peggy rides to paris

Three quarters full circle

2009-11-07T11:54:00.000-08:00

The seasons have gone three quarters full circle: the Scillonian is so far into the harbour she is practically on the Ross Bridge

and the baulks are in place protecting Mousehole harbour from the winter storms.

I am back to cycling in the dark, usually in wind and rain, looking a complete plonker in my high-viz jacket and fluorescent ankle bands,
the road bike is moth-balled away awaiting the return to summer and I'm back to cycling through potholes on my Winter Bike.

This descent into winter darkness is the worst time of the year but I'm encouraged to think it is only about six or seven weeks until the days begin to draw out again and we return to the light (spot Ding Dong mine)
lets hope we don't get too much of this
before we return to misty summer mornings.

It has been a good nine months, lots of bike rides and a big effort to raise the money for the hospice, long evenings struggling with posts for the blog, creating posters and leaflets, carrying a camera on bike rides, swimming less
and cycling more.

A few promises of sponsorship have not materialised (yet?) but I think the time has come to declare the grand total of £5190. Thank you to everyone who supported me and donated to Cornwall Hospice Care and, if there is anyone out there, thank you for reading this.

That's it folks..... I'm off on my bike now.

We did it!

2009-10-11T12:20:00.000-07:00

We did it!

Thanks to an incredibly generous donation this week, (thank you so much to That Person), we have got to £5000! None of the money that has been donated has subsidized my holiday and every penny has gone to St Julia's and Mount Edgcumbe, I am so pleased, thank you all so much.

There is still a last trickle of money to come in but I will publish the final total in the next week or two.

In case you wonder, I am still cycling. Twenty eight miles yesterday in a fast whizz along the main road to Breage and a rather damp thirty two miles late today starting in gloomy mist

and heavy cloud

Things improved as I steamed up Paul Hill and along to Lamorna returning up the hill to Castallack and down again into Mousehole
The light was fading by the time I got to Newlyn but I like the harbour with its mix of working and pleasure boats.

I followed the lip of Mounts Bay as far as Marazion before an about-turn back to Penzance and the five mile climb back home.

Thank you

2009-10-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

Already the bike ride and Paris seem a long time ago. The beautifully carved bridges along the Seine

the slightly faded confidence of the Pompidou Centre

and the delightful collection of beehives in the Jardin du Luxembourg are beginning to feel rather unreal.

The return to work and the decline into winter darkness are hard but I am distracting myself with dreams of my next project ..... Lands End to John O'Groats maybe, (don't worry, if I do it I won't be raising money for charity).

It is time to thank everyone: Diana who helped set up this blog, Hazel who created the publicity leaflets, Kate who provided invaluable support by starting the blog with Diana, nagged me to write regular posts and encouraged me through the early months of my campaign but particularly to everyone who donated to Cornwall Hospice Care and made my ride such a success.

There is still some money to collect but the total to date is a mighty £4630.13

I will do one more post when I have collected all the money and know the final amount raised but until then merci a vous tous.

Je suis rentree de Paris

2009-09-27T01:05:00.000-07:00

Did I really go to Paris? I can't believe it is all over, seven months of preparation over in three days, good job I'm not an Olympic athlete that would be years of training gone in seconds.

Standing around at Tower Bridge waiting to start was the worst as I didn't know how hard it would be nor how fast everyone else would cycle.

The organisers warned it would be a long first day and their car looked pretty impressive as it led us out through the city traffic
but the Sussex countryside was beautiful with towering oak trees and jig-saw puzzle cottages around village greens with duck ponds and wind mills. At Newhaven the wait for the late ferry was cheered by the unexpected pleasure of seeing friends walk into the departure lounge to wave us off. We crossed in the dark so didn't see much of the channel nor Dieppe until we woke to familiar looking Cornish mist.

We were led by the ever cheerful Brian from Expedition Wise with his Jolly Good back-up van and Ben and Paul who took it in turns to go in front or at the back of our convoy.
They looked after us and set up drink and banana stops which divided the days into bite sized distances.

The French countryside was lovely, I can't tell you the pleasure of bowling along for mile after mile without having to face switch back hills at every turn in the road, Paul Hill had paid off and the riding was, as a friend said, "a piece of cake".

Everything in France looked different, even the garden sheds and garages.

Just outside Paris we collected together beside a little park and water fall so that we could all cycle in together
French traffic is incredibly bike-friendly and it felt fine to whizz along the streets, we turned right at the Arc de Triomphe
and up to the Eiffel Tower for a fantastic reception with tears and hugs and champagne. It felt unreal and exciting and a fantastic achievement and sad and wonderful all in equal measures.

Paris is a city of grandiose buildings which seem designed to overwhelm mere mortals but there are lovely details, shop signs
bicycles at every street corner and lamp post

an official meter with brass bosses set into a stone wall
fun exhibits in the Jardin DesTuileries
the old and the new

and petit dejeuner in pavement cafes.

There will be a final post when I have collected all the money but I have exceeded my final target of £4000. Merci a vous tous.

