22nd September; Autumn...

Officially starts today but there has been a noticeable change in temperature in the last week.
The workload of the Wettest, and hardest going summer at work is fading from memory as i look forward to the end of the month and we start shorter winter hours of 8am - 3pm -:)
I prefer cooler to warmer weather for cycling, us Scots are not designed for heat!, in fact for myself the colder the better - bring on -18C like in 2010/11 winter!.

Home after 3pm soon and i can be out cycling before 5pm.
I can then get daylight, sunset and a night ride into a 3 hour ride,  then home to a warming fire  and a post ride cider -warms the body and the soul...

Scenically the county looks lovely in its harvest gold - though you gotta be quick to get pictures as fields are quickly being ploughed over...

Views from Whitekirk Hill...

Need to repaint the trig point on the hill at work again...

Sunrise is around 7am, sunset just after 7pm and a few signs of Autumn are there to see...
8 degrees in the mornings and hopefully some frosts will  start to turn the trees golden.
be a month or so till we see this...

Gosford 2010...

Yester Woods 2010...

Pencaitland 2010...

Mountain biking through a wooded carpet of leaves is great, and even  better with friends...

The first V formations of geese have been arriving back from summer grazing and breeding in Greenland. In a few weeks they will arrive in East Lothian in their thousands, grazing on fields between the Longniddry - Drem - North Berwick area then flying down to Aberlady Bay before sunset.
Always a great sight...

Aberlady Bay 2011...

And early evening low tide beach rides on clear evenings are great.
Fantastic light and golden sunsets with geese overhead...

October 2010...

One of my favourite rides ever, amazing evening, the light, sunset and wildlife, will never forget this ride at Gosford Bay...




Got the Salsa Fargo rolling this week and looking forward to getting some miles on it over the weekend...

What a lovely bike to ride, will do a post next week....

Roadtrip; Kintyre...

Day 5
last part of last weeks trip...
after i biked to Campbeltown and met my big Sis,Ian and the gang we went for ice cream at Macrihanish after a walk on the beach there...
if you live in East Lothian you will smile at the name of the beach here...

surfer waiting to go out...

heading to the beach past the M.O.D Macrihanish is Macrihanish Dunes...

a recently opened Links golf course which compared to the recent new Scottish golf courses is something of a testament to the old historic links courses of Scotland, being a Head Greenkeeper and a links trained one at that i find this place interesting as it isnt a money no object remodelling of the landscape like nearly all new courses are...built on a SSSI ground the course has had to use the natural lie of the land and with no dune control allowed (by fencing) greens will just have to be moved when they are engulfed by the moving dunes...bunkers are what they looked like 180 years ago...

a small unobtrusive clubhouse keeps in tone with the area and with no fertiliser allowed except on the greens,this is a working example of how golf courses can be built into the enviroment...
but i was on holiday and trying not to look too much,i was more interested in what is over the top of the dunes...3 miles of Atlantic beach...





will definitly be back down here this year for a weekend and do a beachride on the pugsley...there is about another 3 to 4 miles of ridable beach either side of the sands...




the wet sand from the previous tide was covered in jelly fish...


and this one is Lions Maine which is poisonous...

before the beach we drove past M.O.D Macrihanish, formarly RAF Macrihanish...



this base is often referred to as the Area 51 of the UK...
lots of rumour`s surround the base from the 3 km landing strip being a standby runway for the NASA shuttle if it was to overshoot Cape Kennedy, to it once being a top secret test base for a super sonic stealth plane which is again rumoured to be linked to the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre that was full of top brass officals,locals that witnessed the noise of the crash said there was a very loud sonic boom at the same time,(witnesses were also made to sign the offical secrets act! )a noise that they had heard often at night over the base and out to sea,
and the plane was housed in a large hanger which the doors have never been seen open in daylight...who knows,maybe all just rumour...

what is fact is that during the cold war after the runway was extended to 3 km Vulcan bombers started to land at the base, B57 nucleur bombs designed to be used for submarine attack were stored at the base,the Americans left after the demise of the cold war in the early 90s and the base was stood down to minimal staff,next time the space shuttle is up it would be interesting to see if there is any increased activity!
more reading on the base here; Secret Scotland
and here; E GOAT forum

last evening friends came round to the holiday house and after dinner the chiminea was lit and early on a midge infested footy game of big ones verses wee ones...
note the midge nets!



