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Living in the Yorkshire Dales National Park you soon get used to the only predictable thing about the weather being that it's completely unpredictable. That being the case me and Our Lass usually do beer o'clock on a Friday after work has finished and plan the weekend with reference (albeit loosely) to the Met Office weather forecast. Today's forecast was for a cloud covering, little chance of rain, and reasonable-ish temperatures. Which loosely translated often means it's going to be cold and at some stage it will p*** down. So you can imagine my surprise when half six this morning I get up to find the sun is belting and there isn't a cloud in the sky. My thoughts turn straight away to how I can best use this fortunate situation. I could log into the aircraft booking system and see if the plane is free, I could climb on the bike and disappear for the day, maybe go off and do a bit of shooting. All manner of fun stuff is suddenly in prospect but then Jiminy Cricket pipes up and reminds me that all the grass needs cutting, the hedges need trimming etc etc etc................none of them are going to do themselves and the weather tomorrow may be such that I can't do them. So a plan begins to formulate. First up, walking gear on, dogs in the vehicle and me and Our Lass spend a lovely couple of hours up on the hills tiring the little darlings out. The significance of that little excercise will become clear a bit later Next it's out with the mower, strimmer and hedge trimmer and two or three hours later everything is looking tidy, the tools are away and it's about time for some scran. Now I hate going off and enjoying myself if I'm left feeling that work hasn't been done, or the dogs haven't had their walk out. I like to get things squared away so I can go off and enjoy whatever it is I'm doing without the nagging feeling that either of the above haven't first been sorted. But today they have. And the sun's still high in the sky and suddenly it's time for the Westy. I ask Our Lass where she'd like to go, and she says she doesn't mind, how about a cup of tea somewhere ? A684 it is then, through West Witton, left through West Burton and along the road towards Kettlewell. I aren't out to break eggs with a stick, so I'm happy to just cruise along, enjoying the road, the lovely weather, and the sound of the exhaust burbling along bouncing off the dry stone walls. The occasional tourist is dispatched with a down-change, a howl from the exhaust and that addictive thrust of torque before resuming a steady meander through the Dales lanes. I'm taken by how versatile such a single purpose vehicle is. It is quite capable of comfortably cruising along at 2,000 revs, even seeing off the roads bumps and bruises without discomfort, and then on the other hand throwing itself forward with a scream and becoming a different animal. A leisurely tea for two at Kilnsey Park watching the fly fishers landing their trout before heading back. At the gate we have to wait while a stream of about eight bimblers passed us by, unfortunately heading our way. The little Westy picked them all off in two's and three's with a rush and a howl before settling back and enjoying the ride home. Glorious sunshine, lovely roads and a barbie and a few beers when we got home. Life's hard sometimes innit ? Ever have one of those days ?

Sounds fantastic!.....unfortunately mine is slightly different, played a gig last night and didn't get to bed until 2ish and then had top be up at 7am as I had a 33m truck mounted boom (cherry picker) booked to a job in Gateshead, all good so far, I arrive on site 7:30 sun shining, I'm tired but ready, then gets a phone call from the platform driver, 'it is Middlesborough we're working at again?' (that was the last job a few weeks ago). The office has only gone and sent him to the wrong property! So after redirecting him back up the road 30-50 mins away, we get started an hour late, whilst up in the air a text comes in from Kingster saying he's going out for a blast, unfortunately I can't, we get finished by 11:30. I decide to continue on with making space in my garage to get my Westie home. I did get the pleasure of driving it 5 mins from my unit to home and that's been about it today. Hoping for a bit of sun in the morning and I may go grab a coffee somewhere before the rain sets in.................

Just need to replace those carbon effect cycle wings now ;-)

Recieved them today, very pleased the winter upgrades are racking up. Here's a few pics of them plonged in place.

I hope I don't get that kind of fine for having an MOT map!

Many thanks to all the kind people who sponsored me for the Potters Marathon in July. I've finally collected all the money in and I'm delighted that we've raised just under £1000.

That's not an electrically retractable towbar....THIS is an electrically retractable towbar.....

I am back up and running now with another engine

Interested in the welder bench if you can muster up any pics? Thanks, Shaun

The white bodywork is a vinyl wrap and quite frankly a bad one at that, would be the first thing I remove! Apparently it's been jigged and now having the top of the engine bay replaced along with the front 'V' section. I'm really not sure now, been up to see it twice, and was going again this week as the frame will be complete by then. Pleased I joined here, I was going to jump in with both feet!