Now .... for my next challenge ......

We did it!

2009-09-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

What a fantastic three days.
After negotiating London traffic, pretty leafy Sussex, an overnight ferry, French mists, brilliant sunshine, (and too much food) we turned right at the Arc de Triomphe and celebrated with champagne at the Eiffel tower late on Sunday afternoon.

My bicycle took an earlier ferry home but I stayed on for a few days in Paris, I will soon be home so look out for the photos.

Thank you for all your support.

St Austell

2009-09-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

On Monday afternoon my bike and I climbed onto the 4.44 to St Austell, it stretched out in the "bike bay" whilst I nervously perched beside it on an uncomfortable seat that faced inwards giving me a crick in the neck as I tried to look out of the window. Luckily I'd just got a copy of Mike Sagar-Fenton's book on serpentine so was able to get stuck into the rise and fall of the London and Penzance Serpentine Company and its rival the Lizard Serpentine Company. I became so engrossed in Victorian fire surrounds and the industrial landscape of Poltesco that it wasn't until we slowed down for St Austell that I realized my bike was buried under four others, luckily I managed to untangle it before the doors slid shut and we pedalled off through the traffic to the hospice. The September sun came out and the neat lawns and familiar hospice colours reminded me what this adventure is really all about.My carefully prepared pipe lagging all fitted and I'd remembered the masking tape, orange label and the Cycle Centre's advice to leave the chain on the inner gears so I left the bike all ready for its journey to London.

I felt sad leaving it and thinking about my recent dream of arriving in London with no bike.

St Austell is another world, a suburban world dominated by spoil heaps but I enjoyed the walk back to the station.

I had three quarters of an hour before the train so walked down into the town to look at Holy Trinity church, annoyingly the church yard was padlocked. I considered climbing over the railings but didn't want to get arrested or impaled at this stage so had to settle for enjoying the magnificent 15 century tower from road. Some unsympathetic PCC has plonked a horrible illuminated cross on the top but nothing could spoil the devils, the mythical lions sticking their tongues out, kings, wonderful gargoyles and faces with more grinning teeth than a Cheshire cat.

Rushing back up the hill to the station I was sobered by the simplicity of the Quaker meeting house, a perfect contrast, (sorry no photo).

Already, I miss my bike and can't wait to see it in London.

Nearly there

2009-09-12T23:37:00.000-07:00

Nearly there now and suddenly it is rather scary, I'm in that pre-going away time of panic when you feel you will never get everything done. Time to wash the official shirt, pack the guide books and collect up euros, passport and tickets. Last week we had a final get together inTruro and had our photo in the West Briton. Tomorrow I take my bike to St Austell, protect it with pipe lagging and trust to the gods that it gets on the CHC transport to London.

But before I go here are some more photos from the greatest of bike rides around our peninsula. The first view of Zennor cowering under leaden skies
and the road signs which always make me smile, what else do pedestrians do but walk?
There are lots of wonderful mile stones dotted along our roads, I will probably run out of time but but I'd like to do a post on them alone.
The blue eyed Cornish miner at Pendeen guards his nasturtiums
as I whizz along to St Just and on, past unspoilt buildings which I hope never see the light of "barn conversion"
and the flashing lights at the airport where little planes drop out of the mist to bump along the grass, to the junction with the A30 and the Friends burial ground.
The little roads near Lands End always confuse me but it is good to see that Mrs Baggit is still alive and well.
By this stage I'm fed up of stopping and starting to get my camera out so its full steam ahead through St Buryan and Mousehole to Newlyn
before turning left for home, stopping only to rescue a tiny furry caterpillar that was bravelytrying to cross the road.

Latest swallow news

2009-09-09T00:23:00.000-07:00

The swallows have flown, yesterday afternoon they launched themselves through their postcard sized door into a damp, wet, soggy dripping world. Ten days from being eggs they were swirling around the sky chasing their elegantly long tailed parents who twittered and chattered their encouragement. They retired to bed early, three in a neat line along the wall plate and two piled into the old nest but they were up at first light continuing the flying lessons. Soon they will fly south to Mediterranean sunshine leaving me a little sadder and with a swallow shaped hole in my life.

Glitches

2009-09-07T04:23:00.000-07:00

I said there would be some glitches .... the latest post is hiding in July and is entitled "Collecting Bucket".

But, on the good side, the baby swallows are getting their feathers, neatly lined up in their nest like sardines in a tin.Swallow poo all over everything is a price I'm happy to pay.

Buying the Sunday paper

2009-08-30T12:04:00.002-07:00

The north coast road between St Just and St Ives must be one of the loveliest in England. As it weaves it's way around Trendrine Hill and Carn Galver you get a fantastic view down into St Ives Bay towards Godrevy or, on clear days, in the other direction the rocky outline of the Scillies sitting on the horizon. The sea stretches to the north but the road stays above the cliffs, if you want to get down to the sea you must walk down to the beautiful cove at Porthmeor or the tragic sands of Portheras.
I usually join the road at Zennor and cycle west past Yew Tree Gallery which never disappoints with the beautifully chosen and displayed paintings, ceramics and jewelry, Gilly coaxes her organic vegetables from the thin soil and has a perfect bed of old fashioned flowers around her house.

