A Day Out on the Saddle

Hallelujah, we got the sun back again today. Ok, it wasn't shining from a deep blue sky, there was always a slight haze, but it was perfect cycling weather, warm enough for a short sleeved cycling jersey without armfuls of goosebumps.

We hitched the bikes onto the back of the car and took them past Musselburgh to beat the traffic heading towards the coast and then repeated our cycle run of last Sunday but adding in the hamlet of Bolton to our route before sweeping in to Haddington where I was hoping to meet up with a CTC run meant to be picnicking beside the River Tyne at St Mary's Church.

Without finding any familiar faces we picnicked alone, Lord and Lady no mates, but isn't it amazing how magic peanut butter and jam sandwiches can taste in the open air when you're hungry.

With the sun shining on the water, the seagulls wheeling and the weeping willows along the bank in their very latest finery drooping to the river, we could have stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, had we not got an appointment in Edinburgh just after 3 pm.

And so, reluctantly we turned the bikes homewards and pedalled back on quiet country roads where no cars passed and all we could hear was birdsong and the swish of tyres on tarmac with a vista of ploughed fields and a haze of green on the trees about to burst into bud.

It's not often there is such a good day to be out on bikes in the countryside.