The Bridge Over Troubled Waters......

We've waited a while for a bridge over the small river just up from the Howe, in the summer it's a piece of cake biking through it but in the winter you sometimes nearly need a aqua lung to get across. Last week saw the foundations being laid by, in the forefront Jock McKinney and working furiously in the background his mate Kevin (Costner) as I like to call him! Anyway this was the situation on Friday when Kathy and I biked up for a look.

Today, Monday, and it's looking good, our two likely lads have been working hard and making a tidy job at that. Cant wait to cross it though there's no plans as yet for another one just up from it so it'll still have to be a bit dicy biking through the water!

Kathy took a fancy to this Lamborghini that was being photographed in the picturesque surroundings.

Out on Friday night with Baz for his first big circuit up the Pentlands since his injury over 8 months ago, it was good to have him back!

Finished the weeks riding on Sunday with Clive destroying both the knee of his bib tights and the skin on his own knee after he badly misjudged the width of his handlebars as he tried to ride past a traffic sign.

A good weeks riding of over 170 miles off road, the weather was cold, frosty, but virtually no wind but that's all to change in the next day or two. Since tomorrow is officially the first day of Spring I've taken off the ice spikers.......that should guarantee a really cold spell of crappy weather!

A few mishaps but the weather's improved at least!

Out today, Wednesday, and this is the start of the trail through Bluebell Wood.

A bit further in, there's no bluebells yet though!

The start of another techy little bit of trail further on.

One man and his hawk......a Harrier Hawk to be precise!

The past week has seen a few mishaps but not all concerning me! The first one did when I managed to go straight over the bars in front of the only hill walker within 3 miles! The irony is I've done the ditch crossing a hundred times without crashing but chose to do it right in front of a lady out on a hill walk, talk about being embarrassed!

The next mishap was Kathys, whose tubeless rear tyre decided to go flat probably because the sealant had dried up, anyway after the third or so pump up  it stayed hard to we got home and topped it up with some more.

The third mishap was Dougie's, he went out on his brand new shiny cross bike and somehow or other managed to break the rear derailleur hanger, by luck I had just logged on to facebook as he put a distress call and was able to go and pick him and the bike up.

The weather on the other hand has taken a turn for the better with the wind more or less gone and sun, would you believe, shining throughout the day, how long can this last???

Walking the dog and riding your bike....not easy to combine the two!

Saturday and the weathers pretty hellish but I needed a few miles to try and reach my weekly target! 

Out with Clive on Sunday afternoon and it was definitely spiker conditions!

Up in the hills with the snow clouds threatening behind us.

The river crossing, as far as we went, I had to get back to walk Bazs' dog!

Baz was off to warmer climes for a week, Lanzarote, so his dog Rebus was holidaying with me! Trying to combine dog walking and still finding time in the pretty crap weather to get the miles in to reach the weekly target proved quite difficult and didn't look possible mid-week but after a fall of snow the weather actually improved and with the aid of the ice spikers the target was reached (and the dog was walked as well), in actual fact I managed more miles than the two previous weeks! Rebus the dog is now back home with his owner and truth to say I miss the little bugger even though he didn't do a thing I told him! The welcome each morning more than made up for his disobedience though!

I suppose one good day in the week is doing okay for Scotland!

The start of the serious climbing, but look at that sky after the weather we've had lately!

The bottom of Strava segment "geronimo" and the gales last week have flattened a whole line of fir trees

Black Springs and unbelievably the sun's still shining!

I put down the camera on delay and had to nip smartish back to get on the bike for this shot, quite like it though!

Gerharts Gate, named after a wee green gecko we spotted here two or three years back on a really warm summers day!

The compulsory photo taken at "the best view in the Pentlands"!

Wednesday last week turned out to be the best day of the year so far and after missing two whole days due to gales and heavy rain I took advantage of it with a 5 hour ride in the Pentland Hills, just meandering about on various tracks taking photos every so often. The difference was this morning again when Clive and I went out to be battered by gale force winds and frozen rain. At least when we eventually turned we had it in our backs for a while at least. 20 miles were needed this morning for my weekly 100 miles and we managed to achieve it though it looked pretty doubtful for a spell!