Sunshine and Showers

The week started with beautiful sunshine on Sunday and I didn’t have to cook a meal as we had a “munch and mingle” after church,  where everyone brings food to share. In fact our stake president who happened to turn up said it was more like a feast!! We were having a special one as a beloved senior missionary couple were finishing their mission and returning home after 18 months of service in our LDS ward. So that gave us time to have a ride.

So we just decided, as we rode , which way to turn and we cycled past Hemlington lake and up though Stainton, Thornton and up to Newby. From Newby we booled down the hill , crossing the main Stokesley road and took the little gated road, through the ford, emerging near old Nunthorpe village. I was talking to a farmer acquaintance and he told me that on his land  adjacent to the village, archaeologists had just found some Anglo-Saxon remains. This area has been settled for millennia.

From here we took the cycle path back down through Marton ( Capt James Cook’s birthplace ) and home. That started the week with a nice 15 miles ride.

Monday , while not as warm, was equally pleasant as we got in a 15 miles river ride, early in the morning. As so often happens here in the UK, we were disappointed that although flowers show it is Spring, the weather doesn’t.

In the local park , cowslips are blooming in perfusion despite the rain.

The weather then became much colder and wetter, so rides were shortened a little  and DH has begun to use the Berghaus ultralight Gortex overtrousers that I got for him. I did so because I have been pleased with the ones I bought a couple of years ago.

So by Saturday morning , my cycle computer registered 81 miles and we were hoping to get in a longer ride. The sun was shining in contradiction to the weather forecast supplied by the met office, and so off to set, all ready to ride across to Cozy Coffee in Brafferton. I have to say, we don’t drink coffee but Rosie makes very tempting cakes and scones and I do like to support one woman businesses. However, by the time we had ridden along the river to Newport bridge it was raining hard. Once on the bridge, sleet started blowing in our faces and DH said to me ” I won’t think you are a wooz (wimp) if you want to go home now.”  The weather reminded me of crossing the polders in the Netherlands last year, so on we ploughed up into Norton. However, by he time we reached our turning to Bishopton, I decided that I would have my goal 100 miles in for the week , so we made for home  .

The water table is very high and even today there is a lot of flooding on the cycle tracks.

This is to show one section of the track down into Stockton on Tees. When we actually got down to the river, I needed 7 miles  but DH  needed 13 miles  to complete our targets so DH told me to head for home while he did a few more miles.  So my total for the week  has actually ended up at 103 miles so not bad .