Advent Day Ten - waking up to winter

Happy fingers

Advent Day Ten – waking up in winter

What a lucky find those glove/mittens were yesterday, as this morning it was -1º outside and 8.6º in our unheated bedroom. A mist shrouded the village for most of the morning, obscuring the sun and keeping the temperature down. This cosmic shift into winter meant a few changes of routine and I have to admit to flicking the switch for the heating before we’d had our breakfast, rather than during the cheaper rate electricity at lunchtime.

 

The weather put a stop to cycling to the Christmas market as planned, as that would have been foolish, and no one needs an incident just before Christmas. Instead, I busied myself with a bit of housework to keep warm and as the bed was stripped, it seemed only sensible to put the electric blanket on too. That should make things nice and cosy later on. I also found the time to switch my summer clothes for winter clothes, which meant falling in love again with my fleecy-lined trousers – thank you Decathlon once more. 

Mini and I in our almost matching jumpers

 

Mini is almost fifteen and although she spends most of her time curled up and snoring on a bed of fleece blankets (on the sofa), she does now suffer when it’s cold. One of the other things we found when shopping yesterday was a jumper for Mini. This will mainly be for car journeys, but we couldn’t resist trying it for size, and for a dog that isn’t too keen on being faffed with, she seemed quite happy in her pink jumper with a shiny bone motif.

A fresh 31km bike ride

 

Luckily the sun came out this afternoon, so it was off with the fleecy trousers and on with the merino wool layers as we set off for a thirty-kilometre bike ride. It was a fresh and invigorating ride and there was still ice in places, but the colours in the setting sun were superb. I’m delighted to report that the new glove/mittens kept the Reynaud’s at bay and the fingers nice and toasty. I’m also now only sixty-five kilometres away from reaching five-thousand-kilometres this year, so fingers crossed I should be able to achieve that. It is a thousand less than I would have liked, but it’s been a year where things other than cycling have had to take priority. At least most of my commutes to the Château were on the bike and even though it’s only eight kilometres from home, I cycled a total of one thousand, four hundred and seventy-one commuting kilometres this year. That is quite a saving in fuel.

 

I know it’s been cold in the UK today too, so I hope wherever you are, you are toasty and warm, and these three silly photos of me have put a smile on your face.