I was welcomed to the 5 am club with the sound of my alarm to get ready for an early start. It was too early, even for the cat. I parked up at the supermarket and made for a leisurely ride to make the most of that last day of warm sunshine for a while. Riding up to the airfield, I was struck by the marmalade hue of the rising sun penetrating the mist hugging the ground, gloriously announcing another clear day. A well known song played on repeat in my head

With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
(Apologies John and Paul and George and Ringo)
After I stopped to take the photo above (filters added later) I didn’t restart my Strava so robbed myself of some extra km as I made my way around the gravel of the airfield perimeter before dropping down the the A414 and reality. It was busy, very busy. I hadn’t waited that long to cross it since before the C word changed things.
When work finished or at least when I was finished with work, I played with summer one last time for the year. If I was done a little earlier, I would have taken in some of the trails but country lanes would have to do as I had boys to collect from school. So long summer and thank you September, you’ve been special. Now it’s time to reorganise the winter clothing, find those gloves and steel myself for the cold months to come.
Looked at the car this morning and realised I din’t want to scrape the ice, so took my bike, and quickly realised I should not have left my gloves behind.