A Pocketful of Gunge

 The forecast look promising enough for a bike ride later in the day when I woke up this morning. So after a rather half hearted attempt to do some housework I decided to get changed into my cycling gear and go for a short pedal. This the first  time I've been out in over a fortnight, due to various reasons but  it was worth the effort. 

With no winds to fight against it was an comfortable pedal without spending too much energy. There was quite a bit of surface water on the road that was coming down off the hills to contend with but nothing serious, but it did serve to remind me in investing in a pair of overshoes, I will seek advice from my cycling guru, Tootlepedal.

My next door neighbour was out cleaning has car as I was preparing to leave and he enquired where I was heading for, I said I had no idea but would decide when I got to the end of the street whether to turn right of left, I turned left, and headed off up the Westerkirk valley.

My first stop was in this pull off to get a shot off one  of Westerkirk's iconic views......

........the Gates of Eden.

Cycling on I came upon some healthy looking specimens of fungi on the verge of the road.

An example of the water that was coming off the hills after last nights rain.

I pedaled on up the road and was pleasantly surprised to see the phone box had been restored, maybe some of these multi national company's do have a heart and listen to local opinion, or maybe some political influence was at work. However it was nice to see back in place, and I'm sure a nice coat of post office red paint would set it off grand against a lovely background.

I moved on into The Benty, turning left and.......

.....right over the bridge and heading up the opposite side of the river to Enzieholm bridge before returning home. But before that .....

I manged to get a couple of pictures of the mausoleum and Westerkirk grave yard.

After last nights rain I thoght there would've been more water in the river.

On arriving at Enzieholm bridge I stopped to have the banana that I had put in my pocket but un fortunately I had put my mobile phone in the same pocket and the result was mashed banana that caused a lot of problems with the phone when I got home.

But never theless I headed home and was cheered up with some brief sunshine on the way.

 I did stop for a couple of shots of the Kirk as came through the village.

The rest of the afternoon was spent frustratingly trying to get the phone to work, apparently the banana gunge had jammed the volume key which had put it in a mode that Couldn't get out of. After some online help from a patient and helpful technician it was decided I needed to put the phone in for repair, but as strange things happen I set it aside and when I checked a while later it was miraculously up and running much to me relief.

Scary Times

 There was some intermittent sunshine when I walked down to Wauchope Cottage to have coffee with Tootlepedal this morning. We sat in a nice sheltered corner of the garden while we enjoyed our coffee and some excellent ginger biscuits but a nice warm jacket was still needed. We had a light hearted conversation and it was good to see Mrs Tootlepedal out for a brief stroll round the garden which is still retaining some vivid splashes of colour despite the end of autumn approaching.

My plan for the afternoon what's to get out on the Ebike and pedal round Solwaybank wind farm and see how it was progressing. 

A rather dull set of photographs I'm afraid mostly due to the poor light and the lack of enthusiasm from myself to take this as a challenge and make the most of what was on offer.

I stopped briefly on the way up Callister to take these shots.....

.....and stopped at the top to look over to Chapelcross which is currently being decommissioned. On research Chapelcross was built to produce weapons grade plutonium and electricity for the civilian market. Strange to think that we have come from scary times from the threat of a cold war to face something perhaps even more frightening in the form of a global pandemic, and arguably a safer way to produce electricity in the form of wind turbines.

I didn't take any shots on the return part of the pedal as there was a light threat of rain as I approached Solway Bank, and I thought it was wise to head for home. The rain at that time didn't come to very much and I thought smugly I was home and dry until I started to descend towards Wauchope road and could see the valley was under quite a heavy shower but it wasn't too heavy to spoil my trip and I was soon home and into a nice hot shower.

For those that are interested I did 22 miles on the Ebike and lost 3 bars out of five on the battery which gave approximately 7 miles per bar on the battery. There was a range of 5 miles left on the sport mode and 9 miles left on the tour mode. I didn't check the range before I set off which I will do the next time I'm out.

A Nice Pedal

After a leisurely breakfast I got dressed in my cycling togs with the intention of taking advantage of the nice sunny morning we were afforded. I headed off up the Wauchope road to go round the Solwaybank route via Callister and Fulford bridge. This route gives an all round view off the current construction of the Solwaybank wind farm and I wanted to see how it was progressing

Working at dizzy heights

I don't know what was going on in this penfold on the road up Callister but it was interesting to watch the modern day technology and construction in the distance compared with something in the foreground that has been going on basically unchanged for generations.

I got several good views of the wind farm on the way round, this is a couple of them.

I stopped here for a while and studied the road ahead whilst I had a banana.

I never get fed up of this part of the trip through the beech avenue approaching Solwaybank

I thought this gate would look good with little tweak on Photoshop

There seems to be some kind of order in this disorder of of beech trees

Looking towards Cumbria. 

