Waking up early yesterday to another
sunny morning and feeling up for a ride, but not knowing where to go
immediately, I decided to pack the stove and a selection of coffees and
decide over a hot cuppa somewhere pleasant. So I stumbled out of the
house rather than bursting forth like they do in TV ads on a sunny
day, and still a bit foggy of mind and bleary of eye, set off for the
local woods.
Nice morning for it.
Now, you know that awkward feeling you
get when you walk into a room and disturb a private conversation?
People stop talking and turn and watch you, waiting to see if you're
going to stay or take the uncomfortable hint and go – that feeling.
Well I got that on the way to the woods, not from any people mind,
but rather from a load of cows. There is a gateway half way down the
hill I was descending, and I always look through it as it offers
rather splendid rural views, and on this morning, the field was home
to a herd of cows including a lot of young'uns, so I thought I'd stop
and bag a snap or two. Rather than come over to see who I was and get
a good rub on the snout like many cows do, this lot just looked up at
me, stopped what they were doing (munching) and stared, and then
stared some more.
That awkward moment when you walk into a room and everyone stops what they're doing and stares...
I felt like I was intruding on something and they
were waiting for me to go so they could continue whatever it is cows
do when we're not looking (my bet is line dancing). So now feeling
very awkward with my obvious interuption, I sort of made an embarrassed
smile and crossed the road back to my bike, the silent mooeys
watching me go every step of the way.
Alright, I'll just go shall I? I said I'll just go... Oh forget it...
It was as I was getting back on that I
saw a fellow cyclist pedaling towards me over the summit of the silly
steep, bad ass, section of hill I had stopped on, on what appeared to
be a sit up and beg roadster. We greeted each other with a 'good
morning' and I couldn't help offering my congratulations on the
apparent ease at which he'd climbed such a challenging bit of the
hill. “It's electric” he shouted as he trundled past with not a
hint of breath shortage and rattled off up the still lightly
ascending lane. I hate these electric bikes! I can just about winch
my lung busting, leg screaming, face grimacing way up this particular
hill and here was this chap sailing up it on some plain looking
rattletrap without a care in the world. I eventually thought better
of my plans to sneak into the chap's garage one night and unplug his
evil, battery powered, cheating smugcycle (“Ha! Let's see you pedal
up that hill with your underdeveloped leg muscles now chum!”) and
contented myself with settling beside the river in the woods with a
steaming Cappuccino instead.
After a brief furtle in the bag of various coffees I have in stock, I settled on this. Good choice too, it hit the spot nicely.
A nice spot to kickstart the day.
While sat on a stump sipping and
savouring the sweet frothy coffee and listening to the water
trickling past, I heard something familiar but strangely out of place
approaching... hang on, that's an engine, who the hell is driving
around the woods at Sparrow's fart on a lovely morning like this?
Well the foresters that's who. The growling 4x4 stopped, down hummed
the window and one of the chaps inside called me over. They were
about to start felling some trees further up the track and were about
to close it off, so I would have to exit the woods the way I came in.
No problem there, and refreshingly, no problem with me having a
camping stove going either.
Everybody seems hell bent on poking their
nose in and spoiling other folk's fun these days, so I was half
expecting a 'no fires or stoves allowed' kind of thing, but instead, on asking, I got a thumbs up and a 'no problem.'
Hmmmm... I
definitely won't be unplugging matey's bike now, instead, if I meet
him again, I'll give him a cheery wave and a smile, he's just doing
his thing after all, as I like to do mine.
Once fueled up with coffee, I had a very relaxing amble around the lanes in the sunshine - a good start to the day then.
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