A Distant Past

I was undecided to what to do when I got up this morning, foremost on my mind was to get out on my ebike but a lack of enthusiasm put paid to that. But as an alternative I started preparing vegetables for a Bolognese sauce to make later in the day to put in the freezer. The only ingredient I was missing was carrots, so a trip to the local supermarket was in order and at the same time I thought would take the opportunity to have a run to the Hollows to savour the autumn colors.

I parked my car and set of towards Byreburn bridge on what used to be part of the old A7.

I certainly wasn't disappointed with the colours on view

I paused on the Byreburn bridge to get some lichen shots when on closer inspection...... 

........I discovered they were hiding inscriptions from a distant past

 Moving on I thought Byreburnhouse was looking rather grand......

.....whilst the old Engine House was looking rather sad and neglected.

I retraced my steps and walked back to the Hollows Bridge to get some final shots of where in my opinion is the some of the best views of autumn colour in the area

Well satisfied with the shots I got, I set off home and later in the evening set about making the Bolognese sauce to the background sound of jazz guitarist Grant Green which was very relaxing. and lulled me to a pleasant end of the day

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.