My wife who was a Cumbrian and brought up on sheep farm on the Calbeck Fells was bitterly disappointed when they changed the name from Cumberland to Cumbria, but thankfully the names still survives in the Cumberland Infirmary and the Cumberland News.

The journey home from Solwaybank was uneventful and pleasant, I arrived back in a respectable time of 1hr 42mins covering 21 miles with a few miles left in reserve on the battery. 

I've discovered for those that are interested that for some reason the the first bar on the battery goes down at around 8 miles so one would expect the next bar goes at around 16 miles but goes at 14. So I will experiment with the different settings and try to adapt my riding style to suit. I do know that weather conditions can make a big difference but today was good for cycling with just a slight breeze in parts.

In the evening I had a zoom meeting with my old friends Malcolm and Nigel, which was funnily strange as I was having trouble getting to grips with how zoom worked i.e. getting it to work in gallery mode and Nigel was having difficulty picking up what was being said due to poor internet connection, which makes me wonder if we had been sitting in a pub somewhere would the three of us old gits be still able to communicate? but anyhow we struggled through and had pleasant hours craic. I've discoverd since how to get onto gallery view now so hopefully next week all will be well. 

A Ghostly Road Travelled

 There was a blanket of autumnal mist hanging over the town when I woke this morning, so after breakfast I jumped into the car and headed up to the White Yett to try and get some shots of the mist in the valley. I stopped on the way up to survey the mist and see how it was lying, it had started to disperse but this was no bad thing as it leaned to more interesting photographs. 

When I arrived at the car park at the McDiarmid memorial there was white car already parked which I didn't take much notice of and thought someone was up to take advantage of the morning. As I intended to go for a pedal later and didn't want to put to much exertion on my foot so I had a short walk to the White Yett and  got some hopefully nice shots, they are mixed bag but it was a pleasure to get out and enjoy the morning. 

Just as I got home I received a text from Tootlepedal inviting me for coffee but as he was at the White Yett could I give him time to get home, the white car was his, he had taken a stroll to the Monument, so it'll be interesting to see his photos. We had coffee in the garden which is clinging fiercely to a very colourful pallet before some serious frost comes and does damage. Mrs. Tootlepedal who is rather out of sorts at the moment came out for a short stroll round the garden to see all was in order and we had a little chat. Tootlepedal kindly dug up a couple of buddleia for me that had rooted wildly in the garden. 

A ghostly road ahead

I didn't go by unnoticed

I love a winding wall

The sparkling webs on the grass caught my eye.

The MacDiarmid memorial is always a good subject for a photograph

After a light lunch I set off on the ebike to do a 20 mile circuit down by Canonbie and through Evertown and back via the Bloch. This was to take my mileage to over 100 miles for the month. I didn't take any shots on this trip as I feel as though I have exhausted any photo opportunities for the  time being but I'll take that as a challenge and endeavor to look for something different in future.

As I didn't take any photos on the pedal I'll leave you with some monochrome shots I took this morning on the monochrome setting on the Lumix.

Under Construction

 There was some signs of frost when I got up this morning but it didn't last long as the sun was out and slowly the temperature started to rise. After a leisurely breakfast and a look at yesterdays paper I checked the thermometer, and as the temperature had risen to 10°c I decided to get into my cycling togs and take advantage of the good weather and get out on the ebike. 

My plan was to follow one of Tootlepedal's routes to see how the construction of the Solway Wind Farm is progressing and set off up Wauchope. As there was little or no breeze and the sun was in all it's glory this must've encouraged other cyclists to come out and enjoy the pleasant climate as I have never met or been passed by as many cyclists when I've been out pedaling before, this was good to see and I got lots of cheery waves as they passed by. 

Looking back towards home

Making my way steadily up Callister, even on my ebike I wasn't a match for some of the serious cyclists as I was overtaken a couple of times during the climb but I was undeterred and carried on at a pleasant leisurely pace for the rest of the journey.

Stopped breifly to look at this willow plantation that Tootlepedal mentioned in a recent post.

This ruined cottage caught my eye as I passed, it's hard to imagine that generations of families were raised here.

Looking towards the wind farm in the distance

Assembling the crane to construct the turbines must be as complicated as the turbines

Under construction

These I presume are the power lines leading from the wind farm....

....they resemble something out of a science fiction B Movie to me.

I continued on through this lovely beech avenue

For all the times I've cycled by this beech tree at Barngleishhead I have never stopped and took my time to look and see how magnificent it is

I arrived home to find that I had completed the pedal in a respectable time of 1hr 42mins for the 20 mile trip. This was another good pedal and had little trouble from my foot I'm pleased to say, my main problem is my pain from my coccyx which has taken the pleasure out of a few of my trips but I recently purchased a good pair of cycling shorts and taken good advice from fellow cyclists I am now finding I can am pedaling greater distances before I start to get uncomfortable.