spring is definitely here!

"Peter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

spring is definitely here.
cycled home after work today without lights.
peter

It certainly is! I done a 12 mile training ride without gloves on in
glorious sunshine today.

John :.)

"Peter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

spring is definitely here.
cycled home after work today without lights.
peter

Sure is. Dropped the car off for it annual 500 quid service + MOT. Then
walked 3 miles home past the LBS where I dropped off my duff Bontrager back
wheel for cone adjustment. Popped in to find it fixed, so carried it home
and put in on the Trek.

Music on the walk was very spring-like from a "new" album from 1971 of an
impossibly rare Dutch group from Utrecht called Unit Gloria.

http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/spring.wma

They were still doing psych stuff in Holland in '71, so this track, "Sense
of
Spring", sounds like it's stuck in 1967! There's one of those old flywheel
powered toy cars at the start of the track I think.

--
Simon Mason
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net

Peter said:

spring is definitely here.
cycled home after work today without lights.
peter

Definitely.
Went over to my favoured LBS this morning (25m away by train) to collect
my son's new bike - a stealth black 'urban' Marin.
I'd ordered it on Friday and they called on Monday to say it was ready
:-)
This afternoon was spent in the garden fixing bottle cages, bar ends and
adjusting size.

His face was a joy to behold when he ecame home and walked into the
sitting room (err, bike shed). Its his first brand new bike, all the
others having cascaded down the family so today was 'special'.
We were soon out riding the local roads - no gloves, no scarves, no big
thick fleecy jackets.

It has been truly a lovely day and full of smiles.

John B

John B <[email hidden]> whizzed past me shouting

Quoted message said:

We were soon out riding the local roads - no gloves, no scarves, no big
thick fleecy jackets.

This morning we saw and heard a skylark - I didn't know they sang in
February.
This afternoon it came on to rain and we got totally soaked.

--
Sue ]|(🙂

Bicycle helmets are really a bit of a scam.
They make most cyclists slightly less safe but there's money in selling them.

Peter said:

spring is definitely here.
cycled home after work today without lights.
peter

And yet, sadly, it's still the middle of winter.

LSMike said:

Peter said:

spring is definitely here.
cycled home after work today without lights.
peter

And yet, sadly, it's still the middle of winter.

Middle of winter, no, but heading over to Glasgow yesterday quite a
bit of new snow on the high tops, and first thing yesterday there
was a fair frost. While it's Snowdrop City in our front garden
right now with spirited support from Team Crocus, last year's
Scottish skiing didn't really happen much until big falls in March.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peter Clinch said:

Middle of winter, no, but heading over to Glasgow yesterday quite a
bit of new snow on the high tops, and first thing yesterday there
was a fair frost. While it's Snowdrop City in our front garden
right now with spirited support from Team Crocus, last year's
Scottish skiing didn't really happen much until big falls in March.

Pete.

When do you think winter runs from and to then? 😉

Yes, I realise that you lot are talking about the weather, not the
season.

LSMike said:

Peter Clinch said:

Middle of winter, no, but heading over to Glasgow yesterday quite a
bit of new snow on the high tops, and first thing yesterday there
was a fair frost. While it's Snowdrop City in our front garden
right now with spirited support from Team Crocus, last year's
Scottish skiing didn't really happen much until big falls in March.

Pete.

When do you think winter runs from and to then? 😉

Technically Pete is correct as the middle of winter was a week or so
ago.

Quoted message said:

Yes, I realise that you lot are talking about the weather, not the
season.

The hills were very nice yesterday. I wasn't cycling as I was taking my
9 and 7 year olds to Schiehallion (in good weather visible from one of
my usual rides.) Blue sky, warm sun and no wind. We got up to the first
cairn, by which time the youngest was rather tired, the wind was just
starting to pick up and the looming clouds in the far east were now
more ominously in the near east. The snow started to fall just after we
crossed the snow line heading down. Chips in Pitlochry for the weans on
the wy home wrapped up a very good day, though my legs are aching form
lack of hill walking.

I didn't see a badger but did see a deer on the Loch Tummel road, which
is now on my list of routes to ride - looks fantastic, even in the
rain.

...d

Quoted message said:

I didn't see a badger but did see a deer on the Loch Tummel road, which
is now on my list of routes to ride - looks fantastic, even in the
rain.

Is there an I-spy Audax? A sliding scale of points for different roadkill,
parts of cars (from hubcap, through bits of tyre and front/rear bumper to
entire cars or a stripped down chassis).

Could be popular - I imagine there'd be a lot of demand for something that
gives points for things other than bstrd steep hills.

LSMike said:

Peter said:

spring is definitely here.
cycled home after work today without lights.
peter

And yet, sadly, it's still the middle of winter.

Look on the bright side, evenings have been getting lighter for nearly
two months :-)

John B

John B <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

LSMike wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Peter said:

spring is definitely here.
cycled home after work today without lights.
peter

And yet, sadly, it's still the middle of winter.

