Janathon Day 28: Cycle - 23.4 miles, Time - 1hr 53min, Weather - grey, occasional glimpses of sun, bitingly cold wind.
The beginning of today's ride was very, very hard. The biting wind was from the north east and that was the direction I was going. There was no shelter and my face was being shredded. A good excuse to bail out was needed - but there was none.
An intelligent person would make some route adjustments; but that is easier said than done when you are on a country lane with no immediate turn offs. All you can do is grit your teeth and say to yourself 15-20 minutes and I will be warmed up. Lo and behold it happened but by that time I had also changed direction so everything had become cosier.
Woodland is always a good plan on windy days as they can feel almost calm even when it is raging elsewhere. When I was cycling through the sheltered lanes I saw a woman walking her dog (a stylish german shepherd with a long fluffy coat), although she was dressed against the cold, everything was very precise and, beneath the pink hat, her face was carefully made up. My first thought was to wonder whether make-up protected your face from the wind; my second was to think about the sort of area I was in - an area where you have to look right even when walking your dog.
Some times I feel like a complete outsider.
Previously though I had met another woman walking her dog but this could not have been more different. I had just finished taking today's photo of geese on a farm pond when the owner returned from walking her collie. She looked, what she undoubtably was, a capable practical person.
We fell into conversation about the geese and how she they guarded her property far more effectively than dogs. I mentioned that it was rather wonderful to have a farm with a pond because it reminded me of all my childhood picture books, and that is very reassuring.
But this is not the cosy world of those books. The farm entrance was guarded by an electronic gate; there was cctv, never mind the geese. Apparently such isolated buildings are targets for thieves who take tools, machines and fuel oil. The man in the nearby cottage had just lost all his gardening tools.
The countryside I cycle through might look pretty, with many affluent houses (not to mention elegant people walking their pedigree dogs) but there is obviously a dark side.
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