Ayot St Lawrence

I am unable to cycle at the moment because of heavy snowfalls so I will show you a couple of photographs  I have taken of the village of Ayot St Lawrence, which is just 4 miles from where I live. It was the home of George Bernard Shaw the playwright until 1950 and his house is now owned by the National Trust and is named Shaw's Corner.  One of the features is a hut in the garden which can be revolved to enable GBS, as he was known to get maximum light from the sun. The church is disused and a more recent one stands in a meadow quite nearby.

A couple of wintry scenes

I see by my stats that there are some bloggers who live in parts of the world where they don't get any snow so I have put a couple for them to see. Apologies to English, Scottish and Irish people who have seen too much snow.

A Horsey Tale

This morning, riding along a quiet country lane, I was confronted by a riderless runaway horse. I had to make up my mind whether to stop it or avoid it. The horse, being much bigger than me, I decided to avoid it. It went by at considerable speed, followed by a young lady calling out the horse's name which, by the way, was Jack. Jack took no notice and went on its way, the young lady, eventually running out of breath, gave up the pursuit. She was followed some moments later by the lady who had fallen off. All ended well, however as the horse (Jack) found its way to its stable on his own, the lady who parted company with Jack, apart from a smattering of mud on her clothes, was unharmed, and the young lady who was in hot pursuit will probably be in the running for a place in the Olympic 100 metres event. With that peace descended on the Hertfordshire lanes and on a pleasant sunny morning I completed a nice 12 mile ride home.

The Inuit man with reindeer

It is very cold in the UK at the moment so pity this Inuit man with his reindeer at Norway's North Cape that I visited earlier this year. The scenery was wonderful though.

Cold winter's day

Because of the icy lanes today I had to abandon the bicycle and go for a walk on a disused railway line now used as a Sustrans cycleway to Luton in Bedfordshire. I came across these hardy golfers in an adjoining golf course, which begs the question how do they find their golf balls in the snow!

Village of Codicote

Today, with a dusting of snow on the ground, I went for a short ride to the village of Codicote, which has some interesting buildings. Hope you enjoy them. The Tudor period was from 1485 until 1602. Miles covered: 16.

Ride to Stevenage

Today, as the dark mornings are arriving, I had a short ride to the comparatively new town of Stevenage which, when it was planned, had the good foresight to install a cycle track around the town with signposted exits for various areas of the town. There is a man-made park there called Fairlands Valley which a small boating lake and and yachting centre where young people learn to sail small dinghies. I met members of the cycling club I belong to, the Verulam Cycling Club, based in St Albans. We had a nice group of about 12 riders and took a country route home via Aston End, a nice village within a mile of the main town. The previous evening the club had its annual dinner where prizes for the winners of races  were presented. It was a late night with a disco, which is not for me at 81 years of age but the young people enjoy it which is great.
As the daylight hours get shorter in November I will try to let you have some information on the various sights and places of interest in and around Wheathampstead.  Best wishes and get that bike out. Total milege today: 31.