed our minds about Britain’s favourite plant wasContinue reading “Flower of the Week, 29th May 2024.”
Our Scooter Trip to Normandy, 2024
This year was the sixth time that I have ridden with a group of local scooter riders to locations in Continental Europe. The destination this time was Normandy to commemorate, a few weeks early, the 80th anniversary of the D Day landings of the 6th of June 1944. 12 middle aged men travelling around 750Continue reading “Our Scooter Trip to Normandy, 2024”
Flower of the Week, 15th May 2024.
I’ve been away for a week with 11 other scooter riders. We visited the D Day landings area of Normandy, of which I’ll tell you more in a later post. In the meantime the garden has exploded into bloom. We have greatly reduced our area of primulas. They self propagate just too well. The onesContinue reading “Flower of the Week, 15th May 2024.”
Mountainbiker 