It’s getting to that time of year again when you notice that it doesn’t stay light until bed time and farmers are working round the clock to bring in the first of the cereal crop harvests.

Straw Bale

I must say that I rather like the change from Summer into Autumn…it’s like Nature breathes out and relaxes.

I love the changing colours; the slight chill in the air that makes cycling even more enjoyable; the pub lunches by a log fire. Crows cawing over freshly ploughed fields; Autumn’s perfume…and the light!!

I’ve got an iPhone…it’s not the best phone in the world (the aerial seems particularly poor at getting a good signal) and I’m not one of these people who downloads all kinds of Apps…but one did catch my eye — Hipstamatic.

Caffè Nero

This App tries to mimic the old style films/processes of days gone by…slightly ironic maybe. It’s a fun App, but it also adds a certain…something…to pictures that you take using the iPhone.

Mooring Ring

Now, any of the photos in this post, I could have taken with a digital camera and produced the same results using Photoshop or some other image editing program…but with Hipstamatic, it’s so damn easy!

Bus Stop

Some time ago, my boat was hit by another…a hire boat. It was a hell of a collision, so I phoned the hire company up and reported it and we agreed on a sum for the damage caused. Anyway, I decided to get off my arse and go and pick up the cheque this weekend. So I cycled up to Napton.

Grand Union/South Oxford Junction

‘Tis there that the Grand Union and South Oxford canals meet. The Grand Union superseded the Oxford as a more direct, and therefore quicker, route to London — it is also a wide-beam canal, so the locks are double width…with interesting paddle raising architecture.

Paddle Raising

I thought I’d explore up the GU for a little while…and then came upon the National Cycle Network Route 41.

NCN Route 41

This part of the route follows a dismantled railway line, and I couldn’t resist taking a couple of pictures on the old railway bridge!

Disused Railway Bridge

The Trusty Steed

If only more dismantled railway lines could be used for cycle networks — they are ideal because the gradients are never very steep. Unfortunately, when most of these lines were decommissioned and ripped up, the car was seen as the way forward, so many old lines were built over, which is a real shame when you see routes like this:

NCN Route 41

Now “car is king” most public transport has declined.

Abandoned Bus Stop

Loss

.

Feelings Outside in — To A…

You burst into my life like fresh water spring gushing
out into the driest desert
And showed me a love that was so high that it could
touch the clouds as they breezed by,
It was so wide that it could reach from one side of the
ocean to the other, so strong that like the mighty oak,
it could not be swayed
It was so vast that space could not contain it, so
beautiful that even the butterfly was uncomfortable to
open its wings next to it…

But however much I desired it, it was not mine to keep
and you took it back

I fell from the clouds, down, so deep that my feet
burned below me, my world became so thin that I could
not even expand my chest to take a breath.
I became weak like a dry twig beneath the feet of all
those who passed by
My world contracted, smaller and smaller until it
fitted into the smallest, darkest void which had
appeared in my heart.
Darkness engulfed me bearing down with the weight of
a thousand storm clouds
Your light was no longer there to show me the way

I let you down my Friend for which I will be forever
sorry… — C

Green Lane

If only all roads were like this! This is part of the National Cycle Network, Route 5, which keeps cyclists away from the danger, noise and smell of traffic…lovely!

Wheat Field

No cropping on this image!

Zee Vision

Yeah, it’s blurry — 8 secs handheld…whaddya expect!