May Cycling

On the backup/winter bike, starting at 16308.2 and ending at 16362.6, or 54.4 miles plus the summer bike starting at 1201.5, ending at 1330.8. or 129.3, for a total of 183.7 miles (YTD 898). Down on last month, partly because no #30daysofbiking, partly because partly due to weather (being the rainy season, as much as we have one), partly due to fewer and less distant pub trips. Wanting to transport plants also meant that a couple of garden centre visits were done by car.

The one long ride I did was 40 miles to the Reach May Fair and back, which reminded me how I don't like cycling in groups, when I amble along at 10mph and everyone else is only doing 7-8. As the ad hoc bike parking was being overwhelmed by demand, I just watched the opening ceremony and got out while I could still get to my bike, and ground the 20 miles back into the expected headwind.

And of course, at this time of year, there was the usual plenty to do in the garden, keeping the unwanted suppressed and planting out this year's annuals.

February cycling

On the backup/winter bike, starting at 15903.7 and ending at 16060.0, or 156.3 miles; the best month since September, despite being a short one.

Rather than being the month of winter as all the forecasts were suggesting, the weather was hinting spring all month, culminating in a high pressure event from the Azores that made for the first T-shirt cycling of the year, and with firm going on the bridleways, more like after Easter. Being dry, that also meant no other weather induced interruptions to cycling.

In the garden, I could at least attempt to make a head start on the chickweed, and get to clearing out that awkward corner near the shed, which had become overrun by nettles of all kinds during the autumn. And I got to mow the lawn twice!

Also, with being so dry, the soil was looking parched and while that meant easier to get to a good tilth, I'd even started recycling the bath-water to keep the patch where I'd sown the spring broad beans, as well as watering the patio planters and the sunny beds nearby.

January cycling

On the backup/winter bike, starting at 15778.6 and ending at 15903.7, or 125.1 miles; slightly down on last month but more than last January, even though none of the rides were further than into town (no gratuitous miles gotten in on New Year's Day). Going to the gym a lot, rather than to the pub at most once a week, made the difference (I didn't quite do a dry January though).

That the weather continued mild really up to the last third of the month helped; but even then, bright sub-zero days that make the bridle-paths passable also encouraged me out of my nest. On the down-side, the garden has still really not shut down for the winter; so I'm just having to do the new year pruning anyway; though the dry weather has meant that the vegetable beds were not a quagmire when I dug them ahead of the first proper frost.

In the gym, with a lot of stretching, I'm slowly managing to get the bar further down my back for squats, thus increasing the load bearing area, and hence the amount I can bear to carry. And also being more loosened up, I can get to the squats earlier in the set, and walk off the fatigue before getting on the bike to come home.

October activity

This month I ended at 752.1 on the summer bike or 127.1 miles (1728 YTD); all just riding to get to some place (usually the gym at the Y) rather than just to be out in the open covering miles, even though the autumn weather has been generally mild so far.

And with the season advancing, it's been time to start putting the garden away for the winter, with the last of the outdoor crops gathered by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, having resumed doing weights nine months ago as a general bit of physical maintenance, I'm pleased that I've made increases in what I've been lifting. Most significantly, in trying to do squats, the major blocker has been shoulders too tight from years of hunching over keyboard and handlebars -- and a couple of months extensive stretching has finally reached the point where if I'm warmed up and well stretched (i.e. late in a session), I can actually get into position under the bar without the sinews in my upper arms complaining. Beyond the general posture improvements that this has given me (i.e. not being like these guys), it's also meant that the amounts I'm doing on the chest press machine has suddenly leapt up in a few weeks than it had done all year.

That was the year that was

This time last year, work, including some extra responsibilities, voluntarily taken on, that had spiralled beyond what I had expected, combined with the commute to the Science Park, and having to keep things functioning on the domestic front, had really ground me down. I didn't even manage to summon up the time and energy for several of the needful gardening chores (woodwork maintenance and apple tree pruning) across the holiday break.

So, sooner than I had planned (meaning to do it this coming year, as a down-shift towards retirement), I applied for reduced working hours, which cut in from the start of May.

That did the trick for the moment -- I've been able to attend more to things that are neither work nor the bare minimum of domestic chores. That included enough time in the garden to do pre-emptive weeding, even suppressing the bindweed as it emerged, as well as time to do more in the kitchen than simply heat up ready-meals every day, while still leaving time to just kick back and unwind. I even managed to do a tiny bit of side-project coding (hence the few posts on Rust in recent months), which is up on the zero I managed in 2015.

