A great weekend. The second bank holiday in a row with good weather, and we certainly made the most of it.
Saturday, as usual, we pootled around town, went to the market with the newly-refurbished shopping bike (with panniers), did some work in the garden and sat on the lawn drinking gin by the chickens. Really quite idyllic.
Sunday, though, was our day of adventure. We had planned on riding up to Little Waltham, which is only a couple of miles away, and sitting outside the pub watching the cricket on the green.
Not to be.
We got to Little Waltham alright, but there was no cricket, and not much more activity at the pub, either. So we decided to cycle on to Great Waltham instead and try out luck there, only we never actually got there. Somehow we took a wrong turn through Howe Street and ended up in Pleshey, quite a few miles from home.
Turns out Pleshey is a bit of a cyclists’ hub, and we joined a rather more professional-looking group in proper cycling garb on their day out from London in the garden of the Leather Bottle pub. The woman at the bar declared us all mad for being out on bikes on a day like this. A proper scorcher.
We couldn’t have picked a better day for it, and sat in the garden for half an hour, taking pictures of the ducklings waddling across from what’s left of the castle moat watched, with a certain amount of envy, by the flock of yellow-grey birds at the back of the garden.
From there we cycled on through the Chignals, across Chelmsford and up the hill to Galleywood. All told, we did 27 miles. Not bad considering we were only setting out for a gentle ride to the next town. And best of all, no aching the next day – just tired legs.
Monday – bank holiday – it was Sue and Tom’s wedding down in Kent. We were only going to the evening bit, so we did jobs for the rest of the day. I dug in the garden, replaced the bean plants that had been broken in the wind and fiddled on with the salvage shopping bike to stop the panniers catching in the spokes of the back wheel. I think I fixed it.
All told, then, one of the best weekends in ages, and all because we had time to get out and indulge ourselves for a day. More of the same, please.
