Bartimaeus

After months of changeable weather, there has been a spell of bright and sometimes warm weather.  The annual progression of spring flowers continues with primroses appearing already.

Work on Bartimaeus has been progressing.  The new skin tank under the cabin floor took more work than originally expected, but now seems to be complete, or very nearly so.  We've seen pictures of work in progress, and been party to exchanges of emails, but we've been leaving the experts to get on with it.

The next milestone was moving Bartimaeus outside for the first time since October.  This will allow full access to complete the blacking of the hull, and permit the fork-lift to deliver the generator in to the engine bay.  We still don't have a confirmed date for returning to the water.  I have now been offered a once per lifetime appointment (for the Scottish Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening Programme) in mid-April, and expect we'll still be around for that.

The picture of Bartimaeus out in the sunshine also shows off the new windows in the rear doors.  We are sure kingfishers have landed on our tiller in the past, in future, we'll have a chance of seeing them.

Sally and I chose one of the best days of the year to explore a variant of the route to St Andrews I did with Kenny a few weeks ago.  We started with a train to Cameron Bridge and joined a cycle path at the exit to the car park.  As I'd hoped, this joined to a quiet railway path which took us close to the entrance to Kennoway Den.  This path winds up beside the river, allowing us to completely bypass a busy road through the town.

We emerged on to a road at the top of the hill and contoured round to join the route of the annual Edinburgh to St Andrews Ride, which we had both ridden many times.  We got a warm welcome and an excellent lunch at the Village Cafe in Ceres.  We diverted from the route at Pitscottie to follow the Ceres Burn towards the Eden valley.

Sally wondered why we had never included this pretty glen in the route for the ride.  The 100m climb around the next corner was a clear enough answer.  On the charity ride, this would have been unwelcome after more than sixty miles in the saddle.

We crossed back over the centre of Fife before plunging down to the south coast at Lower Largo and along the coast to Leven, still in sunshine.

Yesterday was also promising to be warm and sunny.  I persuaded Clare to come out on the tandem.  She hasn't been cycling much for a while, so I planned accordingly.  We started by getting the train to Longniddry, so that we could explore some different roads, starting with the cycle track to Haddington.  I'd thought we might want a coffee stop here, but instead Clare took a look around an art and craft exhibition while I sat in the sunshine.  I was surprised to see crocuses in bloom along the river - in Edinburgh they are all past.

We cycled on to East Linton making good speed with the wind behind us.  We overtook a number of other cyclists, but we weren't matching the pace of the hare running in the field to the side.

When we arrived at the cafe, we got a very warm welcome from one of the other diners.  He was delighted to see our tandem and told us that he used to be a racing cyclist himself, and had dragged his wife around on their tandem.

After lunch I took us along a lane that I knew would take us past Preston Mill.  I had often seen this interesting building in the past, but to my surprise the waterwheel at the mill was turning.  We were just in time to join a tour of the mill which was very enjoyable.

The last leg of the ride took us to North Berwick to get a train home.  We had just enough time to get a drink at a cafe before heading for the station.  The tandem doesn't need to be split on this line, so we were easily able to get on.  I was glad we had done so early though.  By the time we reached Edinburgh there had been at least another dozen bikes on board.

We cycled home from the station still in sunshine.  Crossing the Meadows, it was clear that the barbecue season had begun already.  Sadly the forecast is for sleet before the middle of next week.  I'm glad we took the chance to get out in the sunshine when we could.