Before the gallery there is a barn with such a proudly carved kneeler stone and worked granite door surrounds that it must have started life as a much grander building.
Further on there are barn doors, little houses and the old Working Mens' Institute at Bojewyan

As the road gets nearer to St Just you get into real mining country with barren spoil heaps, half ruined mine workings and terrace after terrace of mine workers cottages. Geevor was the last working tin mine in West Penwith and when it closed in 1990 the community was almost destroyed by unemployment, since then the mine has reopened as a popular museum employing many of the men who sweated underground, it is more than a museum as you come away understanding how mining was not just a job but a way of life.

I cycled the road again today in bank holiday mist (sorry, forgot the camera) with visibility down to about 50 yards but it was still a delight. I continued on though St Just past the fogged-in airport and, as always, saw things I had never spotted before, a well half hidden in the grass verge, two converted chapels within only a few hundred yards of each other and the chapel near Escalls decorated for Harvest Festival. As I waited for a gap in the traffic I said my normal silent prayer at the Friends burial ground lying unnoticed at the busy road junction. On through Sennen and then back towards St Buryan, always within smell of the sea but the mist was so thick I got to Mousehole before I actually saw the sea. Back though Newlyn busy getting ready for the fish festival tomorrow, on to the paper shop in Penzance and up the last five miles to home. Forty miles and one of the best ways to buy the Sunday paper.

News Flash

2009-08-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

Mrs Swallow has hatched her second brood.

Impossible to believe that in only about four weeks time the tiny squawking bundles will be ready to fly half around the world.

Meanwhile I wipe swallow poo off my bike.

Bike shed update

2009-08-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

Mr and Mrs Swallow have built a new nest and Mrs Swallow is incubating her second clutch.Cats remain banished from the shed.

With only a month to go mileages are improving, I'm up to 45 mile rides and Paul Hill is not the challenge it was.

Reflections

2009-08-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

It’s getting a bit close now with only five weeks to go before my bike and I set off from Tower Bridge. The first day starts with the scary ride through London traffic ,continues over the South Downs towards the ferry at Newhaven and finally ends at 3.30 am, yes 3.30 in the morning, when we get to out hotel in Dieppe.

What have I achieved since I committed myself to this challenge? I’ve cycled well over 2000 miles, sweated by Paul Hill more times than I care to count, written 28 posts and, thanks to the tremendous support of so many people, raised over £3000 for Cornwall Hospice Care.

I am sorry not to have got to Mount Edgecombe at St Austell but I’m so glad I went to St Julia’s very early in my campaign. I didn’t find it easy, it felt uncomfortable knowing that I could cycle there and cycle away again but once I’d asked at reception about taking a photo of my bike by their signboard several nurses came out to encourage me, their dedication was inspiring and I left with a huge sense of gratitude for all they do. In varying degrees the hospice touches the hearts of so many people at various times and it deserves our support. That is why I have chosen to do my very small bit to support them.

It is hard work training and raising money, but it is also fun, you see so much from a bike, you are high enough to peer over hedges, fast enough to get a reasonable distance away from the familiarity of home and yet not so fast that you cannot enjoy all the great things around.

The next few weeks are going to be busy so there may be fewer posts.
Will anyone notice or do all these late night sessions with the computer fall on deaf ears?

No backing out now so a good excuse to include again a photo of my favourite boat in Newlyn

Great uncle Charles

2009-07-26T13:21:00.001-07:00

Some of you will remember my post in April when I wondered who had carved “Sarah”into the stone low down in the hedge on Mousehole Lane, the hill between Mousehole and Paul. I was delighted when my neighbour told me that it had been done by his great uncle Charles Tregenza in 1887, Charles even signed his handiwork
Great uncle Charles was 24 in 1887 but was already destined to work with stone as he went on to become a master builder and built his own house, Tavis Vor, which is now the lodge to The Coastguard in Mousehole.
I am assuming that Sarah was his girlfriend but the romance, if that is what it was, did not last as Charles married Nellie, they had eight boys and then a daughter, Mary Viola, who died aged only 8 in 1911, I am haunted by their loss of a precious daughter in those days before antibiotics.

Charles Tregenza was a pillar of the community
and became the mayor of Penzance in 1934

I am happy to think that under all that fur and civic pomp he cared enough to carve the name of his girlfriend into granite, a sort of pre-spray paint graffiti.

Great uncle Charles, Nellie and Mary are buried in the cemetery at Paul

I visited him last week to ask his permission to include him in my blog.

I thank my neighbour for his family history and I thank great uncle Charles.

For my next mystery can someone explain this sign carved high into a wall in Penzance?

