Bike shed update

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

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

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

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

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 restWe 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.