In the wider world, what a year it's been, too.

A year ago, we didn't know the date when Cameron (who he?) would call the referendum he'd been bounced into, and I expected it would be late 2017 and the status quo would prevail; and I was expecting that Hillary would comfortably beat whichever of Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio (who they?) won the Republican nomination. At the end of the year, what had transpired was beyond anything I could reasonably have hoped for.

What I hadn't expected was the number of people I follow on the internet who I thought were reasonable and level-headed, yet who completely lost it following the election of a New York liberal to the Presidency, like they actually believed all the "literally Hitler" caricatures.

It all means 2017 is going to be interesting, though I devoutly hope, not too much in the Chinese sense.

March cycling

A water hazard

Up to 13,933.3, 2689.7 and 16.1, plus 84.3 on cycling holiday (+47.7 in April to count later) meaning 319.6 + 84.3 = 403.9 miles (1090.1 YTD -- so fewer miles than last March, but still ahead in aggregate) in generally nondescript weather mostly at mid-single figures temperatures.

I took a quick post-Easter cycling break again, in weather that promised to be mostly sunny, but never quite delivered -- including surprise hail showers that definitely weren't on the program (but fortunately that day I'd chosen a route that took me out of the path of the most catastrophic deluge, so I just saw the results after the fact).

And, no, that water trap was there the day before -- I'd come down a nice downhill following cycle route signs, when suddenly water ahead, and just carrying through on momentum.

Also, mid month, we finally finished last year's apple crop, despite that having started in mid-August, well earlier than usual.

July cycling

Usual cycling round-up, with the end of the month numbers 12261.5 and 1932.6, for 162.5 + 252.2 or 414.7 miles total for the month, and 2458 year to date -- so down on last month due to generally miserable weather, and having to take advantage of what good weather there was at weekends to keep the garden under control.

Even so, all it took was a run of a few wet days for the caterpillars to devastate the new broccoli plants, some down to the stalks, while I wasn't watching.

March cycling &c.

Readings of 11,755.4 and 939.98 mean 287.9 + 49.25 + 97 off meter or 434.1 miles this month, or 861 miles year to date; just over a hundred miles more than last year, though well less than a 1000 mile stretch goal.

Those 97 miles as above on the last weekend of the month -- the first day was pouring rain after Mickfield, and the last was into the wind most of the way, but at least I had a long ride on the middle day, and good hearty pub meals in between.

This year, and 2 years ago at the same time

The month started and ended not very warm, but wet and windy; with some bursts of warm sun in between -- enough to sit outside at lunch on the 20th, after a very grey start that hid the eclipse. And enough to coax the last of last year's tomatoes to ripen as well. With tomatoes and leaf beet from the greenhouse, and then broccoli and romanescu from the vegetable patch, plenty of home harvest, along with the regular spring flowers -- and flowers on the October sowing of broad beans in patio planters as well.

April foolery

Normally at this time of year, after the clocks have gone forwards, I think to myself that there's light in the evenings, but it's still too cold to do anything with it. This week it's been mild enough that I've sat out at the picnic table twice in the evening to eat my supper, as well as doing the necessary weeding.

Garden rubbish

The weather has continued mild over the past 4 weeks, and now we have the crocuses and snowdrops out amongst the marigolds, and one slow-motion blooming rose in the more sheltered and sunny part of the garden.

We finished the last of the apple crop yesterday, and pulled half the leeks last weekend; and the crop of salad leaves that were mostly eaten by caterpillars last August have actually pulled themselves together enough in the winterised bed in the greenhouse that I've been able to get garnishes for Karen's lunch.

And with the garden next door no longer a wilderness, that's been a cue to start tidying up dead wood (and all too live ivy) in our own back hedge -- I've already got enough debris to fill the green bin until going on Easter. It looks like that'll be this year's garden project by the time it's done.

8813.3

Despite the wettest January since whenever, the main reasons I had at any point not to cycle to work in the continuing mild weather were either meetings mid-afternoon with no suitable window to get home before dark, or when the bolt securing my saddle snapped for the second time in six weeks, which latter robbed me of about 30 miles. So, 213 miles in all, rather than the almost 250 it could have been -- still 35 miles ahead of last year.

Meanwhile the garden is merging late autumn -- marigolds, and a rose slowly opening -- with spring as the snowdrops are out and the other bulbs are poking through. And with both the mild weather and our neighbour having cleared the spinney which had grown up in his back garden over the last ~30 years, no deer has been coming to nibble on them.