Bike Shed 2

2009-07-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

When I last mentioned the bike shed it was snowed in and my bike had to move into the house. Now it is back in the house again this time to avoid disturbing the lodgers, the swallows nested on the stain tin which was a great excuse not to decorate the windows. They raised five chicks that flew a week or so ago but still come back at night to roost Last year they nested on the strimmer which meant long grass all last summer. It is wonderful to watch the parents swoop out of the sky through the tiny hole I cut in the top of the door They are not the only lodgers, Mr and Mrs Sparrow have their second brood behind the windspur.
In case you are wondering about the sign on the door I liberated it from the spoil heap at Wayland Smithy on the Ridgeway, (very close to where I grew up), when Professor Atkinson was doing "restoration" work building inappropriate Cotswold stone walling between the monolithic sarsens.

The new chapter in training has started: I did 77 miles in two days last weekend and a total of 172 in the last week, including an about turn to remove this from my front tyre

Collecting Bucket

2009-07-24T01:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Bonnie and Blue here - we are part of Peggy's back up teamWe have a beautiful field at our homeand every day friends come and play footballWe thought it would be a good way to help Peggy if we asked them to donate 20p every time they come to use the field so we put a bucket by the gate
We can have a quiet stroll around the wild flower meadow And a sit in the garden when we need a rest We get through a lot of footballsAnd after only a few months we are really pleased to have collected £24.50!!!!
Thanks to all our friends - Grace, Skye, Bracken, Monty,Maisie, Star, Hooch, Bessie and Walter. Sometimes we were too busy playing to take photos so not all of them appear here!

The bucket is still there and we will continue to collect for charity. Perhaps after September when the ride is over we will give the money for the Rescue Centre at Wheal Alfred.

A New Chapter

2009-07-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

Time to start a new chapter.
A third of the back up team have gone to Barcelona for the duration leaving only the four legged members who are less IT literate and tend to have other things on their minds I fear you may see a few glitches in the blog until I learn all the niceties of inserting my posts. (editors note: actually it can all be done quite easily from Barcelona as you see here!)

With only eight weeks to go the training needs to step up a notch. The official fitness programme suggests three 25 mile rides and one 35 miler in the next two weeks and then 30 and 40 mile rides but it doesn't tell you how to find time each week to do the pedalling.
The weather is not helping. But full of determination I managed a rather soggy 40 miles today around Mousehole and St Buryanmaze-like lanes around Crean Bottoms and on to Lands End and Sennen, coming back through St Just to enjoy Lafrowda Day and a yummy cream tea in the church.

An Evening Ride

2009-07-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

My current favourite evening ride takes me around the peninsula.
Starting off posting the day’s letters in my local box on past Penzance’s triffid and heading to Battery Rocks for a swim, it is good when the tide is right for diving Thanks to Carol and Patrick the buoys are a real treat this year, the first is painted with oyster catchers and waders, the second has a mermaid and seals and the third has star fish, after that they are plain orange.
On up Paul Hill which is always a bit of a chain snapper but worth the effort and past the gate post with it’s mysterious hole After St Buryan and Crows an Wra there is a wonderful down hill swoop to the airfieldmore hills and on to St Just, a rugged little town built around the square with its healthy mix of pubs, the Co-op, two branches of Warrens and more pubs all dwarfed by the solid church tower catching the evening sunDown Nancherrow Hill and up the other side to the north coast where foxgloves are at their best, pink campions everywhere each with its face tracking the sun like mini Goonhilly dishes The little clump of orchids that I watch out for each year is doing well Turning right at Gurnards Head takes me up the last hill to home.
It’s a fantastic ride which ought to be 30+ miles but is probably only about 26.

A never to be repeated experience

2009-07-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

I am a stubborn old cuss so once I have said I will do something I tend to do it but as the house gradually filled up with boxes full of stuff I would have happily opted out of the car boot sale. all the stuff had to be sorted into 'put out on the table first' and 'leave till later' boxes, vaguely priced, china and glass wrapped in newspaper, snoozing cats removed from boxes which were then packed into carsun-packed, re-packed and generally shuffled about in a pretty inefficient manner.
Exactly as I had been warned the vultures descended on the car before I even had the table up let alone the banner tied along the front and the balloons blown up. But the gods smiled, the torrential rain that was forecast did not materialise and the ground did not turn into a Glastonbury porridge.
The stall got set up, people foraged most things sold even the hospice balloons flapping madly in the wind on their bamboo pole and we returned with only a few boxes.
Like true amateurs we couldn't wait to count the money which looks like about £175 plus what feels like about £10 but is probably only £5 in the collecting tin before retiring for a well earned cup of coffee at the poolside cafe I reckon there is enough material in a single car boot sale for a PhD in Anthropology.
Thank you to everyone who donated stuff and to my backup team (remember them?) who made sure I did not give way to my inclination to chicken out of the whole thing.
Money raised for Cornwall Hospice Care - £176

