another cycling forum
=> Freewheeling => Topic started by: sam on April 30, 2005
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I don't cycle offroad much, but have taken to bumping along the meadows which surround my house. It's good fun, though the sheep aren't amused.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/bikereader/forum/pics/runninglamb.jpg)
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There's a free sweater out there for the taking. All I need is a loom.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/bikereader/forum/pics/wool.jpg)
Now for sale at £3.50 per (small) box at National Trust shops. I kid you not.
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This is the Mighty River Dudwell, a natural southern boundary of my
patch kingdom. 'Mighty' is a joke, as you can almost jump across it in normal weathers.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/bikereader/forum/pics/flood.jpg)
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Continuing the tour, here's a scary farming implement spotted in the vicinity
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/bikereader/forum/pics/farming.jpg)
A more reassuring looking piece of equipment, which transports me across the fields (https://i.imgur.com/NWK1LYp.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/bikereader/forum/pics/mtb.jpg)
Click on pic to zoom out. I had to look up 'enzootic'. (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/bikereader/forum/pics/mtbzoom.jpg)
Four hooves good
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/bikereader/forum/pics/horse.jpg)
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/haystack.jpg)
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2008lambs1.jpg)
No need for CCTV
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/1008lambs2.jpg)
The hills are alive with the sound of bleating
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2008lambs4.jpg)
What yearbook wouldn't be complete without amateur photoshopping?
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Listen, if you were surrounded by sheep, and had a camera, you'd take lots of pictures (https://prettygoodbritain.com/photo/lambing.html) of them too.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/brightlingsheep.jpg)
Here's one up Brightling way. She's what Jack Fuller (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/index.php?topic=52454.0) will have to settle for instead of a sphinx.
Speaking of cloven-hoofed animals, if you ever get a chance to watch
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/blacksheep.jpg)
pass.
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The walk to the village can be done on ruminant-strewn meadows rather than SUV-strewn roads, unharrassed by anything other than the occasional territorial dog, thanks to this:
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/stile.jpg)
Once upon a time an anonymous benefactor took the trouble to modify this section of fence and augment the base of the tree with a step. It's perfectly crafted, situated to be of use chiefly to me and random ramblers; if it wasn't here, few would miss it and there would be no public inquiry.
To all those who do good works for whomever may pass by to enjoy them, I salute you.
Later in the year:
The climbing aids have disappeared! Save the corners chopped into the crosspost. Am considering chaining myself to the fence as long as it doesn't get too damp.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/overcome.jpg)
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It's easier when they're right outside your window. Looks like they're counting a few of their own.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/sleepysheep.jpg)
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/foxes.jpg)
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/bloody.jpg) (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/biglambs/bloody.jpg)
Sautéed in blood, like all newborns
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/handler.jpg) (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/biglambs/handler.jpg)
Iodine on the umbilical cord
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/hayewe.jpg) (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/biglambs/hayewe.jpg)
Hey you
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/trailer.jpg) (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/biglambs/trailer.jpg)
Into the great wide open
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/scritch.jpg) (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/biglambs/scritch.jpg)
The pleasures of a good scratch
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/sleepy.jpg) (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/2009lambs/biglambs/sleep.jpg)
The pleasures of a good nap
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This is the pedestrian footbridge visible in post #2. Too deep for wellies? (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/theflood1c.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/theflood1.jpg)
click to zoom out (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/theflood1b.jpg)
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/alertdeer3.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/alertdeer4.jpg)
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/snowdriveway.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/snowhome.jpg) (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/snowinside.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/snowpath.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/snowtracks.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/snowsheep.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/snowhorse.jpg)
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Visited my old patch last night, the City of London, where I lived before settling south. The occasion was historian Niall Ferguson's talk (http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2010/07/07/ferguson-fills-temple-with-moneylenders/) in St Paul's Cathedral about Siegmund Warburg [1902-1982], founder of the bank of the same name (surely you've heard of Siegmund's?). Ferguson offered a brief overview of banking then and now. It seems that maximizing shareholder value wasn't at the top of Warburg's agenda. There was a large audience, some of whom may have been attracted by the prospect of banker bonus bashing.