Garden Rubbish

While there was a fairly white frost on parts of the garden this morning, the half-hardy fuchsias and the marigolds seem to have shrugged it off again. Meanwhile, in the greenhouse, one of the last of the beef tomatoes was ripe enough to pick, along with some salad leaves growing in the raised bed, between the bubble-wrap covered overwintering pot-plants.

Meanwhile the apple crop is just about running out and getting to the stage when I'm racing decay in the early picked stored apples, the celeriac seem to have done nothing, and the leeks are just about ready enough to do for a couple of meals. At least with the milder weather and the next door garden no longer being a spinney, there's been no muntjac nibbling the sound windfalls that have been in "outdoor storage" where they lie.

With the weather in general staying benign, it's also meant I've been steadily mounting up the miles on the bike again, workshifting the last couple of hours of the working day.

Winter is coming

In what has been a very mild month all in all -- we still even have nasturtiums, half-hardy fuchsias, and busy lizzies flowering in the garden -- I've cycled about 125 miles up to yesterday, by dint of working from home a couple of afternoons a week. And today I harvested tomatoes and courgettes from the greenhouse, and the weekly handful of french beans from plants that have been lazily producing at about the same rate since July.

But it seems that some actual cold weather is on the way, and I might even be able get around to some of the seasonal garden tidy-up chores (unless we get snowed in until January again, like the other year when I had to wait for the thaw to finish sweeping leaves off the lawn).

First frost

Looking out about 07:45 this morning, there were frost patterns in the dampness on the roof of Karen's van; and tonight going to put stuff in the compost bin, there was ice on the lid. Maybe this means I can stop having to mow the lawn for the season now.

Harvest Home

The last of the plums have been gathered in, and the freezer isn't quite bursting at the seams. The peak of the crop came a couple of weeks after the usual Bank Holiday weekend date, showing how the late spring has affected things. OTOH, the fruit were all on the large size, with few of the thumb-size specimens that usually form the last vestiges of the crop.

Harvest Home

The late spring has caused some knock-on effects in the garden -- while some blackberries have been ripe to pick in the hedgerows from almost the beginning of the month, the plums are coming on full stream just now, about a week later than I expect, and the French beans are only just starting to set. But then most of the annuals I sowed in the spring germinated sluggishly and many are only just coming into bloom, the nasturtiums being particularly feeble.

The outdoor tomatoes are at their peak now, but to date I've only harvested one from the greenhouse. The courgettes had a little spate in the first half of the month and have now gone back to just rotting from the tip, but the overwintered peppers and this year's chili plants are laden with ripening fruit. The apples are having a second round of drop, though as the birds are eating some of the fallen fruit, it may be that some ripened prematurely -- the ones that were big enough to be worth using were only a little sour when used in a pie.

The climbing rose I had to cut back to knee-high so that we could get the fence replaced is now as tall as I am once again -- I think I shall have to cut it back hard after flowering more often.

Bloomin' ridiculous

Forsythia should be long over by the time the cherry blossom is out

The garden has in the last few weeks leapt from winter torpor to that point of high spring where you just have to turn your back for weeds to be ankle-deep; so there have been a lot of delayed chores to catch up with -- and on the surprisingly good weather for the early bank holiday, the temptation to get out in the sunshine and fresh air on the bicycle.

So now the plants in the greenhouse are getting to the size to be planted out, or into grow-bags, the weather turns cold and very wet again.

Spring may be here

In warm sunshine today, I mowed the lawn for the first time this year, and do a bit more hoeing and weeding. The cherry tree looks like it will burst its buds soon, ahead of the plums, which is unusual.

And that won't be the only bit of catching up needed in the garden. Hardy plants can start emerging from the greenhouse, and seeds get planted, in the coming days.

Hints of spring

Even though on Friday, when cycling home, there were still patches of snow in the more sheltered ditches, the weekend has started to feel warmer, at long last. I even managed to start pottering in the garden, removing moss and straw from some of the beds, pruning the dogwood, and planting out narcissi that had bloomed on the window-sill six weeks ago.

January round-up

Well, leaving work at around half-past five, the clear sky was still blue. Dark blue, admittedly, but definitely not night-black. The corner is well turned; and as an additional sign of progress, some time in the last few days, the snowdrops have come out in the front garden.

And I close the month with 178 miles cycled, and the promise of a wet Friday morning, which will break my run of cycle to work Fridays.