I did another bike ride this morning and it didn’t make me feel sick (yay me!).  I was faster than the last few rides too so either I’m getting fitter or I should have removed the ‘protective’ layer of mud, oiled the chain and pumped the tyres up a while back…

It was quite early when I left this morning (7am ish) so why I decided I needed the Blackberry of Evil with me I don’t know.  I don’t seem to be able to go very far without it at all these days.  Anyway, I didn’t do any e-mails on the way round but I was pleased I took it as I finally got a picture of him:

well you can just about see him!

He’s a pheasant that seems to spend his time in the same spot, often playing ‘I’m the king of the castle’ from what I now view as his tree stump.  I saw a friend of his too, but he was looking scared and hiding at the edge of the farmers field and I could almost hear him say ‘please don’t stop and draw attention to me’.  Then I heard a loud BANG and realised why he looked a bit panicked (ok, this may be a bit fanciful but it is possible.  Kind of).  Yes, the pheasant hunters were out and suddenly I felt a bit grumpy about it.

There are some woods opposite where my parents live and they hunt in there.  Dad was telling me the other day that it’s not exactly a fair match as beaters go ahead of those with guns to scare the birds out of the undergrowth.  They are so close to my parents that some shells fell in their kitchen roof a few weeks back.  So dad has adopted a strategy.  Every so often when they shoot he stands outside and makes an ‘ARRRRRGH!  I’ve been shot’ sort of a shout.  It seemed quite a good idea this morning, so as I came closer to where the shots were I did the same :o)

I think I will do this each time I hear them from now (as long as nobody else is around, obviously).  Those pheasants are a bit daft and need a few of us humans on their side.

Besides, it distracts me from the effort involved in cycling and it is a slightly different way to start the day :o)