Another weekend off

2009-07-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

I am getting lazy with another weekend off from serious cycling but no-one should miss Mazey Day with its fantastic parades and happy faces I have always maintained that Penzance is such a relaxed place you could wander about in your pyjamas without attracting comment and I proved it as a bucket lady this year collecting for GolowanThe Mid-Argyll Pipe Band was back in force drowning out the Acorn choir but they had flown down from Scotland just for Golowan and they gave it such welly you could forgive them anything.Sunday was Quay Day which begins the gentle wind down to normality with luggers moored in the harbour and my all time favourite fisherman in his oilers proudly showing off an enormous gold fishDr Who must have been visiting because the daleks rolled through the fair exterminating all in their sights, somewhere hidden in the harbour they gave up their secretsBut, as I said at the very beginning of this blog it's not a good day if I do not get on my bike so I ignored the gardening that should be done and got on my bike for a short but fast and hilly ride. Next week it's back to serious training.

A weekend half off

2009-06-15T04:56:00.000-07:00

The weather was fantastic, the Cornishman was doing money-off vouchers and there was an early sailing so it was worth setting the alarm extra early and resisting that initial urge to go back to sleep. I love everything about the Scillonian from the cheerful faces in the little booking office along the quay to the view of the coast line slipping past, the chugging engines and the queue for coffee and the first jagged outline of the Scilly Isles appearing on the horizon. We took a boat trip to Annet and were rewarded by puffins doing everything puffins are meant to do: circling around looking as aerodynamic as Cornish pasties with wings, bobbing on the waves before upending to dive down, sitting under tufts of thrift guarding their nests. How do such vulnerable things survive the winter months in the cruel seas off Newfoundland?

Seals basked in the sun and shags hung their wings to dry
No cycling for a day but back in the saddle for 40 miles on Sunday. Going up Bone Valley I realised what is meant by 'dappled shade'

Sore Feet

2009-06-15T02:10:00.000-07:00

Last week I invested in a pair of cycling shoes lean and mean and brilliant for cycling with their rigid soles but not the best thing for walking around Penzance putting finishing touches to the Golowan Grand Treasure Hunt.

Penzance is a lovely town of granite and slate and sea. The more I look the more I see.

Sad reminders of immortality disappearing shops quirky windows Egyptian myth and everywhere John the Baptists head neatly served up on its plate.The banners are up ready for Golowan, this year they are ranged in rainbow colours.Last year hotel guests complained their flapping in the wind kept them awake but we can still enjoy them down by the pool side cafe and along the PromTraining went by the board but I had a lovely time wandering the town:cycled 30 miles, swam at Skilly and got sore feet - it was great.

See you at 2.30 on 21 June at the Barbican for the Grand Treasure Hunt, you may not win a prize but I hope you will enjoy the treasure that is my local town.

Grand Golowan Treasure Hunt
Meet at 2.30 outside the Golowan Office, The Barbican(next to the Dolphin pub)
'Test your powers of observation almost to the limit as you are led through the byways at the historic heart of Penzance' £2 per sheet of clues

Wind

2009-05-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

Cycling in the wind brings its own challenges:sailing uphill with the wind on your back or turning a corner to go head first into a blast strong enough to send you reeling. Cycling along a high banked lane is fine and you forget it's even windy until you pass a field gate when you are suddenly pushed sideways into the hedge. The coast path to Marazion can be exciting, one way you bowl along at a rate of knots enjoying the wind surfers but the other way can be hell, head down with sand blasting into your face and sea gulls going sidewaysThe old joke "I had the wind the whole way" couldn't be truer for us cyclists.

You always know it's serious when the Scillonian creeps into the harbour and shelters against Albert Pier when she should be chugging her way over to the ScilliesThis weekend she has been in the harbour both days so there must be lots of people kicking their heels in Penzance, the ones who took out insurance smugly watching the angry seas from their hotel windows.

I decided to make the most of the wind today by opting for variety:today's ride included the north and south coasts, open moorland, valleys and little country lanes. a foolish whim, I should know better, which ever way I went the wind was either in the face or threatening to blow me sideways into the traffic. The leaves were blowing inside out, buzzards hung still and then at the flip of a feather swung sideways crossing several fields in a split second, the cotton grass danced and the skies constantly changed from leaden grey to summer blue. Coming home I pass the sign to Carfury and Ding Dongthe very names of these little settlements clinging to the side of Mulfra Hill sound of Cornish wind. I cannot imagine a still day at Carfury and they say that the bell at Ding Dong mine never stopped its ghostly clanging.

Where I live we don't have proper trees, the few that do cling to the thin soil end up surrendering to the elementsHigh in my moorland cottage I understand Ted Hughes' lines "This house has been far out at sea all night...the tent of the hills drummed and strained its guy rope...the wind flung a magpie away and a black-backed gull bent like an iron bar slowly"

Nature Walk

2009-05-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

In glorious sunshine about 20 people and Grace set off from the pub for a perfect walkBrian had said that he did not want to be described as an 'expert' but he was incredible, not only could he name the birds, their songs and the plants but he shared fascinating stories about them all AND he could explain the principles of the hydraulic ram.

