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Tiny Moments #111 - in the place of fallen leaves

Another literary pilgrimage on today’s ride as I head up Great Haldon from the Teign valley, through the village of Trusham. It is never named as such, but Trusham is the village at the centre of Tim Pears’ exquisite novel ‘In the Place of Fallen Leaves’; surely one of the finest Devon-set novels ever. As I pass the tiny Alms Houses and the red telephone box I’m aware both of the time that has passed since I have ridden here (a check on my records when I get home suggests it is nearly two and a half years) and since I last read the book. Perhaps it is time to revisit it. It would certainly be a delicious pleasure.

 

Tiny Moments #110 - The Levels

There are numerous reasons why I have never ridden on the Somerset Levels. Mostly they are to do with them being just a touch too far for a day ride out and back from home and then, in the year and a bit since I’ve been able to drive, they are just a touch too close to make it seem like a proper destination. This is a faintly ridiculous state of affairs, particularly since I have held the place in such high romantic standing for just shy of 30 years after reading Peter Benson’s perfect debut novel (fittingly titled simple ‘The Levels’). Today I finally make good on the promise I made to myself all those years ago and as I pass through villages and along drove roads I am seduced by the oh-so-familiar names. Curry Rivel; Langport; Westonzoyland; Chedzoy (a place in reality, the name of a farmer in the novel, though I imagine it is actually both); the river Parrett (alongside which I ride for a while along a path imaginatively named ‘Riverside’).

 

The Levels is, as its name suggests, a flat, open and windswept place. Clouds file in from the south west, dark and menacing. The rain starts as I turn onto Rugg’s Drove and as it turns to a deluge I berate myself for choosing a brand new pair of white socks for the ride. Some blue sky can be seen just to the north and eventually my route turns in that direction. By the time I reach Cheddar and start climbing the gorge however it is in glorious sunshine. Rain returns for Glastonbury (along with an untimely puncture) whilst a closed road into Langport (I mostly walk through the tarmac laying on a gravelly footpath) is the piece de resistance before I manage to roll back into the car park at Muchelney Abbey.

 

It’s all worth it though. 

 

 

Shadows

Always the fool for love and its deceptions< click those words to download the mix. That ain't no deception

No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal - The Apartments (from 'No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal' LP. Bandcamp. YouTube)
It's Harvest Time - Michael Head & The Strands (from 'The Magical World of The Strands' LP. YouTube)
Venus - Reverieme (from 'Or Else The Light' LP. Bandcamp)
Break the Chain - Ultimate Painting (from 'Green Lanes' LP)
Shadows - The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience (from 'I Like Rain: The story of The Jean Paul Sartre Experience' boxset. Bandcamp)
Always - Red Sleeping Beauty (from 7" single. Soundcloud. <track not included in mix download>)
Byron (Anniv. Remix) - Aberdeen (free download. Bandcamp)
There's a Girl In the Corner - Robert Smith (YouTube)
Capturer - Frankie Broyles (from 7" single. Bandcamp)
Eccleshill - Gurgles (from 'Gurglefirst' LP. Bandcamp)
Big Sleeping House - Microdisney (from 'The Crooked Mile' LP)
California Owls - Death and Vanilla (from 'To Where The Wild Things Are' LP. Bandcamp. YouTube)
Washing Machine - Moon City Boys (from 7" single. Bandcamp)
Good On The Inside (I Don't Mind) - Sleuth (from 'Out Of The Blue Period' LP. Bandcamp)
Halfway Up A Hill - Day Ravies (from 'Liminal Zones' LP. Bandcamp)
Postcards - Mammoth Penguins (from 'Hide and Seek' LP)
Maybe Baby - Love L.U.V. (digital single. Bandcamp)
New Something - Camera Shy (from 'Camera Shy' LP. Bandcamp)
Jelly and Jam - Legends Of Country (from 'Talk About Country' LP. Bandcamp)

