A Summer of Cycling!

# "Destiny was calling Monday afternoon, Wednesday you'll be crawling and you'll pray to be there soon, with sports and wine, yeah, yeah... Sports and wine, no, no..." - Ben Folds Five

I don't really consider myself to be a "sporty" person - I like to casually dip in and out of playing badminton and enjoy swimming and running in my spare time as ways to help take my imagination off whichever scribbles I happen to be doodling with at any one time (although inevitably, my mind ALWAYS wanders back to my writing during these periods of exercise and exertion, but maybe that's the productive point of the distraction!) - anyway, recently I decided to invest in a new mode of transport to get myself to and from my day job as a way to break the boredom of taking the train and bus (and in an effort to at least "try" to get a bit fitter in my old age...)

So this month, I thought I'd bring a different kind of post with some photos of my two-wheeled adventures on a folding bike this past summer...  

(See if you can guess
exactly where these shots were taken!)

Living out at 'the coast' I've been gradually rediscovering my love of cycling over the last few years...

But I wanted to mix this pastime with getting fit on my way to and from work, so came up with the idea of buying a folding bike (my chosen model - the Raleigh Evo 7, highly recommended!)

So this past summer, I've been taking in the views with the eye of a tourist to my home city... 

My daily journeying back and forth are great periods of peaceful "alone time" to listen to my imagination and move through magical gateways of the mind where new stories lie patiently in wait...

One really inspirational place I've discovered on my cycles this summer is Dunstan Staithes.

The haunting wooden structures stand out against the bright early mornings along the Tyne and I've often stopped to take photos of the place from all possible angles, day-dreaming about the tales it could tell (there's a particular 'other-worldly' feeling there when the tide is out and you see the bare mud-flats with their snaking banks)

I'm always one for talking to myself, but when I get bored of my own company I'm quite fond of chatting to friends from the animal kingdom, and my cycle route allows me some unique views of all sorts of wildlife that populate the River Tyne - from cormorants to kittiwakes and swans to sauntering tomcats - I find it sobering to watch them go about their daily meanderings...

And of course, there's always the ever-present human animal to break me out of my daydreams... But there's often some rather nice boats messing about on the River (I also always get a kick out of passing "Vickers Armstrong", where my grandfather worked during World War II)

Incidentally, all of these photos were taken with my mobile phone and I'm pretty proud of the results so far! (not an "Instagram" in sight!)

One of my passions is learning more about the past - I'm a believer that "history matters" and my cycling here there and everywhere around the north-east this summer has opened up a world of wonderful windows on past events that make my hometown an inspirational joy to live and write in...

So there you have it - a whistle-stop tour on a small-wheeled bike... (But never fear, there's undoubtedly more two-wheeled adventures to come!)



Next month, I'm taking my folding bike further afield, on some late hols to the Peak District and France (but that will be another story waiting to be told!) So for now, I bid you adieu, dear reader, until December when I'll return here on the blog with stories of daring-do and creative cutting from my day job...

This past year I've been developing a writer 'Flickr Feed'
with inspirational shots of my various journeys through this writing life.
You can catch up right now
and bookmark the link to see more
of my future folding bike photos:

CLICK HERE to go to C.G.ALLAN'S Flickr Page!