A cold and a bit of Spring

Well. as last Sunday came to a close, I realised the lurgy was taking a hold. I managed to work Monday morning but then had to call a halt and crawled into bed and stayed there for 3 days.  I asked DH and DS2 to give me a blessing of healing – we believe in such things – and they did.

AS Thursday dawned , I awoke feeling much better, if still a bit snotty, but took the day easy. Friday was a  beautiful day with relatively warm sunshine  and little wind and I decided I would try a short cycle ride with DH and DS1. I would determine the length of ride.

I chose to ride down through the park and then along the river. We stopped at the Barrage and I took this photo of the Archimedes screws that lift the water back up for the kayak course.

Unfortunately, they weren’t turning at the time.

This shows the boat lift. You kayak up on to it and it moved you back up to the top of the course. They are fairly common in Germany, where kayak touring, similar to cycle camping are popular.

As it was so nice we continued along for a further distance before coming back over via Teesside Park. This is a view across the Portrack marshes.

Although, this doesn’t show it, spring flowers are popping up everywhere. There are snowdrops, crocuses and even some daffodils blooming. I don’t know why I am surprised because this has happened for a couple of years. It never was like this in years gone by – each would come in their season but as we must all be aware, the climate is changing.

Early on Saturday, DH asked how I was feeling and did I want another cycle ride. The weather  was looking reasonable and as we haven’t been over to Cozy Coffee for a few weeks, DS1 suggested going there. Could we find a different way? Well we decided to ride over towards the Castle Eden Walkway but turned off and rode to Carlton. There we turned right up to Stillington, that we avoided last time we were out because of the hunt.

As you can see, it wasn’t as nice as the previous day.

We carried on to the Sedgefield road but there was a wind blowing strongly into our faces so it’s good to have the benefit of the e-bike motor. Once at the Great Stainton turn off, it wasn’t so bad and we carried on to have cake and hot chocolate.

A discussion ensued as to the return journey – it was determined to go down towards Darlington and then along to Sadberge.  They have put in a new picnic area on what was a community garden. There is a seating area for picnics right next to the village hall, which I noted has a community café on weekday mornings.

I love this bench .

 

This is the view looking towards the west. It was a bit blowy but it had blown the clouds away.

From then onwards we headed back home arriving at 2.30pm.

This weeks total  , which surprised me I was well enough to do , was 56 miles so YTD 345miles.