Winter riding..thank you Mr Gritter man :)

My new cycle hat!

Got out on the bike today for the first time since ..wow..well before Xmas really. If you remember back a long I was hit bad with some nice funky asthma and as soon as I recovered from that the snow and ice came, so we're probably talking nearly 6 weeks!!!

Anyway, checked out the roads on Tuesday as we had to go into town to pick up some upholstery webbing for the sofa talented husband is building (you will see ALL soon!) and figured the roads were nearly ready to go on again with two wheels.

Apart from having to go up the main village road, rather than cut through the housing estate we usually do, and having to walk gingerly up our new ice rink (or lane as we used to call it) the rest of the ride was fine.
The gritters had done their job and the temp had stayed just above freezing last night so there was no sneaky ice patches waiting to get me.

The COLD lonely road home.

It would have been a lovely ride into town had it not been for some IDIOT in a silver Astra complete with *cough*penisextension*cough* spoiler on the back who very nearly wiped both me AND Kim out. He passed so fast and so close that he nearly pulled me into the road.
Kim kept a beady eye out for his car in town but didn't find him.

We seriously have no trouble on the roads. We know a lot of the people using them, at least to raise a hand to, and 99% of people pass us at a sensible speed and give us space, even without the kids with us. But there is always the idiot. As I said to Kim though, you get the idiot factor when you are in a car as well.

Kim waiting for me to take pics, what a trooper :)

Ce la vie.
What you gonna do? Turn for home and never set foot out your house again? Probably more chance of getting killed in a car crash than getting killed on a bike.

Anyway, idiot aside, we got to town in one piece and I set to my mission.

My plan today was to note down prices for fruit and veg in the local shop and the little farmers cabin and compare them with the supermarket prices.
I'm hoping there will be little to no difference as once I get the trailer up together I want to do as much of our shopping in the little town rather than drive all the way to Big town or have to get it delivered.
The cabin especially uses a lot of local produce so is doubly green!

The basket, part of my arsnel for leg powerd shopping!

So after spending a few minutes scribbling down prices like some demented vegetable spotter, we cycled home again.

Dunnydeer Hill Fort, as seen from the Insch/ Auchleven road.

I was really pleased to feel not that unfit considering.
I didn't need to stop, could still talk while cycling up hill and felt good when I came home.
I do need to get fitter I know I've put on weight, even though me and the scales have not been on speaking terms since before Xmas (my jeans declining to do up though said more than any words could). So back to cycling :)