Gardening: Great start to the week with over 75 miles covered in 2 days.

Monday 19th January (Already)!

Cold but lovely sunny morning. Too good to waste it on domestic chores, so I went for a ride.

Just a gentle loop from home via Ropley, Four marks and Medstead.

Popped into the Tree House Cafe at the Garthowen Garden centre and had a very good Americano. They have enough space there to be able to cope with a group of riders and they serve some very good nosh, so try it.

As I joined the A31 at the Eastern end of the village I discovered that it was totally closed just to my right, just as well I wasn't planning to go that way. It seems there must have been a major incident as there were flashing lights on vehicles everywhere including an ambulance.

I looped around through Medstead and Upper Wield before heading for home and lunch. A modest 20 but very enjoyable miles covered.

Tuesday 20th January.

Simon and I rode to Crawley Pond to join the Pedallers. It was the coldest it had been all winter at -5 deg C. Fortunately the roads were clear of ice as it had been dry yesterday, though Simon was having trouble with his rear brake which had frozen up.

We spotted Barrie ahead of us as we approached Three Maids Hill and caught up with him near Littleton shortly afterwards we discovered Graham at the side of the road, also with frozen brake trouble!

At the RV we met Alan, David & Carol, Chris and after a brief chat Barrie left us to return home and the rest of us set off to go to the Waitrose Farm Shop & Cafe on the Leckford Farm Estate.

I soon found myself alone as the other six all seemed intent on being first to the coffee stop. No matter I plodded along at my own pace and caught up with them as they waited for me in King's Somborne.

Our route was a good one through Houghton, Broughton and the Wallops and the roads were fine except in two places. The first in Middle Wallop where water was spilling onto the road causing a small area of mixed water, ice and slush. The second a larger one on the lane down to Grateley where the water from a couple of large puddles were being splashed onto the road by vehicles with similar results. I'm glad to say we had no problems with either.

A brief pause in Monxton enabled me to woof down an energy bar before he headed South towards Leckford. I was struggling once again to keep up and as it was already gone noon I decided that I could not afford the time for the coffee stop as I needed to be home by three o'clock. So at Fullerton I bid farewell to the others and headed home via Barton Stacey. In Sutton Scotney I popped into the village shop to "get some nuts" to fuel me for the last 12 miles home.

I did manage to get there well before three.

It enjoyed the ride but having spent 5+ hours in the saddle with only short breaks no wonder I felt a little shattered. This was soon put right with a cuppa and a nice hot bath and later a sausage risotto of my own recipe.

Saturday 24th January.

Simon and I had planned to do our own thing and we soon had Sarah and Simon asking if they could join us.

I suggested a ride to Wickham starting at 10 a.m. However when I went out at 9.15 I found the roads to be quite icy in places so I phoned the others and we delayed our start until 11. A wise decision as even then there were still one or two icy patches in the shade.

Our route was very similar to one ridden by Simon and I in October last year with some variations and at least one lane used I'd never ridden before.

We headed to Cheriton on the B road rather than our normal route south through Tichborne, just in case there was ice there.
Up the hill through Kilmeston and over Beacon Hill, our highest point of the day at a little over 600 feet. Sarah as always showing her climbing ability despite her lack of recent miles. The couple of miles downhill to Droxford were covered rapidly apart from a pause just before the village where a horse, pedestrians, cars and cyclists all met!
From Soberton I omitted the hill up to Soberton Heath and took us straight to Newtown. Hoever there was no easy way of avoiding that hill from there to Bere Forest.

We decided to patronise Lillie's Tea & Coffee Shop rather than the pub. A good choice as we had a very good lunch as you can see from these pictures:

Paddy enjoying his salad.

My Hampshire Beef Stew with roasted vegetables.

Sarah had a coronation chicken sandwich with doorstep size slices of granary bread, sorry no picture, she asked me not to publish it!! I though she would never manage it, but she did. Meanwhile Simon was enjoying Sausage and Bubble & Squeak.

Service was a little slow as they were so busy, but we didn't mind, we were in the warm and enjoyed chatting about all manner of things

The sun was still shining brightly when we emerged to take the road hoime. Why are tea shops always at the bottom pof hills?

I chose a route I'd not tried before via Prickett's Hill, High Street & Solomon's Lane to Waltham Heath. On to Swanmore and into Bishop's Waltham where clever dick tried a new route through the town. We found it was as i had warned the others it might be a no through road. Never mind if you don't explore you never find new routes.

We climbed the hill to Ashton lane and thence to the top of Beeches Hill.

Sarah decided she wanted to crack on and headed off with the three of us trailing behind. However by the time we got to the junction with Salt lane I was still only about 200 metres behind her, so wanting to get my average speed above 11 mph I tried to keep her in sight. She pulled away but then she stopped briefly and I closed within a 100 metres. On the hill down through Beauworth I caught and passed her. At the junction of the A272 I said farewell to her again as I waited for the other lads.