with a pizza and a couple of cans of London Pride

Tiny Moments #109 - Hail

The forecast said sun, then sunny intervals, then finally rain at around 1pm. To be fair, the Met Office forecasts are usually almost eerily accurate. But not today. As I climb into Great Malvern at around half ten I’m riding into cloud. There is light precipitation on the descent towards Ledbury. By the feed station at 82km it has been raining heavily for a while and I am already thoroughly soaked. After the briefest of pauses to refill a bottle, devour a couple of gels and get rid of rubbish, I’m back on the road in torrents of almost biblical proportions. Then just when I think it can’t get any nastier the rain turns to hail and my skin stings from the battering. Still, bad weather is nothing if not a great motivator and I have my hands on the drops and my eye on the scattered figures ahead on the road. One by one I catch and pass them. I would be lying if I said this did not give me pleasure that significantly offsets the pain. Plus, rules #5 and #9.

 

 

Tiny Moments #108 - fugs

This morning was good. I went to town, got a haircut, drank a free coffee in Boston Tea Party and finished off reading Willy Vlautin’s excellent new novel ‘The Free’. On returning home I even trimmed some of the Brazilian Jasmine from the side of the house. Odd then that after lunch I felt myself descending into one of those end-holidays-in-sight fugs. Thankfully C was determined to go out for a swim and so I somehow managed to drag my sorry ass off the armchair and get out on the bike. Before heading out I said “I’ll just ride gently for an hour or so” but by Cowley Bridge my legs are spinning nicely so I put in a bit more of an effort all around the 30km circuit. And despite the humidity and the muddy lanes splattering my beautiful bike, it feels great. 

 

 

Tiny Moments #107 - cool head

Today is the first ride sans casquette under my helmet in several years. My now old helmet (a Giro Ionos, since you ask) had such an effective ventilation system that air seemed to be accelerated and directed at my temples with such velocity that I got ice-cream headaches after a few minutes of riding. Even on hot days. I admit that the solution of the casquette was a stylish one, though it did hamper me somewhat when getting aero on descents. Thankfully my new helmet (a Giro Synthe in case you were wondering) suffers from none of the over-ambitious venting and, with chin perched perilously close to stem and arse in the air, my downhill position now allows me to keep an eye on the road ahead rather than the underside of a peak. This, of course, is a Good Thing.

 

Tiny Moments #106 - hedge cutting

They’ve been hedge cutting out in the lanes and the puncture pixies have been out in force scattering thorny detritus along the roadside. I ride on the crown and cross my fingers. 

 

Tiny Moments #105 - stretch limos

On the run down to Bickleigh I’m passed by an enormous, white stretch limo. It is as long as a small truck and I idly wonder how it will negotiate the notoriously tricky bridge over the Exe in the centre of the village. It occurs to me too that they are a dying breed these stretch limos. There used to be an ageing pink stretch Cadillac at the entrance to a wreckers’ yard in Crediton but now I think of it I do not recall seeing it when I cycled through earlier. Nor can I even remember one arriving at our school prom this year. Perhaps they are a dying breed. They will not be mourned if so.

 

Tiny Moments #104 - festival

Festival day has come to Minehead and the sea front road is closed to traffic. Very slowly I weave my way through the thronging crowds and out to the much quieter harbour beach. The prevalence of Midlands accents is remarkable. From my perch by the sea wall I devour a couple of energy bars whilst a group of parachutists descend gracefully from the skies, trailing long plumes of orange smoke.

 

Tiny Moments #103 - rush hour

Rising through Exeter at what amounts to its afternoon rush hour I am gratified by the number of people apparently commuting by bicycle. And yet, perversely, a great number of them seem to be spending their time sat in the midst of queues of cars. Sure one of the main points of riding a bicycle to work is to avoid such frustrating wastes of time? Perplexed, I pedal smoothly up the outside of a tailback, like a domestic bringing my sprinter to the front of a multi-coloured peloton.