Saturday 14 October 2023

Saturday 14 October 2023 - Autumn fruits

It's a busy month, leaders and riders have limited Saturdays available for riding.  Thus we had a mixed group today, the Further Faster element wrapped up warm and enjoyed going a bit more slowly, the Fabulous went a little bit faster and, ahem, a bit further that usual.  And were also wrapped up warm, temperature has dropped, but it was beautifully sunny.

From our start point in Fleetville the seven of us headed over to Jersey Lane.  As you do, we helped a couple of riders we met along the way - one of them had dropped their chain and it was stuck between the smallest cog and the drop-out. Taking the wheel out did the trick, and they were soon on their way again.

The haws were bright red and plentiful in the hedge as we headed along from Sandridge on the track to Nomansland.  On closer inspection, there are big sloes in there too.  Usually we try and feature apples in our October outing, and we knew that apple crumble cake was on the counter at West End Barns...
and here it is, with Vicky happy to serve a slice in a takeaway box on request, since the slice is quite large, and might be too much all at once. We can report that the cake is delicious, lots of apple, light and moist, and of course crumbly in places.  Vicky was kind enough to take the group photo too...

We headed back along Drovers Lane, and from Sandridge we were shedding riders - two headed for home via Jersey Lane, the rest of us pootled along Sandridgebury Lane and down the Old Harpenden Road to the Ancient Briton, where we scuttled across on the green man rather than contend with heavy traffic.  Two more headed west from here, the remaining trio headed clockwise on the Green Ring.
This is a lovely section, through Bernards Heath, and we paused to contemplate the site of the heaviest fighting during the second Battle of St Albans on 17th February 1461.  We wended our way down Boundary Road, the Sandpit Lane wastes and were delighted to find that the link between Lemsford Road and Jennings Road was being given a very thorough sweep by a couple of chaps in orange overalls.  Whoop, well done, all the mulch and cack removed.  Good to see active travel infrastructure getting some maintenance.

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