The first snow of winter, albeit pretty feeble!

Barrie and I had to do a fairish bit of climbing at Glentress to find the snow, and to be fair it wasn't exactly deep! But it did qualify as the first snow of 2018/2019 winter and still in October at that, where's all these global warming screamers when this happens, they're strangely silent!

It was however a cracking day to be out on the bike even if it was sub zero most of the time.

Dougie took this photo of me on Saturday morning at more or less the highest point of the Kirk Road over the Pentlands, another sub zero morning though there was no snow to be found only the occasional icy patch.

Apparently there's going to be a bit of tree planting taking place in the Pentland Hills and to that end fences to discourage the deer from eating all the young trees have been erected. these are the gates that have been put in place on the paths, how long till some crafty super intelligent deer discovers how to open them?

And finally, our usual Wednesday night bike ride, now totally from start to finish in the dark, here's a non deer resistant gate getting crossed, don't know how I'm going to get an ebike lugged over here!

Double helpings last Wednesday

Out through the day last Wednesday, it was too good to stay in and the new bottom bracket and chain needed a run

Out again at night with Barrie and Roger, perfect weather for night riding but the forecast is to get colder in the week ahead 

Saturday morning and more good weather, this is most unlike Scotland! 

Managed just over 80 miles last week, but the main achievement was twice right up Castlelaw without coming off, the ebike will have to wait a bit yet or at least till the price drops a bit!

What's happened? The weather's perked up......

The weather on Monday after nearly a week of high winds and rain suddenly decided to revert to sunshine again, though it is a bit nippy early morning and at night

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Last Sunday morning it was a bit soggy in places

Earlier on last week the new jacket was called into service and didn't disappoint

Mind you last Wednesday night was ok' I like this picture taken about 7pm of Barrie and Roger with the Pentland Hills silhouetted in the background.

10 year anniversary for this blog, time flies when you're having fun!

In the 10 years I've been scribbling on here I've gone through about 5 or six bikes, 2 of them were stolen from my garage by lowlife who appear to regard other peoples property as their own and don't mind damaging anything (my garage door) in their way to get it.

This is the present steed, I've actually got another more or less identical bike but with different wheels on it (for different ground conditions).

The next bike is going to be an e-bike, mainly because for some unexplainable reason the hills have all become steeper and longer and everybody else seems to have become faster and fitter, once I'm mounted on that I'll show em!!

Sunday mornings ride started off chilly, just above freezing point and ended just as the rain and wind arrived from the mid Atlantic!

As you can see from the photos cows and sheep featured on Sundays ride in the Pentlands, I should really know them all by their first name by now.

And my faithful companion on 99% of my weekend rides, Baz, who's actually smiling on a photo, he likes to keep a poker face usually, here's to another 10 years in the saddle!!

Riding at night now means riding with lights

Early morning starts are going to need lights as well in the next few weeks, this photo was taken about an hour after we'd started on Sunday . Three of us are planning on going out tonight just after 6pm and I reckon we'll need the lights in just over an hour.

We're still experiencing high winds nearly every day so biking up in the hills can be a bit daunting , so I've done most of my solo rides at lower level in the trees for a bit of shelter

Even after some really heavy showers of rain the ground remains bone dry and brick hard, I suppose that's something we can thank the wind for!