"take me to your leader"...

with sideways rain on Friday i gave riding the mtb trails near Lochgilphead a miss and headed home at a very slow speed,the west coast wouldnt be the west coast without the rain which gives it its colour,and lush green plant and tree growth,
i love it...


heres a film of Kintyre...

snail..bah-humbug....

well the bubbles burst..at least here on the coast in east lothian..i woke to rain this morning..on and off most of the day mixed with hail,snail i believe alaskans call it...though my mate 10 miles inland at the foot of lammermuirs texted saying more snow..back to work tomorrow looking like a commute on the old dale on slushy roads...
milder weather meant my garden hose had thawed so i got the pugsley washed and got the chain cleaned,spent most of day out in the workshop,swept it out while running the motorbike for 15mins to give the battery a charge and fired up the stove to dry out any moisture...

something about stoves..i prefer an open fire in my livingroom for sure but would love an old range in the kitchen to cook on and sit in front of..,
the stove in my workshop is a machine mart cottager i got it free from a mate as it has the odd leak from him having burned it at high temps and the door has distorted a bit...,sometimes it leaks sometimes it dosnt...i got the chimney piping for free..,its 8" stainless instead of 6" but another mate made a reducer...

it dosnt give quite the same amount of draw as a 6" pipe chimney so takes a wee while longer to warm up and draw properly..,but a free stove and chimney pipe cant be knocked..kicks out some heat even in a 30sqm sectional concrete garage...

i sat for an hour or two having a couple of ciders and listening to some tunes..,i look on a workshop/garage as an extension on a home ideally connected then stroll out the house straight into the man cave

natures television

is what i call a good fire...i can stare into a fire and watch it for hours...


i find splitting kindling wood for lighting my fire very relaxing...but dont get dosey if you value your finger tips...,note the old school hickory shafted,sheffield steel axe,got it from my dad,he bought it before my folks got married,good tools are worth the investment..,i havent bought any firewood or coal this winter yet,keep picking up wood here and there..,and the money saved in doing so will pay for "surly No3 frame" in febuary..,you will just have to wait and see what it is,but heres some clues;
:its unfortunately not the big dummy cargo bike frame...
:everything on the cannondale suspension bike is going onto it...
:it is a steel hardtail and it will take the 140mm/ 5" pike coil fork...
:rear tyre clearance up to 2.7" (fff chainstays)...
:theres still some in the UK in bright red...

im building this as i dont ride the cannondale suspension bike much around here and to be truthfull i enjoy hardtails,this bike will get 50mm wide rims laced onto the existing hope hubbed wheels and will be ideal for a thrash around glentress with the long travel fork and that can be wound down for climbs..basicly it will be everything that was on a kona cowan frame i had but with that i couldnt run the fork full lenght..

then if i want/need to or someone wants to come for a beachride i can have 2.7" DH tyre on the back and for £80 a straight (non offset) pugsley fork that i can swap over to allow a 4" endomorph up front giving a 2nd (semi)fatbike, also in standard build with suspension fork i can run 2.5 single ply continental diesel tyres which on the 50mm rims will be better than a standard 2.35 tyre on soft ground,or coastal trails that are sandy in places...
all bikes i build now are going to have to be flexible in diffrent uses..,good value,and built with the intention of keeping long term,surly seem to have all the bases covered,at a new frame purchase every 2 years thats still another 6 bikes to build and 12 years!..

winter nights arrived

with the clocks gone back an hour satuardy night the early dark nights are once again here, yipee!,i dont mind as i get out for a nightride earlier around 5-6pm,

back to blinky lights on for riding to work too for a month or so as it of course is lighter an hour later,lights are on the pugsley and karate monkey now ...
im looking forward to cold clear sky days out along the beach on the pugsley...

then home at sunset..,

for a hot bath then feet up in front of a roaring fire...

and a few tins of cider...,i dont want for much in life...