Passing between blackthorn and hawthorn bushes a white throat called and our legs brushed between the bluebells and stitchwort. We joined the coast path in sight of Tater Dhu light house and Brian showed us the shy little squilland described the difference between sea campion and the more common bladder campion. Fulmers were busy in their nests and buzzards hung in the thermals above our heads.

The coast path was at its best and made the perfect contrast to the dappled path back through the woods beside the Lamorna stream.Thank you to everyone who joined the walk and donated to the hospice and an enormous thank you to Brian who gave up his Sunday morning and shared his incredible knowledge.

Including two donations from people who were unable to come we raised £90 for Cornwall Hospice Care.

Turn Right At The Llamas

2009-05-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

The recent floods washed out my lane and I was only able to get out by mountain bike so by this weekend I was ready for a proper ride and did my second trip to Falmouth. Since I knew the way I kept stopping to take photographs rather than pour over the map, much nicer but not conducive to a fast ride nor getting fit. I don't know as much as I wish I did about mining but it was interesting to peer over a hedge and see a line of chimneys all with their brick tops presumably following a lode.

Every year I wonder if the ash or the oak will be the first into leaf this year I am sure it is the oak which bodes well for the summer.
"if the oak is out before the ash we will have plenty of corn to thrash"

After the "Falmouth 6" sign there is a nasty bit of main road with crazy cars roaring past well over the designated 50 limit ....but it is lovely to turn right at the llamas and get onto the quieter road through Mabe Burnthouse and even lovelier to get the first view of boats up the river towards PenrynBy this time I was running late so no time for photos of the elegant Georgian and early Victorian houses on North Parade, more of those next time, nor of the yummy chips which ended the evening.

Don't forget the Birdie Walk Sunday 10 May, starting 10 o'clock at Lamorna Wink pub. Places limited so please book by emailing peggyrickaby@ladydowns.com or ringing 796952

Zennor

2009-05-04T05:12:00.000-07:00

It has been a difficult week: last weekend was totally overwhelmed by the awful events in Zennor when three young people were killed in the floods.
My sympathy and thoughts are with the families involved and my thanks go to the emergency services who searched through atrocious conditions.

Helston

2009-04-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

The countryside is at its best at the moment, flowers are bursting out of the hedgerowsthe trees are coming into leaf

birds are singing their little hearts out and the days are getting longer.

My favourite season.

I cycled over to Helston, a good excuse to see if the bluebells are out at Godolphin, (they are just coming but will not be at their best for another week). The road to Godolphin is lovely with footpath signs and stiles tempting me to get off and walk but I was sad to be reminded that Monty is still missing.It must be terrible to lose your dog. I feel sorry for all bearded collie owners as people must look them up and down deciding if they are genuine or not.

I was also saddened to see a stoat lying dead in the roadI moved it to the side and then laid it in the grass wanting it to have some dignity in death. Roads and animals don't mix.

Helston is a nice town built on hills with old fashioned shops,
opes running between the buildings and cherry blossom shading steps climbing up to the bowling club. I was running out of time so took the main road back but was rewarded by this wonderful house with a wall full of pigeon holes, now mostly used by jackdaws.

Nature Walk

2009-04-14T01:56:00.000-07:00

On Sunday 10th May
Brian Blowers is leading a guided walk through the beautiful Lamorna Valley and up onto the adjoining cliffsBrian is a local wild life expert who will identify the birds and plants that we will see, he has a wonderful blog which you can visit at www.brianswildlamorna.blogspot.com

The walk will start at 10 o'clock from the Lamorna Wink puband will last for about two hours.
Cars can be parked in the village hall car park or at the Wink and after the walk you can enjoy lunch or a drink at the pub.

The cost is £3 and all proceeds will go to the Hospice. All donations also gratefully accepted!

It will be lovely to see you all at the pub ready with your boots and binoculars.

We can only take limited numbers on this walk so please either email me
or phone to book your place on 01736 796952

* * *

The swallows have arrived, I saw my first one on April 11th, sitting on the telephone wires looking tired but triumphant. the house martins arrived a week or so ago, there are several wheeling over the water at Marazion Marshes. The swifts will come 50 days before the longest day and stay until 50 days after the solstice, a brief 100 days of sweeping screaming joy in Penzance.

Another good thing

2009-04-07T05:52:00.000-07:00

Another good thing about cycling is that you see all sorts of things that you would never notice in a car. I might drive along a road a hundred times but the first time I cycle it I will see something that I have never seen before the undressed face of a millstone built into a wall

or a millstone set out like a table or even a nice little water mill complete with chimney and timber framing.

From my bike I have wondered who loved Sarah enough to carve her name into unyielding granite

and stopped long enough to trace my finger around the stone mazeThen there are the smells that you miss in a car, wild garlic, headachy diesel around the heliport, the heavy wetness of cut reeds at Marazion that takes me straight back to my childhood and newly cut grass on the Morrisons roundabout (what is it about that particular roundabout that attracts oyster catchers and black headed gulls throughout the winter?)

