Saturday, February 06, 2010

A wet, cold, muddy exhilarating bike ride

I've been wanting to get back out on my bike for the last week or so, and this morning - unusually for a Saturday - I woke up full of beans and determined to get out before Hagos and I went into town for brunch. It was so amazing to be out in the fresh air as the countryside whizzed by. I'm really looking forward to spring and summer.
After we'd had lunch at Frank's Bar (again) Hagos and I went our separate ways to shop, before meeting back at the car to come home again. I wanted to spend some time in the library looking for all things Martin Amis*, but I took a detour down a street that had an Oxfam shop on it, and in the window were a load of Ladybird books. I've long wished my very generous mother had kept my books and toys instead of giving them away, so I was really excited to come across this version of Sleeping Beauty, that I had as a kid.
I was trying to get a photo of the bride at the end, which I thought was beautiful at the time, but my ever-present 'helper' had to stand on it, as she stands or sits on everything I do. She is gorgeous though.

*Martin Amis has just published The Pregnant Widow, his first fiction book in seven years. I read Time's Arrow a few years ago and really loved it, and I read his memoir, Experience, too, and I dip in and out of The War Against Cliche, but I haven't read any other of his fiction, and I really want to read The Pregnant Widow, based on several interviews I've seen and read with him recently. So I got several of his books out of the library today and will make my way through them. I think I might still have to order his latest from my friends at Amazon though.

1 comment:

Hilde said...

Wet and could, yes, but it still looks like spring at your place. Here it is snow, and we are going out skiing tomorrow.