Weather so hot even the fridge in the house gave up the ghost!

Wednesday night and things were beginning to heat up

By Thursday it was seriously hot for Scotland, we're just not used to this sort of nonsense!

Thursday night and Dougie and I tackled Hare Hill and met three other bikers cooling off, one of whom recalled Barrie and me fixing a burst chain on his bike five years ago at Innerleithen! I must have an unusual face that he could remember that!

The summit of Hare Hill was duly conquered after a fair bit of sweat had been spilt.

Friday and I went back up the hills in the heat for more punishment (and pictures)

Sunday morning and we're back to normal temperatures so arm warmers etc were back in action

Top of Turnhouse Hill ready for the last mad dash down to Flotterstone and Barrie attempts to "float like a butterfly", Clive remains unimpressed though!

We're off down the track, there's no turning back now

An earlier part of the climb up the rough track to the top of Carnethy Hill

The final part of the descent and there's a choice of tracks, Clive went to his left (his political viewpoint) while we went to the right!!

The start of the climb up the Kirk Road

This gargoyle outside Clives front door seemed an ideal place to put a spare helmet on, at 6am it's what a few people would be feeling like on a Sunday morning.

Last week our weather went crazy for a few days and temperatures soared to the 30s C which is just not what the people of Scotland or for that matter our household appliances can cope with! My fridge suffered a complete breakdown and had to be given life support and I've since heard of other household machines which objected to the extreme heat!! We still went out on the bikes though and maybe we didn't go as fast and drank a bit more fluid, but the ground was dry and hard and you cant argue with that!

Leg power v horse power v electric power

The sign says it all "The Magical Bluebell Wood", at its very best just now!

Along the side of the River Esk near Lasswade

Deep in the heart of Bluebell Wood!

An irate biker who thought his cross bike was able with its flimsy tyres to tackle the sharp stones on Castlelaw, he was a bit bad tempered so I didn't have much sympathy with him! 

Round the side of Harbour Hill and I encountered two people with riding helmets but only one horse between them!

On the track up to West Kip I came across more horses, this time with a rider on each of them, seems like an easy way to go uphill!!

Met this Brad Pitt lookalike(?) who assured a doubtful me that he was off to catch some fish

The top off Hare Hill this morning and it was certainly no heat wave up there!

From here on its mostly downhill and a tail wind into the bargain, things can only get better!

A week in which I was offered the chance to participate  in an ebike trial which I turned down simply because if I had an hour on an ebike I reckon I'd never be really happy on an ordinary mountain bike again! I met a few horse rider as well but the cost of buying, feeding, stabling and generally maintaining a horse makes buying the occasional part for a mountain bike relatively cheap, so at the moment it's going to continue to be leg power!  

Our prolonged dry spell appears to have ended!

Bluebell Wood in full bloom, the dry weather doesn't appear to have harmed the bluebells

Sunday morning at the summit of Black Hill , the wind has gone from Easterly to Westerly indicating a change of weather is imminent, so there's not much we can do about it except enjoy while the going's good!

Couldn't resist getting a photo of these two Dalmatians, Jasper on the left was less than a year old and right bundle of energy!

Today, Monday, and its been raining all morning, we've had an abnormally dry last six weeks or so and it's going to take a bit of getting used to puddles and mud again! The only thing we can hope for is that it doesn't forget to stop raining!

The Pentland Hills are the driest I've seen since I started biking up them

The 3 of us race down to the Howe from East Kip

The Strava Segment known as "Run sheepie run" (for obvious reasons!) now has 13 little bridges built into it.

Clive managed to find about the only boggy bit up the Pentlands just now and nearly went over the bars in it!

Bright sunshine but a cold Easterly wind.

Not only biking and hill walking goes on up these hills, there's a flourishing model remote controlled glider club as well!

Barrie and I sit and contemplate life at the top.....well we were at the top of West Kip after all!

Dry dusty tracks are the order of the day in the Pentland hills at the moment after an April with virtually no rain. The tracks are fast, uphill as well as down and the reservoirs are beginning to look a bit low, but never fear, rain is forecast for the end of next week and I'm willing to bet that once it starts it'll take a bit of stopping!