There is no parking problem with a bike, I can stop where I like to tread softly along the rabbit mown grass of the marshes at Marazion enjoying the herons waiting like statues for their evening fish as I watch for the first swallows of the year. Stopping for ten minutes in the other direction I can bounce along the pontoons in Newlyn Harbour. I prefer the no-nonsense fishing boats and my favourite could be my inspiration for this epic bike rideand YIPPEEEEE the Ross Bridge is open again.

How's the training going?

2009-03-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

Being English I am obsessed by the weather, when it felt as if spring was well on her way I was speeding along in T shirt and three-quarter leggings, now we are back to rain blown horizontally in fierce winds I've returned to gloves and dew drop on the end of my nose. Every year we get it, blackthorn winter still it could be worse the first wood anemones are out near Newmill.Last weekend the weather was fantastic and I did 77 miles which I thought was pretty good until I remembered I have to do that three days running. Living here where its only about 7 miles from the north to the south coast I end up heading east or west: east took me to Breage, St Erth and back along the north coast, decided against carrying a goose egg home in my back pack but the marmalade was tempting. On Sunday I headed west up Paul Hill (confusingly named Chywoone Hill) which is a real chain snapper but worth it as the world opens out to St Buryan and Lamorna. The stuff which Cornwall Hospice Care sent has a 16 week suggested training programme which indicates I could be up to around week 12 with my two 35ish mile rides at the weekend and three 15 or 20 milers during the week. In a month or so I'll have to take the programme a bit more seriously but I think I'll go on just enjoying myself for a bit longer.

Spring

2009-03-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

Last Friday the Very Hungry Caterpillar introduced Google by celebrating the first day of spring. I thought it all started on 21 March but I'm not going to quibble over a day. It has been a fantastic week, early mists giving way to clear blue skies and wall to wall sunshine.The solar hot water panel is doing its thing, buds are bursting all around I've cut the grass, eaten purple sprouting every evening and even had my first swim at Battery Rocks The larks are trilling and washing is flapping on the line.I've had my first T shirt and shorts bike ride in glorious sunshineeven if it was a bit nippy cycling home in the evening. The moon seems to have gone missing so the night skies are awesome, the mighty procession of Taurus, Orion and the winter Triangle are shuffling off to the west and Arcturus is bright in the east heralding spring.

Squeak,squeak

2009-03-16T10:35:00.000-07:00

My bicycle has developed a squeak.It all started when I misjudged a pothole, the helpful road sign warned 'Temporary road surface' but 'Missing road surface' would have been more accurate.At first it was quite a little squeak, the kind you might confuse with a wren bopping about in the bushes, but now it has become so insistent I find myself pretending it's not me as people turn to stare. I must go to the bike shop, they'll sort it out.The Cycle Centre in Penzance is brilliant, everyone is friendly and helpful, they have endless patience with people like me who don't know their cartidges from their cassettes.When I first started going it was crowded into a tiny shop at the top of Bread Street, so small that there wasn't room for the bikes to have pedals.Now its old sail loft shop in New Street has bikes hanging like Christmas decorations from the roof and you can get anything from several thousand pounds worth of bike to a widget costing only a few pence (does anything still cost 'only a few pence?)

End of an era

2009-03-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

One of my most frequent evening rides is to the Planning department at Penwith's offices, down Bone Valley for the primrose experienceoften a bit of a detour around Newlyn and back up the steeper hills past Trevaylor and the bluebell woods of Newmill.

It'll be a sad day when Penwith District Council disappears and we get hoovered into the bureaucratic mess of the unitary Cornwall Council, the authority we so resoundingly voted against. It will be another sad day when Penwith's offices close and everyone has to move to some soulless office further up the line - rather too far for an after work ride for me. I've had my ups and downs with Penwith but I'm glad to have worked with so many nice people there, I wish them luck and I wish us all luck with such a ridiculous change of local government

Bikes in sheds

2009-03-04T11:26:00.000-08:00

Question - when did you last get your bike out of the shed and go for a ride?

Out of 11 answers - 2 rode their bikes yesterday and 9 not since last year or longer.

Our recent poll suggests there are quite a few bicycles mouldering in garden sheds. If you would like to blow off the cobwebs, get out the oil can and have a gentle (flat) ride from Penzance to Marazion with me for hot chocolate or coffee or cake.....

....let me know and we'll organise something soon.

