Riding the lanes and a red rose

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary and we had decided to spend the day going for a long cycle ride and having a picnic. But then it poured with rain, so we managed to reschedule our trip for today.
The Norfolk County Council are trying to encourage the use of electric bikes to reduce unnecessary car journeys, and have been offering substantial subsidies on the hire of electric bikes as an incentive. This is the second time we have given it a try and it is a lot of fun.
We set off midmorning through leafy quiet lanes; North Norfolk must be one of the best places in the south and east of England for little quiet lanes, more or less free of traffic. The route took us to Gunthorpe and on in the direction of Edgefield. Along the way we discovered a beautiful little village called Brinton with a fine church and a handsome Georgian hall; then on through Stody with its round towered brick and flint church to “The Three Pigs” in Edgefield where we stopped for a late brunch….smoked haddock in a cheese sauce, wild mushrooms in a creamy sauce on sourdough toast and good coffee. The lanes are just glorious and lush at this time of year with cow parsley romping away and red campion and field poppies in full bloom, and the skies were washed clear after yesterday’s rain with rags of cumulus sailing across a cornflower blue sky. Further on we stopped by the community shop in Itteringham where we found it necessary to sample the homemade bakewell tart with our tea. It was excellent. There we met a man who was a cycling coach, who approached us asking to take a look at the bikes. It turned out he was a retired County Council employee and had a vast knowledge of bicycles and electric bikes. We picked his brains as we are considering buying them at some stage, and learned how and why modern gear hubs are more durable and trouble-free than derailleur gears. He was interesting but could have talked for hours while his long suffering wife (an interpretation based on her facial expressions in the background) hovered nearby, looking impatient to continue their walk.
We returned to the hire place with a stop on the green at Brinton en route where we sat in the sun and listened to a wonderful chorus of songbirds in the late afternoon sun. If you haven’t tried them, I can heartily recommend an outing on an electric bike. Any time you are out of puff or come to a moderately challenging hill you can just flick a switch and call on the lithium ion battery to take the strain.
We arrived home early evening to find the garden bathed in sunshine and looking bright and bushy…a red rose named “Jazz” caught the light and that is today’s Blip foto.