I posted my blog yesterday afternoon and I was mentioning the climbs coming up in Sunday’s cycling. Later in the evening learnt that the climbs are off because of the virus because France wasn’t letting the race to cross the border. So nostalgia is off on Sunday afternoon!

You might of noticed no mention of the mid-week football match where sadly my team forgot to turn up and were lucky to finish in second. Still on to tomorrow-it is the hope that gets you! (surely it has to be a better effort than Tuesday!)

Had a lovely walk today near Haresfield Beacon-wonderful views of the River-a couple of my thousand of pictures above and below!

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Giro d’Italia this afternoon as they climbed up the Stelvio Pass all of 2,757 metres with snow all around. It was compelling watching and we were on the edge of our seats! I won’t tell you the result in case you want to watch the highlights! Amazing athletes battling at altitude and have now been riding for nearly three weeks. I will be watching the other race going on at the moment this Sunday (the Vuelta a Espana because it finishes on the Tourmalet but also goes over the Aubisque and the Soulor three climbs the boys and I did three years ago. The road between the Aubisque and the Soulor was especially spectacular and memorable. Even more special  when a kettle of Bearded Vultures (or Lammergeiers)  flew over us. So looking forward to some nostalgia on Sunday. Picture below of a Bearded Vulture-one of these birds spent time in Derbyshire this summer-which must of been a shock to the local birds!

Out today for a marvellous ride through Cotswold Villages including the great grind up Stouts/Lampern Hill. It was the four Old Groynes trying to get rides in together while we are allowed and on days where the weather looks encouraging (certainly not tomorrow!) The four of us have been on numerous long distance cycling adventures and have become great connoisseurs of cake and coffee/tea stops. We are now getting used to drinking and eating outside!

Forgot  to mention something from our journey yesterday. A Buzzard struggled to fly up in front of us as it appeared to have a squirrel in it’s talons. It all looked precarious and as we came underneath the flying bird we braced ourselves in case we were hit by a flying squirrel, we were safe and the bird flew off. It recalled a Story Telling Workshop I was leading with the education staff at the WWT Slimbridge. I had staff recounting travel journeys in pairs. One person recounted a traffic shunt with several vehicles caused by a rabbit being dropped by a Buzzard onto the bonnet of a car and it caused an emergency stop!! You can see why I was anticipating potential danger! It was a great story!

A few Autumnal Pictures from our walk yesterday in the Chilterns with our Peter and Nicola. I did take many photos including many of Red Kites that are numerous in the area but have limited to one here!

In all the gloom in the world and the poor leadership from the populist politicians around the world it was good to see Jacinda Ardern win the New Zealand election. A consistently impressive leader who shows you can be a decent human being and a politician. Such a contrast to Trump, Johnson and Bolsanaro!

We enjoyed visiting a socially distanced Art Workshops today.

I watched Luton play well today but came second! My David who is now an adopted son of Exeter was over the moon with Exeter’s rugby European win, he has been connected with club for a long time from being a steward in their Championship days to now doing stats for the media at their home games.

Another wonderful Autumn ride today and I certainly clocked up the miles on a long ride travelling South. Always easy to ride when there is little wind.!  I have been watching the Giro from Italy and they have had some awful weather to contend with.

A good discussion last night at Book Club where we discussed The Aerodrome by Rex Warner. It was certainly a diverse discussion with many wide ranging views. It was a book many of us wouldn’t of come across or chosen to read, but that is the beauty of a book club you read books you wouldn’t normally be aware of.

We did our monthly bird survey out by the Severn this morning. one special highlight was nearly 100 Dunlin flying and eventually landing on a raft of Flotsam brought down by the tide.  I saw many Redwings they had only probably just arrived from Scandinavia.

Pictures at the start for a change! My Gingerbread Coffee from halfway round today’s ride (I met Clare at Prinknash  Abbey Café) it was fairly sickly! The other picture is the Autumn Colours looking back at Cranham. It was a long climb (one of many)!

I didn’t see any Martians last night-will try and look again tonight after my Book Club Zoom. We are discussing The Aerodrome by Rex Warner. The book was published in 1941 and has echoes of Huxley’s Brave New World-it was a strangely compelling and surreal book to read and hard to say if I enjoyed it! Should be an interesting discussion.

No don’t be alarmed it is not some Martian invasion or the Roman God of War  bearing down on us.  No it is just the last time Mars was so close to us here on Earth was fifteen years ago. I did notice it was bright in the night sky last week so later tonight I am taking my telescope out to have a good view-if I see Martian spaceships coming our way I will blog about it tomorrow  -not sure how  they would cope with the virus though! I think for my sanity it is important to experience and enjoy the natural things around us.

Had a lovely ride today with the Old Groynes cycling group (there are four of us who have undertaken many long distance cycling adventures over the years). The trees in the Cotswold Valleys were decked in their autumn colours,  looking especially beautiful from the hill tops.

As I write this I am enjoying listening to the music of Show of Hands. I do hope that we will be able to see live performance of music, theatre again in the not to distant future; and of course Story Tellers!!!!