A cycle along the river

We awoke to another sunny and lovely day. We went for a run before breakfast, Gavin has started doing very short runs so today I joined him. It was so difficult as being in the mountains there are no running routes that are flat, everything is up and down. At this high altitude I also found it so challenging, so not a very successful run. Later, after breakfast we trundled down the hill to the village on our bikes for a coffee - my new coffee machine makes excellent barista coffee but sometimes it is nice to go into the village for a coffee. When we first started coming here 20 years ago there were no coffee shops in the village - today we have two, and the big dilemma is which one do we go to - the one has better coffee (Room) but the other one has much better cakes (Kaffee Klatsch)! In fact their cakes are legendary and whenever we have visitors here they always marvel at the selection of homemade cakes which we just don't see the likes of back home in England.

While it was sunny and bright here we got a message from Luke who was on his way to his best friend’s wedding, saying that the weather is just awful there with heavy rain, storms and even some flooding expected. Yet yesterday was hot and sunny, what bad luck for the wedding today! I have been thinking of the wedding party all day, the parents are good friends of ours and I hope it has gone well. And talking of bad luck, don't go to a Coldplay concert with your mistress as you never know when you will get caught on camera, haha!

After our coffee and cake we went for a long cycle ride, Xena was in and out of her crozier which trails behind the bike (see extra). They are popular here as when doing a long cycle ride it is too much for a dog to run all the way.

We had a light lunch after our cycle ride, and then this afternoon Gavin and I played golf. We enjoyed it very much although it was rather hot and humid. Shortly after we finished we had a storm with some rain. Gavin is enjoying being back to normal health at the moment and we are doing everything we can - much like the local farmers around here, we are making hay while the sun shines!

If you are interested here are some photos of the wild flowers I saw on our hike yesterday.