Quoted message said:

Look on the bright side, evenings have been getting lighter for nearly
two months :-)

Quoted message said:

John B

<pedant>

More than two months, actually.

Earliest sunset is usually around 12/13 December.
Sunrise gets later until around the New Year.

<pedant>

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

In article <[email hidden]>, Mark
Thompson (pleasegivegenerously@warmmail*_turn_up_the_heat_to_reply*.com)

Quoted message said:

Is there an I-spy Audax? A sliding scale of points for different roadkill,
parts of cars (from hubcap, through bits of tyre and front/rear bumper to
entire cars or a stripped down chassis).

Could be popular - I imagine there'd be a lot of demand for something that
gives points for things other than bstrd steep hills.

According to Peter Marshall "AUK rules: No brevet card for an event over
100 km will be validated unless the rider (a) has consumed at least one
(1) portion of beans on toast, and (b) has ridden past at least one (1)
dead badger (three dead hedgehogs may be substituted at the discretion
of the Validation Secretary)."

I think this is an idea worth extending :-)

FWIW I only saw one dead badger in the whole of 2005, but have two
already this year.

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
Although the hippopotamus hath no sting in its tail, the wise man would
rather be seated upon the back of a bee.

Dave Larrington said:

FWIW I only saw one dead badger in the whole of 2005, but have two
already this year.

Nono, you're supposed to save them for a cold winter, not when spring's
on the way.

R.

in message <[email hidden]>,

LSMike (') said:

Peter said:

spring is definitely here.
cycled home after work today without lights.
peter

And yet, sadly, it's still the middle of winter.

No, definitely not. I did another 20 miles today (making 56 this week,
which seeing I'm only ten days out of the brace seems pretty good to me)
and it was gorgeous out there. Bright, warm sun, birds gathering nesting
materials, masses of snowdrops and crocuses in blossom, hazels and
willow in catkin, and daffodils in bud everywhere.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; An enamorata is for life, not just for weekends.

in message <[email hidden]>,

LSMike (') said:

Peter Clinch said:

Middle of winter, no, but heading over to Glasgow yesterday quite a
bit of new snow on the high tops, and first thing yesterday there
was a fair frost. While it's Snowdrop City in our front garden
right now with spirited support from Team Crocus, last year's
Scottish skiing didn't really happen much until big falls in March.

When do you think winter runs from and to then? 😉

Yes, I realise that you lot are talking about the weather, not the
season.

Well, Peter and I are in Scotland, so December and January. In Iceland,
summer starts in just six weeks time (10th, I think, of April). But I
appreciate that winter lasts longer further south.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; making jokes about dyslexia isn't big, it isn't clever and
;; it isn't furry.

Simon Brooke said:

in message <[email hidden]>,

LSMike (') said:

And yet, sadly, it's still the middle of winter.

No, definitely not. I did another 20 miles today (making 56 this week,
which seeing I'm only ten days out of the brace seems pretty good to me)
and it was gorgeous out there. Bright, warm sun, birds gathering nesting
materials, masses of snowdrops and crocuses in blossom, hazels and
willow in catkin, and daffodils in bud everywhere.

The winter season starts at the winter solstice and ends with the
vernal equinox, so not perfectly the middle of winter, but it's pretty
close.

LSMike said:

The winter season starts at the winter solstice and ends with the
vernal equinox, so not perfectly the middle of winter, but it's pretty
close.

Not by everyone's reckoning. Jul was never about celebrating the
/start/ of the winter...

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

in message <[email hidden]>,

LSMike (') said:

Simon Brooke said:

in message <[email hidden]>,

LSMike (') said:

And yet, sadly, it's still the middle of winter.

No, definitely not. I did another 20 miles today (making 56 this week,
which seeing I'm only ten days out of the brace seems pretty good to
me) and it was gorgeous out there. Bright, warm sun, birds gathering
nesting materials, masses of snowdrops and crocuses in blossom, hazels
and willow in catkin, and daffodils in bud everywhere.

The winter season starts at the winter solstice and ends with the
vernal equinox, so not perfectly the middle of winter, but it's pretty
close.

Winter can't /start/ on midwinter's day. That's a logical impossibility.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

The Conservative Party now has the support of a smaller proportion of
the electorate in Scotland than Sinn Fein have in Northern Ireland.

Simon Brooke said:

Quoted message said:

The winter season starts at the winter solstice and ends with the
vernal equinox, so not perfectly the middle of winter, but it's pretty
close.

Winter can't /start/ on midwinter's day. That's a logical impossibility.

I was also surprised to learn this, but it's confirmed in lots of
places. This offset from what seems logical does end up matching the
seasons fairly well, IMO.

Summer: summer solstice to autumnal equinox
Autumn: autumnal equinox to winter solstice
Winter: winter solstice to vernal equinox
Spring: vernal equinox to summer solstice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/earth/solsticescience.shtml