We had talked about doing a ride today down into Pangbourne and up the other side to Bradfield. But I had a terrible night's sleep, so the plan changed to a more gentle local ride. John's ebike is currently not reliable, and he needs to investigate why. But mine was working fine.... so I rode mine. I've just had the stem shortened by 2", and it does feel a better reach for me than before.
We were aiming for the Bottle and Glass, Binfield Heath and so left Wokingham, went up Sandford Lane, then into Beggarshill Road where the tree tunnel was looking nice on this lovely cool, but bright day. We both wore an extra layer today, me in my "autumn" top for the first time this year.
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| Beggarshill Road, Woodley |
Through Sonning, then Playhatch to Dunsden Green. I was ahead today with my power button on. 😉
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| Waiting under the Oak Tree at Dunsden Green... |
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| ... here he is. |
We continued to the Bottle and Glass, partly to confirm exactly what the revised opening times are. It's been a useful "Monday opening" venue, but last Monday when John went... it was closed! So, because it's now cooler, they are only using the Barn at weekends, but coffee/cakes will be served in the pub building from 08.30 Wed, Thursday, Friday. So a useful one for Breeze and WLCG.
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| Bottle and Glass |
We sat outside at The Barn building, then used the loo at the pub building. John lost a glove between the 2 buildings. 😕 He retraced his steps, but didn't find it. It's bright red!
I had noticed that the Wokingham Arts Trail is on this weekend, and was planning to drive to Woodley this afternoon to visit Clare Buchta, since I have sign up for a workshop with her sometime soon. Instead, we decided to just ride there on our way home.
But first, we dropped down and up to Crowsley, passing Wokingham Cycling club in a huge group coming the other way, with a car behind them. There must have been at least a dozen of them. So selfish. We took the left turn into Blackmore Lane. The road surface never improves, but a nice view today of all the horses to our left.
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| Blackmore Lane, Crowsley |
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| John taking a similar shot I expect on Blackmore Lane |
A right turn, then left, for the short sharp climb on Grove Road, Sonning Common, and crossing to the Bird in Hand Pub to make our way back towards Dunsden. John still was thinking about his lost glove, and decided to go back for a second look, since not far from Dunsden. I carried on to Woodley, where we met up with me a bit later.
Clare was able to do a short demo of the process of the printing she will be doing at the workshop. I hadn't put it in my diary, so it was just as well she mentioned that is it THIS Saturday!
(No cycling tomorrow or Wednesday, since I am off to Devon in the morning with my "Art" friends for 4 days. The queen's funeral is at Westminster at 11am, so will set off at 1pm. It's been a strange week, the news pretty much 24 hours of people queuing to see her lying in state.)