On the Road Again!

We are taking a little vacation - wheeeeee! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We might get to an internets, but unsure at this point... And we'll definitely see you all in ! Happy New Year! xoxo

Welton - Braunston - Ashby St Ledgers - Welton

Led by me, with Barry. Fine, sunny, warm to hot. Quite up and downy. Good views. 8.5 miles - the last two miles were in the car, when I'd forgotten to switch the machine off.
Welton is one of those villages set back from the main road - you need to be make a deliberate effort to go there. The main part of it is on the hill near St Martin's church and the White Horse pub.

St Martin's church from the rear

Pub and church - above the pub door are the words "Abandon hope all ye who enter . . ."

We take the path by the pub, going downhill through grassland and a field to the road. Over the road we cross meadow land with cows and calves, sheep and lambs.


A short uphill stretch and we reach the canal, where we cross the bridge and turn right towards Braunston.

A narrowboat emerging from the Braunston Tunnel

We have to leave the canal and walk over the hill. The tunnel's a good mile long.

Braunston lies ahead

An air shaft for the tunnel

Bicentenary plaque

We stop for an ice-cream at the canal shop before leaving the water and taking the Jurassic Way to Ashby St Ledgers.
We walk up to Braunston village, and take the road just by the Wheatsheaf - Ashby Road which goes to the right. We follow it until it bends to the right. At this point the old road is now a track leading straight ahead - towards Ashby St Ledgers.The track narrows to a path, and climbs up to a minor road, with great views behind. At the highest point, we turn right along the road, and very soon left, at a Jurassic way marker in the same direction as previously. The path goes downhill to the A361. We cross, pass the Old Coach Inn, and walk through the village, until a road junction just before the church.

the old stables

Church and the gatehouse to the Manor.

We take the road to the right, past a Co-op farm and a building labelled the Old Dairy. When we reach a junction our path goes slightly to the left, cutting off a long corner of the field. Then it's through a series of fields where rapeseed is just starting to show yellow. The path is clear and easy to follow up hill towards Welton. It comes out between houses on Ashby Road. All we have to do is work out where the church is and we can find our way back to the car.
There's some kind of treasure hunt going on - people with sheets of paper wandering around in groups - and cars driving slowly around.

Hunting for the answer - what happened to John?

We're lucky enough to arrive at the church just as one of the churchwardens opens it - it's normally kept closed.The sad story of what happened to John is answered by this gravestone - poor little lad.
I wonder if this is "starved" as in "frozen" - a northern use of the word. My grandmother used to warn us we'd "be starved to death" if we didn't put our coats on in winter.

Whoever erected the stone seems to be making a big point about the neglectful parents . . .

Other walks touching this one:

Ashby SL, Braunston, Barby

Jurassic Way: Charwelton to Braunston

Jurassic Way: Braunston to Winwick

Taking advantage of all the lake offers

This is the season of changeable weather. And Lake Michigan is highly responsive to those changes. One day it feels like fall, with strong winds out of the north, big waves, abandoned beaches and a chill in the air; the next it feels like summer, with warm breezes, gentle waves, motorboats zooming and the beaches full of bathers.

Yesterday we had the beach to ourselves.

And the water, too.

Today we worked on rescues with our friend Bonnie.

And paddled past skyscrapers, sailors, motor boaters and beach volley ball players.

It would be easy to favor one type of day or the other, but we love both. On rough-water days, we can surf waves and play in clapotis. On calmer days, we can practice rescues and paddle some distance. Both prepare us for the real range of situations we encounter over time, and both are fun.

Doors Open Day

All across Scotland this weekend doors normally closed were open to the public. Lighthouses, former nuclear bunkers, castles that are private homes, masonic temples are just a few of the places that could be visited free of charge.
This is one normally closed door that I spotted as I passed the Sheriff Court - a Reliance prison van. It was full of eager public, with a British queue waiting outside, and unfortunately I didn't have time to wait.
Next year, we've decided, we must make some time for visiting the open doors. The city centre was thronged with people, Doors Open Day brochure in hand, happily intent in that special way that the Scots have when they're getting something for nothing.

Not Focused on Obedience... Preoccupied with this Picture...

