Settling My Debts

After breakfast I took a run to Bike Seven at Longtown to settle payment on the ebike. It's due a service in six weeks time so the obvious thing to do would be to cycle to Longtown but as I find the A7 too stressful to cycle on I thought I'd drive down by Penton and see what the distance was and the condition of the road. The road surface between Claygate and Harelaw was atrocious in parts, so I'll need to avoid that if I choose to go that way. There's a steep pull from Penton Linns but after that it's quite flat and offers some nice cycling into Longtown. The distance was 16 miles when I arrived at Bike Seven. 

As the weather was quite settled and there was no sign of rain when I got home I got changed and headed of for a short pedal. I made my way up the Wauchope road towards the Bloch Farm into quite a brisk breeze and a very light mizzle but when I got to the cattle grid above the Bloch I was unhindered for the next part of the pedal.

  I stopped to look back at cloud shrouded hills behind me. The smell at this point was rather obnoxious suggesting a rotting carcass was nearby but I certainly wasn't going to investigate so I quickly moved on.

It was looking brighter down in Cumbria.

This clump of heather by the roadside was a pleasant sight as I pedaled past. 

Heading for Barngliesh Head before turn towards Tomshielburn.

This tar of the road offers lovely views towards the Solway Firth but the phone camera doesn't quite capture what the eye sees

  

I came upon this collection of various fungi.....

.......which was quite intriguing. I did wonder if it had something to do with them growing underneath the beech trees on the roadside.

I continued past Tomshielburn then turned back towards the Bloch Farm for a nice easy ride home.

The ebike has copped with all the hills I've come across so far without causing me undue stress, this makes cycling much more pleasurable for me and it's good to get back in the saddle again. In the next few weeks I'll tackle the climb from the Whitshiels to the White Yett and possibly further.

The Best of Company

In the scheme of things this should've been a sad day as it is six years since I lost my wife Anne, but it was anything but. To keep myself busy I went down to the Social Club to continue painting the cellar door which I had started yesterday. 

I phoned Tootlepedal during lunch to see if he was interested in a stroll later in the afternoon, we arranged to meet after he went for a cycle ride.  I returned to the social club to do a bit tidying up by removing moss that had gathered on the path on the unseen side of the building, this had been annoying me for some time. Now the building is in the hands of the trustees its good to see basic improvements being made in the form of painting etc. On a personal note it would be nice to see more of the 400 plus paid members use the facility as their local as much as attending functions.

I met Tootlepedal as arranged and we drove down to the Green Door, parked and proceded on a short circular walk by Jenny Nobles Gill.

A pleasant start to our stroll.

Our intention was to seek out fungi, we weren't disappointed.

Nice to see the Autumn colours appear but I do lament the passing of summer 

This fungi was in a rather disgusting state of rot.

These contrasting broom pods caught my eye.

Fair warning I suppose.

Is this some dancing tree spirit?

 This is a lovely track to follow.

Sometimes mistakes work!

We returned to the car and I duly deposited Tootlepedal at Wauchope Cottage and headed home for tea. This was a lovely walk with the best of company.

A Bridge Not Too Far

I was up quite early this morning as local joiners Ross and Gary were coming to continue erecting new fascia boards and guttering around the bungalow, which is staring to look very smart. I spent the morning preparing a red lentil and chorizo stew for the slow cooker and doing some house work. 

In the afternoon Tootlepedal came and picked me up for a prearranged trip to the viaduct on the railway track at Rowanburn. The light wasn't very favourable but we decided to go as planned and make the best of it.

We arrived at Rowanburn and put our wellies on before heading down the old railway track. The start runs through a large firewood timber yard.

The yard was host to lots of interesting fungi

Wellies were a good idea

It must be a coupple of years since we were down the track, little had changed on the first part.....

........but as we ventured further, much of the woodland had been cleared exposing a deep gully that wasn't visible in the past which changed the landscape dramatically.

We continued on until we came to the head of the viaduct which is unpassable due to large fencing

I managed to get a shot through a gap in the fence before making our way down to the foot of the viaduct.

This small but quite interesting undercut leads to Rowanburnfoot farm where I attended my first hay shed fire when I was a member of the local retained fire brigade many years ago.

The going was very clarty and we had to pick our way down to the river very carefully.

The viaduct is piece of Victorian engineering marvel both in design and build. It crosses the Liddle Water dividing England and Scotland at this point. Maybe some day in the future trains will yet again cross this Victorian colossus if plans to extend the Waverly Line from Galashiels to Carlisle come to fruition. 

Unfortunately the light wasn't in our favour but made the best of it. We eventually made our way back to the car and headed home. After a cup of tea and a biscuit at the bungalow Tootlepedal went home and I starting defrosting a chili con carne for my tea.