Fox: 1 Cyclist: 0

 

 

Badly bruised, strained shoulder, no bones broken. mild concussion.

 

Cold, solid tarmac is very hard at 10 mph.

I hope the fox has a headache.

The moon on the sea?

 

 

No, not the moon on the sea, it is the moon reflected in the field at the side of the road. There is always a bald patch in the crops here and now you can see why.

Not the time and place to have a puncture.

 

 

 

But then, I suppose there is no convenient time and place to have a puncture except, perhaps, in your nice warm shed equipped with a bicycle repair stand and all your tools.

Just in case it is not apparent, the white stuff on the lane is frozen snow charmingly spread on a layer of ice, punctuated by solid ice puddles and gaily decorated with random stretches of black ice.

Roll on Summer!

Last one in bed, switch off the light.

 

 Or do sheep always sleep with the light on?

 

I bought a new alarm clock.

 

 

I bought a new alarm clock to replace my current clock which was almost apologetic in its function and really did not want to awaken me. It made an electronic beep which could easily have been a chaffinch chirping about one hundred yards distant.

So I purchased a clock with a proper bell on it. In keeping with the functioning of the old clock, the delivery person deposited the box in my front porch and then stole away without signalling his delivery. I suppose he was also unwilling to awaken me.

Or was he embarrased by the size of the box that Ikea had used?

Snow's gone.

 But it leaves a lot of water behind.

First flutter of snow this year

Stinging snow in my face at Stelling Minnis but a little more gentle once I had turned out of the snow-laden southerly wind and the sun had started to rise.

 

Radio mast at dawn.

 Relaying your telephone calls, night and day.

Passport Portraits of Yesteryear no.49

Continuing the series of passport portraits in my collection.

Peruse and wonder.

Nicola Simitchi is a forty two year old post office employee from Serbia. In June 1914, one of his fellow countrymen, a student called Gavril Princip, assassinated the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, precipitating another conflict with Austria which quickly developed into the Great War.

It is now 1916 and the Serbian army has been beaten, allowing the Central Powers to open up their desired supply line through Serbia and Montenegro to their allies in the Ottoman Empire. It is at this point that Nicola Simitchi, who is living in the town of Gap in southern France, changes his dinars into francs in Marseille and buys a ticket on a ship which takes him to Rome in June.

A new year in Tenterden

 

 

An understated end to the old year in Tenterden High Street.

Calm and deserted. 

Perhaps it is trying to slip away unnoticed.

 

I did not hear the usual midnight bells on St. Mildred's Church welcoming the new year.

 

Let's all hope that 2021 decides to improve as it becomes older.

 

It has plenty of scope.