Got the gardening jobs out of the way then this:-


...all afternoon. Not all good though. The smell of the blossom was overpowering and the bees kept up this infernal humming. And I had no beers.

TBH, done the garden twice now I’ll be sleeping in my bivvy bag in the garden tonight for the third time in April. The first was a garden BAM. Last night was to watch the Lyrid meteor shower. Waited and waited ‘til I fell asleep. Saw .... none. Going to try again tonight. Looking on the bright side...

Cheeky Monkey wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 3:53 pmnocarnognarnotfar rides

A perfect description of an ideal CV-19 acceptable bike ride. I like words and if I’d coined a phrase/word like that, I’d be very proud of myself.

Lunch....



Well, you have to get your fun when you find it,

I'd brought the rest of the ingredients with me - onions, butter, a potato, soured cream and a chicken stock cube. Is than lot required to make sure you cant taste the nettles :wink: I s'pose it’s a bit like stone soup - you can make a soup out of a stone, as long as you add some vegetables and mea...

April (garden) BAM 4/4 For the bivvy-in-the garden I packed the bike as if I were going for the real thing... https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49777443648_7acf2e1a75.jpg ...then made a ten mile round trip to the doctors to drop off prescription repeat requests before landing back at home. I thoug...

I think the deal is that if you do bivvy out, or go on longer than necessary bike rides etc etc that you don’t post it on Strava or Facebook or here, the risk to your health or others health is probably tiny, but....... The more people post stuff about their ventures the more “acceptable” it is see...

I’m torn. Today I went for my usual round-the-block-bread-and-butter-keep-my-fitness-up ride. Some 18 miles. I’m lucky in that I live out in the countryside and I’m on the lanes straight out of my gate. Don’t have to come close to anyone. But - in the middle, in a little wood, far from houses, there...

"the really small ones "pig taties" were for animal feed Aah! I remember pig tattles. When I was a lad, dad used to keep pigs. He had a giant pressure cooker to boil ‘taters for feed. Me and my mate used to wait for feeding time and take the freshly boiled potatoes. They were boiled ...

It’s not as far as Tipperary

No food source at all only tents taprs and tyvek!! Make sure they're well out of the way - they'll happily eat those. An old work colleague told a story of a secret stash of cash behind a loose brick in an outhouse that his wife didn’t know about. It amounted to some £50 - quite a bit of money in t...

whitestone wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:46 pm As my dad would have said: the man who never made a mistake never learned anything.

I don't think I've done a bivvy without doing something wrong. Sometimes more than once, to my shame..

Experience is a lousy teacher - it gives you the test before you've had the lesson.

Ha! I just checked - i'm on my rest days from work then, too. Result :grin: I've been thinking of giving the TCW another go. It'll make a good alternative methinks :-bd Actually, no. I’ve been thinking. To do it I’d have to get on a train, or do a TCW double. That’s not going to happen. Back to the...

I suspect the teeth are very worn so slip under tension, it will be obvious when you get a new set. Either replace with SRAM NX specific or check on CRC for compatible jockey wheels. They could be, but it's always happened, even when they were new. The mud'n'grass wraps around and clogs them up. I ...

I need to replace them on an NX 11 speed. A question in two parts:- 1) The jockeys are thick-thin. Do they need to be? I’m asking because, on every muddy ride the chain jumps over by one link, so the thick teeth engage the thin slots in the chain and make it rattle. 2) They have 12 teeth (I s’pose t...

Absolutely intend to get up that way Frog when 'it' has been sorted out. I'll hold you to that! This BAM and last months' were by way of a recce for when you do make it up here. I need to find a route that uses more of the descents as descents -instead of pushes. There's always Aprils' BAM for anot...

Ha! I just checked - i'm on my rest days from work then, too. Result
I've been thinking of giving the TCW another go. It'll make a good alternative methinks

BAM March 2020. 3/12. I suddenly thought, as I was finishing my set of shifts last week, "Oh 'eck! What if I get 'IT' and can't get my March bivvy in?" So I packed my stuff up and went for another tour of the Berwyns. Froncysyllte, along the canal to Chirk, over the hill to Pontfadog, over...

I'm one of the elderly people (over 70) that should be staying out of circulation, but tomorrow I'll be going in to work. Given the number of people I'll be coming into contact with, an "isolation" bivvy ain't going to put me in any greater risk, so April BAM will happen - local but no caf...

Bum! Not so cheery - the lawnmower came out today. This means that for the next 6 or 7 months, at least one of my days off will be spent pushing it up and down the lawns. It’s my own fault, I planted the bl***y things. If seemed a good idea at the time. If only I’d known

whitestone wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2020 8:36 amSpot the constellation

The Plough, or the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major.

I’m not worried enough by coronavirus (not worried at all, actually) to start taking extra precautions. Reasons? I’m already past the “span of a man” at three score years and eleven, so wouldn't be losing all that much if I were to peg it. And, there are a lot worse things to die of (thinking cancer...

Name's Lu, short for Ludwik.

The “Frog” name comes from a polish saying about a frog thinking he's a horse and waiting at the farriers for shoeing. It refers to someone with ideas beyond their station - small fry trying to be a big fish.

February BAM in progress. Things not going well up to now. Late start due to family stuff, then found I'd forgot my cup & bowl, then lost the last of my water when I kicked my stove over so gone to bed on a couple of flapjacks. :cry: Not all bad though - I've still got my whisky nightcap and my ...

One of them is Tim Moore's "The Cyclist Who Went Out In The Cold", detailing his 10000km trek down the Iron Curtain on an 1967 GDR machine. Good fun so far. I rather like his quirky style, 'S funny - I went to our library today and got the same book. I liked his account of the 1912 Giro d...