The queue to get into the cathedral was a strange double ringed affair, almost like water circling a drain. It was very difficult to locate the end of it; confused people struggled to find meaning.
You may recall that last year a Goldman Sachs executive offered the following sermon from the same pulpit: "The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is a recognition of self-interest.... We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all." As Goldman's Lloyd Blankfeind later put it, supposedly in Lennonesque irony, they are doing God's work.
Moving to his creatures great and small division, below is a hurried snap of an unidentified visitor in our garden. My wife submitted it to her city mice coworkers, who take a wary interest in the mysterious far off countryside she escapes to every night. Current opinion is that it's a stoat.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/weasel.jpg)
In other rural news, a squirrel dives for a juicy berry before an interloper - perhaps a stoat? - can get to it
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/leapingsquirrel.jpg)
and farmers harvest Weetabix
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/weetabix.jpg)
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/swimmingpool.jpg)
Neighbour with pool: priceless.
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/caughtsheep3.jpg)
This one was trapped (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/caughtsheep2.jpg) thanks to his little horns, which kept getting hooked behind the wire. I pulled him out because I'd want to be rescued, too, if I got my head caught in a fence.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/dyingsheep.jpg)
This one was dying. I heard wheezing outside my window this morning and called the shepherd. Kept her company as the flies crawled over her.
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The day ends with a huge amount of commotion. The lambs must have been separated from the ewes. Nothing else is that loud.
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/balloon/01.jpg) (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/balloon/sheepballoon.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/balloon/02.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/balloon/05.jpg) (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/bransoncondom.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/balloon/08.jpg) (https://www.prettygoodbritain.com/pics/balloon3.jpg)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/balloon/13.jpg)
Nice of them to airdrop a picnic basket.
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On 19 September 1783 the Aerostat Réveillon was flown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgolfier_brothers) with the first living beings in a basket attached to the balloon: a sheep, called Montauciel (Climb-to-the-sky), a duck and a rooster. The sheep was believed to have a reasonable approximation of human physiology. The duck was expected to be unharmed by being lifted aloft. It was included as a control for effects created by the aircraft rather than the altitude. The rooster was included as a further control as it was a bird that did not fly at high altitudes. This demonstration was performed before a crowd at the royal palace in Versailles, before King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette. The flight lasted approximately eight minutes, covered two miles, and obtained an altitude of about 1,500 feet. The craft landed safely after flying.
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Update on the stoat issue referenced upthread:
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/stoatorweasel.jpg)
Pity, as resident ermine raises property values.
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/cowattack.jpg)
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/pumpkin1.jpg)
Threat level orange (https://wonkette.com/423296/john-boehner-claims-he-was-born-orange)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/pumpkin2.jpg) (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/pumpkin3.jpg)
Lit by the fires of hell, which conveniently run on triple A batteries (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/pumpkin3.jpg)
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/roundmirror.jpg)
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/relaxedrabbit2.jpg) (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/relaxedrabbit1200.jpg)
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It is a meteorological curiosity that if the forecast shows rain, it will often hold off until the end of our long (but not posh!) driveway. It will then pour the two miles to the station, abating only when shelter is reached.
Madness. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s2Ufu5Xidc)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s2Ufu5Xidc
This post is dedicated to my wife, who gets the worst of it.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/sunandtherain.gif)
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/pics/triangleride.gif)
Yesterday's ride. 51 miles, apparently. I don't use a computer till I get home. That flat section was not unwelcome. Had I known I was passing through the habitat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pevensey_Levels) of the endangered fen raft spider I might have paused to observe a moment of silent shuddering, (http://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/index.php?topic=50513.0) but I flew nonstop across the Levels, wind at my back, former Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux visible for miles at 11 o'clock.
Those locals not involved in the manufacture of boutique bikes (http://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/index.php?topic=52242.0) survive by handcrafting trugs, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_trug) which are like baskets but more expensive, and reportedly useful for bodgers, (http://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/index.php?topic=51677.0) though I have yet to employ one in that context.