We were offered a fine morning with light winds so the sensible thing to do would be for me to get going as soon after breakfast as possible if I wanted a good bike ride. To the amazement of both Mrs Tootlepedal and myself, I was out of the house and cycling up the road towards Hawick by ten o'clock.
The downside was that in spite of the sun, it was still pretty chilly at the time, but I was wrapped up well, and even the sight of the moon still in the sky above Potholm Hill...
didn't cast a damper over my enthusiasm. A little autumn colour along the way kept me cheerful too..
and I got to the head of the Ewes valley in good order to enjoy one of my favourite views.
It was a lovely day...
and I pedalled on up to Mosspaul and then down the other side of the hill, following the course of the River Teviot towards Hawick.
The rather curious monument to Henry Scott Riddell, the bard of Teviothead, stood out prominently on the hill to my left on the far side of the river.
And below me, a shiny new bridge crossed the river.
My target for the day was Branxholme, twenty miles north of Langholm and when I got there, I stopped for a banana and a view of the river.
When I looked down, I found that I was surrounded by dandelion-like flowers and I had to look hard to find one that didn't have insects or bees on.
t Branxholme, I was at 125m, roughly 50m higher above sea level than I had been when I started out from Langholm, so although I had to climb back over the hill at Mosspaul at 262m, I had more downhill than up on my way home. This is always welcome.
As I had already looked at the scenery on my way out, I put my mind to cycling on the way back and only stopped for one more autumn colour picture on the way, and that was in sight of the sign welcoming me to Langholm.
Although it was a working day and there was a fair amount of traffic on the road, there were enough gaps between the busy moments to make the ride seem quite calm and the gentle gradients made for steady pedalling so I thoroughly enjoyed the outing.
And I got home in perfect time for lunch. The weather in October has been kind to cycling so far. I hope that this continues.
I took a walk round the garden when I got back before I ate my soup with bread and cheese.
