Vetch and guests

Started the day with a weigh in. Half a kilo below my target weight, and my 7-day average is now even closer to my long term target weight, just 100 g to go! Once I've got it to the target weight I have to stick to my diet until my body learns that I'm not starving to death and allows my base metabolic rate return to normal - it's somewhat depressed at the moment and I can tell this as I get cold very easily and that's not normal for me. It's hard to know how long it will take, but the various theories suggest that getting my body set point weight to adjust can take at least a year. If I don't freeze next winter then I'll know I'm getting back to normal, or if I start to lose more weight again - which I don't want or need to do.

After a hearty breakfast (lots of home made bread and jam) we went for a bike ride. Because I didn't cycle yesterday I wanted to go for a longish ride today, taking in some nice sections I know well plus some new areas I'm not familiar with. We managed a nice 67 km loop, at a respectable 22.5 km/h with a top speed on a decent of 53.6 km/h. We had a strong gusty wind from the north which wasn't so much fun and the sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds, so it was that sort of annoying not sure what it's going to do kind of day. The ride was good overall and we even managed to not get lost or run over by a petrol head.

On retuning home I made a banana milkshake. It's very low tech, just a chopped banana, some full fat yoghurt and topped up to 500 ml with milk, but it blitzes very well and is quite a healthy post ride recovery drink. I add a little whey protein powder to boost the protein levels but it's not strictly required. You can buy fancy post exercise shakes, but they aren't really any better than a home made one and they are pretty expensive...

After a few minutes rest and a nice cup of tea I took the camera into the wildflower lawn at the front of the house. The sun remained as capricious as ever, and the cold gusty wind didn't help - some of the extras just aren't as sharp as I would want... Even the main picture is also lacking in DOF, but I've not done a vetch yet this year and it has some ants for extra interest.