Loanhead Pit Pony.

For only the fourth time in the past year, and I’m surprised it’s that many, I went out on the cycle club run and, such is my current fitness, it was only with great difficulty that I managed to keep up. Now I need to repeat the exertions to prepare myself for some energetic holidays planned for this year.
 
There are some members of the club who are obsessed with ensuring that they are adequately hydrated; consequently, we always have to stop within 5 miles of the start at a public toilet (this even applies if there is a toilet at the start. According to my rudimentary knowledge of human physiology, the combustion products of both carbohydrates and fats used by muscles to produce energy are: carbon dioxide and water. In the warm summer months the water is useful since it reduces, though doesn’t remove, the need to drink. There are even people who pour brine down their throats while waiting for the ride to start on the assumption that they need to avoid running out of salt as well as water. In the depths of winter when the gentlemen are not perspiring, and the ladies aren’t glowing, this water goes directly to the bladder – hence the need for today’s stop in Loanhead. There is one advantage to this behaviour, while the loo queue is stretching around the car park, I have the opportunity to grab a Blip or two.
 
The picture is of what purports to be a pit pony with a miner and his son, a commemoration of the town’s mining heritage. I have Blipped it before with Mrs TD looking over my shoulder tut-tutting that the conformation of the animal is wrong; however, I like it and tried this different viewpoint and treatment. It’s a rather interesting effect provided that I don’t over-use it.