what i learned this weekend

only last week the countryside looked something like this

then the snow came. not a lot of snow but enough i was happy enough to take the specialised out. and even tho the first lesson of the day is that mud tyres are not snow tyres it was okay.

okay that is until i tried to change gear. but why should that be you ask, haven't you had that mech into two separate bike shops on five different occasions? on the grounds you have spatial dyslexia and can't tell left from right? and they've all assured you that your diagnosis - i need a new mech - is the wrong one. yes, yes, it's that bike. the one that always breaks at strathpuffer, the cables freeze and due to some vagary of the bar set up it makes me feel like i've got a broken wrist after about two hours. yes i love that bike.

but even so to be out early doors with blue skies and a couple of inches of fresh powder was something like sublime. even on my now single speed bike coming down the back hill with not even a footprint for company was something special

i figured a couple of weeks of that would be just lovely. and then the snow came. and it snowed and snowed and snowed. and over the weekend we become something like an island as all the main roads were effectively blocked. it was a bit like that episode of the simpsons where there's no tv. people came out walking. we spoke to each other.

they didn't go very far tho. which was fine as it meant me and t had what should have been my daily cycle all to ourselves. (i would've gone out, no really i would've but, as i said to my lbs guy today i need to work my way into snow and thick snow is just a bit much for me. it's tricky, forgrounds all those bits of technique that you lack - and i lack technique in so many, many areas!). and it looked a bit like this -

it was all rather lovely. and got lovelier when we got back, stoked up the fire and i got busy in the kitchen making all manner of tasty goodness including marmalade. which t obligingly converted into cake. perhaps this was what did for her in the end...