It's hard to concentrate on my broad jump when I'm thinking about Independence Lake (above). We're finally almost ready for our camping trip that will start next Tuesday and end on August 30.
Barbara's started a new Broad Jump routine for me by adding a little jump after the B(ored) jump (heehee!). To encourage me to do more than plod over the thing and return to Ma after I jump it, Barbara put up a small jump to force a fast hop over the first part! It worked, darn it! I still have to go to obedience next Monday and then I'm off for two whole weeks woo hoo! Avalon also has started obedience and shows great promise - well... she high steps like an Arabian horse - it's unbelievable! But I'm the bigger sisfur and win all the important rounds heheheee! Care to spar with me to find out? Have a good week and weekend too! Loves you all!

Wordsworth on Birth

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The soul that rises with us, our life's star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come,

From God who is our home."

William Wordsworth

I think this is such a beautiful description of an eternal soul. Contrary to popular psychology, we don't come into this world a 'blank slate'. Ask any mother who's ever carried a child for nine long months, and she'll tell you that each one has an individual personality apparent from the very beginning. Girls are different from boys. Siblings are different from each other. We're all uniquely made by a Creator. We should spend time each day marveling on that fact.

"I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." Psalm 139:14

Glorious Mee

So after rambling about it in numerous posts here, I finally did it on Saturday. It's now the fourth time I've done that crazy ride, and I suspect I might be finally beginning to get the hang of it. It was a surprisingly cool morning after riding out to the stat at The Gap from Fortitude Valley -- down to 9 degrees C. This didn't bother me a great deal, however, as it's infinitely preferable to the 32 degree start in 2003. The first act is the climb to Mt Nebo, quickly followed by the second climb to Mt Glorious (after a brief descent between them). For some reason I decided to launch a crazy, testosterone-fuelled attack on Mt Nebo right from the start. It wasn't that I was expecting it to do me any good, I just felt like making a statement.


After the first checkpoint, (where I pinched a couple of muesli bars for sustenance), it's a ride through the rainforest...

... before a screaming and insane descent down the western side of Mt Glorious. I'm not sure how they came up with the design for this road, a 20% descent with sharp hairpin corners. Most roads with that many corners have a much gentler gradient. Either way, it requires enormous concentration for the most part. After this the road levels out through mainly rolling hills for the next 75km or so to Kilcoy. It can sometimes be difficult to get the legs working again after such a descent.
One thing that strikes me about this stretch is the vast difference in the type of vegetation compared to Mt Glorious. It seems like it's only a few kilometres separating the rainforest on the mountain from the dry and almost treeless yellow hills. This section of the ride has it's charms, however. For several kilometres on end, the road winds along the shores of Lake Wivenhoe, the blue water again contrasting the harsh landscape.

The second checkpoint in Kilcoy is almost a watershed. After lunch here, the ride seems to take on an entirely different feel. The ride back from here almost feels more urgent, although today there is something else to consider. Smoke is billowing from the horizon, how will this affect the climb of Mt Mee?

Somehow the route manages to avoid the worst of the smoke, and it isn't long before I'm passing through Woodford and contemplating the last major climb of the day (and the most brutal). I digest a muesli bar about 2km from the start, before launching into the climb itself. The initial part of the climb kicks hard -- stalemate! It doesn't seem like I'm getting anywhere, then I see the blue sky through the trees, a sign that I'm not far below the summit. I round a corner, I never thought I'd get here this quickly or painlessly. I reach the third and final checkpoint at the top of this mountain quicker than expected. Some of the other riders are here already, and they don't seem all that keen to charge off just yet. However, I'm feeling energised, so I decide to set off relatively quickly. Maybe it was just the daisies lining the road on Mt Mee that did it?

After that, there isn't a lot to tell. The descent is an easy, almost lazy experience, then the road is virtually flat all the way to Samford. Now there are just 15km to go. There is an initial hill to climb out of Samford, it disappears easily, but I notice that all the people I expected to pass me aren't doing it -- where are they? Through Brisbane's northern suburbs, onto Settlement Road, then into The Gap. I pull up at the finish of the ride to find it deserted. I never thought I'd get here this quick, and neither it seems did anybody else. Actually, it's about the first time I've ever finished first in anything in my life.
Eventually everyone else arrives, for a quick feed to digest the ride. Today I was largely surprised by my own strength -- it seems I've finished this ride 30 minutes quicker than last year. Perhaps all those 200km rides I've been doing earlier in the year were actually helping a little.
After this, there is the small matter of the ride back to Fortitude Valley. Perhaps I should have waited another 30 minutes or so until after the Brisbane Broncos game had started. A few of the local Cletii were a little impatient (something with which I sympathise not at all), and I was a little concerned when one guy behind me decided he didn't want to stop at the red light that was in front of me. In anycase, I had the last laugh, when, as I predicted, the Broncos got OWNED hard.