Byway

Possibly warrants a better look!

It's been a bit of a weird weekend. The weather has broken but despite a poor forecast we've actually seen very little rain here. The boys didn't expect to get any cricket in at all so it was amazing that they just lost an hour to the one short torrential downpour which passed over just after they started to play. The firsts could only narrowly scrape a draw at home but the seconds had a convincing win away, with Roam taking four wickets. He was pumped. That carried over into today when he made his highest ever score of 46 batting at No.9 for the thirds. Sadly, I managed to miss that.

I've been somewhat paralysed by the number of jobs that need to be done at work and at home. Made lots of starts on things but feel like I've made no tangible progress on any of them. I got terribly sidetracked this afternoon by the men's road race in the Commonweath Games. I'd not seen a single event up until today but once I started watching it was hard to pull away. The terrible conditions helped to make it one of the best races I've ever seen. Once Peter Kennaugh had made his crazy solo break - virtually from the start - I so wanted him to stay away, although I knew it was never going to happen. What was he thinking? And then in the closing stages when the three eventual medallists got clar I was happy for any of them to win: Geraint Thomas because he's always been the nearly man; Jack Bauer because of that stage of the Tour de France when he himself went on a mad breakaway for almost the entire stage and only got caught with a few yards to go; and Scott Thwaites because I've known him since he was a young lad, running the local junior fell races here. That was something of a breakthrough ride today. I'm so pleased for him. Both Scott and Lizzie Armistead, who won the women's road race today, are local athletes from Wharfedale, brought up just a few miles down the valley from here. That's quite something really.

It's been very hard to choose a blip tonight. I popped into Ilkley earlier today to do a little street photography and collected a couple of shots I really like. This colour juxtaposition was quite a find. And then I saw Dennis approach a couple with the Labrador here. He was compelled to stop and stroke the animal. And the two little girls were similarly attracted. It was lovely to witness. Dennis said that when he got married fifty years ago a condition imposed by his fiancee was that they must have a dog. They always have had.

But for the journal I wanted to remember my bike ride at the end of the day, and also the fabulous skies we've enjoyed all weekend. Perhaps inspired by the cycling I'd watched on TV, and slightly frustrated at my toe still being sore and swollen, I set off at a pace - such a pace indeed that I assumed that I must have been aided by the brisk breeze that's blown all day. When I turned around I expected to have a hard ride home but from Burnsall I flew back (in 37 mins for the record). Some days the wind seems to be against you all the way around while on others it seems to be with you the whole time - although the former are experienced far more often than the latter. On a day when I've been struggling to find the energy to do anything, up against a constant metaphorical headwind, it was strange to suddenly have such an energising tailwind. I guess I've reaped the benefit of not having exercised the legs much this last week. It felt like they were demanding a good work out whether I wanted it or not! Such a brisk ride didn't feel like a conscious choice at all.