Today’s guest picture shows my brother’s scientific rain gauge. His usual monthly rainfall in Banbury is 2″. The scientific rain gauge recorded 6″ in one week alone towards the end of last month. No wonder the people of Banbury were cross.
2014 crept in quietly with no rain and no gales. Mrs Tootlepedal and I cycled out quietly each in our own direction. She was set to cycle round the route of the New Year’s Run, an eight and a half mile part road and part track course where the aim is to start at a time that will bring you to the finish at 11 o’clock. 59 walkers and runners and one cyclist completed the course and a good time was had by all.
I went off in the other direction, looking to put a few early miles on the clock for the new year. With a temperature of 4° and light winds, conditions were very comfortable and I pootled along through Gair, Chapelknowe and Canonbie without trying too hard.
One of the benefits of cycling on New Year’s Day in the morning is that the traffic is very light. I hardly saw a car the whole way round. Altogether it was an excellent way to start off the new cycling year, though I would have been a bit happier if my average speed had been a mile an hour faster.
The roads had dried out after the storms and I only had to dodge occasional puddles. I stopped here and there to take a picture.
In spite of the pleasant cycling conditions, it was too grey for taking photos. I did think of extending the ride a little but I am glad that I stuck to my original plan of 30 miles as the wind got up and it started to rain soon after I arrived home.
By the time I had had a reviving bath, it was very gloomy outside, even though it was not long after two o’clock and there was no chance for a walk or even a shot of the bird feeders. There was nothing for it but to sink into an armchair and watch endless holiday telly. This was considerably brightened by an interesting feature on Aberdeen’s win in the European Cup Winners Cup back in 1983 when they were managed by a young Alex Ferguson. He was fortunate to have had a team in which there were so many players who were not just skilful but intelligent too.
I did manage to take a poor photo or two of the bird feeder before I went out on the bike while I was waiting for the thermometer to hit the magic 4° mark.
We seem to have been getting thicker, greyer clouds this winter. My mind is turning towards spring time already.
I will start the year by ending as I mean to go on. Here is a flying bird. I hope for fresh species to shoot soon.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
It must be true that great minds think alike, as I’ve been going back through my photos from last year to get photos of flowers or when the sun has been shining.
The tulips are beautiful, I’m hoping Mrs. T’s garden provides you with many photo ops this year.
It is her mission in life.
An excellent beginning to the new year. I like the New Years Run concept; Randonneuring has a similar idea called a fleche, in which teams of riders start in different locations with the goal of arriving at a common finish line at roughly the same time. I trust Mrs. Tootlepedal finished promptly at 11:00.
I really enjoyed the bridge pic.
She was a moment or two late owing to going on her town bike which makes steep hills hard work.
Nicely done! Being “fashionably late” no doubt allowed her to make a proper entrance.
She was invited to draw the raffle, a great honour.
I like the photo of the bridge. it would be great to have a working mill nearby. You don’t see many of them anymore.
It is the only one round here.
I like your 2014 better than our 2014 so far.
There is some way to go before making a considered judgement though.
Short-term I am looking forward at the moment to Saturday which is billed as the warmest of the next 7 days…
Happy New Year, Mr. T! I look forward to another year of your excellent blog.
I look forward to reading yours.
The gales and rain kept me inside most of the day. There certainly seems to have been a lot of rain so far this winter but I’m sure they’ll still see fit to ban hosepipes in the summer.
Not here.
That’s an excellent bridge picture and it’s great you were able to get out for a nice ride. My only cycling today was more prosaic: a trip to the grocery store.
Food is a necessity even for stylish cyclists.
What does the working water mill produce? My New Year has started with a constant deluge, despite being off work, I failed miserably to get out on my bike. So my mileage stays at zero.
It works in conjunction with a children shed but I don’t know what it does exactly nowadays. It was a corn mill.
So glad you managed a decent cycle ride in reasonable conditions, a good start to the New Year.
Glad both you and Mrs T had an enjoyable ride. We had strong winds and rain all day!