Dry autumn days are possibly my favourite time to go for wanderings on my mountain bike.  Last weekend I headed into the Forest of Dean (as usual), but decided to make an effort to find some bits I've not previously explored.

cliché photo 1: bike leaning on something

I dug out my trusty Cycling Guides map, and decided on the "Forest Adventurer" Blakeney loop, starting from Mallards Pike.  Plus whatever extra bits I felt like adding on afterwards, which turned out to be a slightly scenic route to Cinderford (one detour intentional, another not so much), then along the road through the town, and back to the start via the linear park and straight over/along whatever hill it is there. Strava version here, though for some reason my phone gps got confused and cut the end off.

cliché photo 2: piles of logs, with added fungus

Lots of wildlife about too.  As well as the usual dogs being walked, I saw two deer, several squirrels, and hundreds/thousands of crunchy looking black beetles. Must be peak time of year for them.  Didn't spot any boar, though there's plenty of evidence of their existence (ie destruction)

cliché photo 3: reflections

The trees around Mallards Pike are green and yellows rather than full on autumn oranges/reds.  Nearly a mirror reflection, apart from ripples from a few ducks and an enthusiastic dog!

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So, perhaps inevitably, I failed miserably at blogging every day in September.

Actually, I take that back.  It wasn't a 'miserable' failure - I averaged one post every two days overall.  Most of which I count as proper content.  Best I've managed for a long time!

I've been blogging for many years now - on this domain and previous ones - and what I use it for has changed hugely over that time.  I remember when "weblog" was still a brand new word.
I've gone from geeky updates as I taught myself coding/websites, to comments on news/current events, to general stressed out venting about life, the universe, and everything. (only a small proportion of my vast archives are currently public, haha)

Then facebook came along and I found myself using that for day to day updates, because it was more convenient and all my friends were already there.

Over the last few years I've settled into a lifestyle with several time consuming hobbies, meaning priorities have changed and website updates have got less frequent.  And more delayed, because I was finding myself held up by a backlog of photos.

Photo galleries are currently on hold, partly because the system I wrote many years ago isn't great any more, but mostly because it's just too time consuming to try and sort through all the pictures I take.  Also time consuming (and boring?) for someone to click through them all...

Trying to post something daily was tough.  And not just because of a lack of spare time!  I had no desire to resort to "blogging for the sake of blogging" and fill my database with pointless posts about what my favourite flavour of crisps is.  I mean, I posted before and after photos of tidying my desk ffs.  Definite low point.

So, my website focus for the time being is a bit more "lifestyle".  No point taking millions of pictures of the places I visit and things I do if I'm not even trying to share them with the world

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After Saturday's run, the grounds of Highnam Court remained open for a few hours for runners/spectators to enjoy at a more leisurely pace.

Aisling had visited the Holy Innocents Church while we were running, and liked it so much she dragged the rest of us in for a look too.  Pretty much every bit of the interior is beautifully decorated, and I failed to take photos of any of it.

Then we walked though the gardens, roughly following the first half of the running route.

the house and orangery

There are a lot of carved wooden animal/bird sculptures dotted around the place.  I'd been pointing them out when running so it was nice to stop and have a proper look.  Some are free standing, and some are carved into branches of living trees.

Running the first lap I'd only noticed one of the boar piglets.  They're right next to each other so I'm not quite sure how that happened - obviously I was "in the zone".  Or something.

Other carvings included more birds, a bear, a fox, otters, fish, mushrooms... etc etc. When I have a giant house and garden, I will have similarly cool things.

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