Tag: years

January 2nd – I’ll start this with a note about time, and the passing thereof; long time readers will know I started this journal on 1st April 2011after being egged on to do 30daysofbiking by ace cyclist and top Dutchperson Renee Van Baar. Sadly, I was very ill with food poisoning the following New Year,  so never rode a bike on 31st December 2011, and 1st January 2012. But I carried on, and I never missed a day since. Every day from 2nd January 2012 I have got on a bike and ridden somewhere. From 100 mile plus rides in one day, to trundles to the shop, I have recorded my daily life as a cyclist, in all it’s ups and downs. That’s 6 years, or 2192 successive days (including 2 leap years), and about 55,000 miles.

I love keeping this journal, I love writing it, and finding the photos.

I welcome feedback. If you have something to say – that I should stop, continue or do something differently, please get in touch by commenting or mailing me – BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.

I’ve done this to show that it’s possible to be normal, and on a bike. That a podgy, middle aged man who’s not a lycra fiend can ride to work, shops, for fun, to explore, keep healthy, be happy, enthusiastic, jaded, sad or depressed, and continue rolling down the road.

In the six years, I’ve had at least 10 different cameras to use, maybe more, actually. Some I’ve adored, some I hated. The Canon GX 7 Mark II I’m using at the moment is like Jekyl and Hyde. It was really good in the night shots of the last couple of journeys, but tonight’s attempt – a simple shot of Morris – it seemed to fudge a bit.

On the camera, the jury is still out.

I’ll need to ride and use it a bit more to find out…

December 21st – And this is the reason for my sudden optimism. Today is the winter solstice, or shortest day. From here, everything gets better, because the light trickles steadily back into my darkened soul.

The bike GPS tells me the sunrise and sunset times on the main screen, as I love to watch them daily. Today, the sun rose around 8:16am, and set around 3:54. I’ve watched these times all year, and registered the slow acceleration of nightfall from Midsummer, slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, minute by precious minute; then cascading and careering through the midway and the end of British Summer Time. Slowing up again, that last push to before 4pm is crushing when it happens. 

By the time I return to work after this, my final commute of 2017, the sunset will already be past 4pm. And no matter what the winter brings, inexorably, unalterably, the GPS will record the gradual steps into the light. And then, at the end of March, I will emerge blinking into the light evenings as British Summer Time commences again.

I have survived the oncoming dark for another year. All I need to dow now is watch the darkness retreat.

January 2nd – This is the fourth year to the day of continuous cycling. As of today, I’ve ridden a bike every day for 1461 days. I can’t believe I’m still doing this, that I’m still here today.

Of course, the fifth anniversary of the blog comes on April 1st, but the first new year of this journal (2011-2012) I was very ill and missed two days, so I started the counter again.

It’s been a long way, but I’ve enjoyed it, and still do. If you’re still up for it, I’ll continue, but if this is tired or dull now, tell me.

Of course, it’d all be a lot more interesting with decent weather, but it was very poor again, with continuous rain for most of the day. It stopped briefly, and I nipped out on errands. As I passed by Walsall Wood Bridge, a narrowboat passed beneath. In an impetuous moment, I wondered if I could catch it from the other end as it approached Hollanders Bridge. 

Turns out there was bags of time.

August 5th – Another saying my Grandfather used to use a lot was ‘It’s always a good year for something.’ On this, the old man – who lived life much more connected to nature than I – was bang on. Every year, every season, is detrimental to something and benificial to something else.

This year we have an absolute wealth of early blackberries. They, sycamore,  horse chestnut and beech appear to have done very well indeed. Oak and fruit seem to have had a very bad year. This is the first acorn I’ve seen – last year, the boughs were heavy with crab apples, damsons, cherries and acorns. This year, very few. Rowan, Hawthorn and cotoneaster seem to be doing reasonably well, though.

I guess it’s just how the weather falls. One late frost and the fruit crops are ruined…

April 1st – This journal is three years old today. Three years since Renee Van Baar cajoled me into doing #30daysofbiking. I’ve cycled every day in that three years except two days when I was too ill to ride a bike during about of food poisoning over New Year, 2012. That’s a 1094 days when I’ve been out and taken a picture or recorded a little video of the day’s ride. Thanks for joining me, and for all the likes, shares and retweets, as well as the excellent and knowledgable reader comments..

I have no idea why folk like this thing, but they seem quite fond of it, and I am too, for it’s made me look at something I do in a different way, and it’s also made me look more closely at what’s around me in my day-to-day life.

Cheers to everyone for being stoker on the tandem.

The cat isn’t impressed. He barely opened his eyes to display his utter contempt as I passed through Alumwell on my way back from work. I stopped to let oncoming traffic through, and he peered at me sleepily. I thought he was rather special, so disgusting him even further, I took a quick picture.