Downtime
Take a rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.
As usual, others probably noticed that I needed some time off before I did. With the benefit of hindsight I can recognise I was becoming increasingly withdrawn and disappearing into myself – which was made all the easier with the continued working from home / living at work situation. I was snacking more, eating chocolate (which is rare for me) and having an extra drink or three of an evening more frequently – all warning signals I’ll need to watch out for in future.
Taking this time coincided with the school holidays in Scotland, the Tour de France and Euro 2020. That aside, I had no plans other than pottering around the house, tinkering with my bikes, and tackling the garden.
I did manage to fit in bit of exploring with an overnighter in the Pentlands on the Thieves Road; something that I’ve wanted to do for a while now. The climb up to Cauldstane Slap from Little Vantage was a struggle on the gravel bike but, to be honest, I doubt I actually have the skills to have ridden it were I on my hardtail anyway.
I was lucky with the weather for the most part with some scorchingly sunny days. That ended abruptly this weekend with torrential rain, hail, and thunderstorms which led to some major flooding across the city, the likes of which I’ve never previously seen. To cap it off, there’s a haar creeping in that would make John Carpenter proud. I hope this isn’t some kind of harbinger of the week ahead…