To The Lighthouse

2009-03-01T03:51:00.000-08:00

Hoping to increase my stamina I cycled yesterday to Godrevy to meet my back up team. An afternoon of wild skies and open beaches with the added treat of about 60 seals lolling on the sand at Mutton Cove

ending up with a hot chocolate at the cafe
A round trip of 32 miles

In the dark

2009-02-23T04:15:00.000-08:00

Yippee, the days are drawing out but most of my rides are still in the dark. Actually I quite like it when the world reduces to a tiny hemisphere of lamp light and I go into a world of my own. It's best not to arrive anywhere except back home, fluorescent tops, bum and knee saggy leggings and day glow ankle bands are not elegant.
I know that spring is on her way because I'm beginning to see frogs and toads crossing the roads, every time I have to stop and carefully carry them to the grass verge. It's embarrassing to be caught red - frog handed but I can't bear to see them squashed, little arms stretched out in vain towards the safety of the verge.
Pathetic as it sounds I also stop to remove worms from the road but I do draw the line at slugs which have to take their slimy chance.
I am the person who moves dead rabbits, badgers and foxes out of the road. I hate to watch their bodies flattened a little more by every passing car. It's best if the buzzards and magpies or even then blow flies can clean up their once proud bodies.
Back to the dark: there are strange rustlings in the bushes, the rare and silent shadow of a barn owl and the tooth rattling pot hole that you know all about yet still catches you out, the constant water leaks near Trythall School and Trescowan and friendly hootings and flashing from cars that pass in the night.

Thanks

2009-02-16T03:57:00.000-08:00

It's early days and already there are many people to thank.
Diana who helped with the initial setting up of this site - her beautiful blog Pebbledash is an inspiration and really worth looking at.
Everyone who has left written comments - it is very encouraging to know you are out there reading what I write.
Huge thanks to everyone who has already given donations through Justgiving and to me in person. This is the main purpose of the cycle ride and I want to raise as much money as possible for our local hospices.
Thank you to Isles of Scilly Travel for kindly donating two Scillonian tickets to be raffled at a later date.
Thank you to Rich for his offer of IT support which I will be sure to call for in the coming months and to Hazel who rescued me from a computer nightmare when I was stuck over the hospice logo and setting out my leaflet.
And lastly thank you to Kate who created and maintains this fantastic blog, who nudges me to write regular postings and never ceases to encourage me.

A good moment to include a comment from a friend in Edinburgh who wrote "Your blog is tremendous - it makes me feel very 21st century just knowing someone who has such a thing!"

Ups and Downs

2009-02-08T04:36:00.000-08:00

Ever since I decided on this adventure the weather has been one long down: since Christmas Cornwall has been frozen solid, practically underwater, subjected to fax destroying lightening, blanketed in snow and now leaden and sodden. I’m pretty good at cycling in most weathers but even I draw the line at icy sleet blown by a northerly gale especially considering most of
my rides are after dark.Luckily the ups outweigh the downs; cycling home the other night under an almost full moon with the lights off, sharp shadows outlined on a silvery road, Orion stretching huge across the sky and the Plough standing on its head. Another time a fox ran along beside me for several yards before turning off and disappearing into the darkness. This morning I spotted a russetey brown back hiding in the ditch and was rewarded by a jack snipe hunched against the rain, he eyed me up for a bit before zig-zagging away between the goat willow.

One day spring will come.

thoughts of summer....

2009-02-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

I saw a nice thing on my bike ride: the Scillonian in the dry dock beginning to get herself ready for the season. Last summer was so awful and winter is going on for ever it is wonderful to think of warm sunshine, and the sparkling excitement of a heaving Scillonian deck.

The Bike Shed

2009-02-05T16:45:00.000-08:00

Snow stops play. The weather men were right, on Monday it snowed and on Tuesday it snowed again. I knew it was serious when the postman didn't get through and yoga was cancelled. Penzance was green and grey but up here everything was white. Luckily I am made of sterner stuff, as soon as the snow melted I was out again cycling down to get my Cornishman, it was dark and sleety with a bitter north east wind but I was toasty warm inside five

layers.

Twangggggg

2009-02-01T04:57:00.000-08:00

It is hard work getting started on preparations. I spent ages last weekend
getting together a leaflet to publicise the trip and get sponsorship.
Because I want to use the Cornwall Hospice logo I sent it to Karen Holman to check it was OK only to be told I had to include a paragraph of “small print”. This wouldn’t fit on the A5 sheet so it’s back to the drawing board.

Last weekend was dry and I managed four bike rides, all about 15 miles and all quite hilly. Things looking good until I was doing a forward bend at yoga and something in my back went twangggggg. Thankfully Clare Conboye’s healing hands came to the rescue and I’m now back in the saddle, albeit in gale force winds and with the threat of ice and snow this week. Its not easy being a cyclist in January and February, especially when limited to after work and evenings.

Getting started

2009-01-16T05:45:00.000-08:00

Training has got off to a patchy start. Over Christmas I managed several rides including two 22 milers which included going up Paul Hill on two consecutive days. Unfortunately the holidays ended, Cornwall froze up leaving the roads covered in ice and then the heavens opened so things have ground to a halt in the last couple of weeks, in the last five days all I have managed is Marazion (in a gale) for the Sunday paper and a quick nip down to Penwith’s offices.
I’m looking forward to dryer weather next week to get more regular exercise. Obviously there is lots of time before September but I need to do more miles every week and concentrate on hills and greater distances to increase my stamina.