Turf Zone – BattleAbbey
Right, I want to share a secret but you mustn’t tell ChoccyMuffin. Okay, here goes. I’ve been looking at mountain bikes. My thinking is that one would be ideal for turfing all those zones in the Pentland Hills which would allow me to just about finish all the zones in Midlothian, all bar that annoying one in Gladhouse Reservoir, one I shall not be attempting on account of Glady’s the resident monster, cousin to Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, and also to Morag in Loch Morar. However, before I splashed out some hard-earned credits, and also found a way to breach the topic with ChoccyMuffin, I thought I’d better try out the capabilities of my present nearly-ultimate turfing bicycle, the Ribble CGR SL.
So, off we went in a round of Newbattle, taking all the zones in the area and following all the roughest trails. Now, bear in mind the CGR of the Ribble stands for Cross, Gravel and Road, making the bike something of a compromise between all three categories. In addition, I’m running 40mm Schwalbe Marathon Racer tyres. By the end of the session, with 25 zones taken, I find myself wondering if I actually need a mountain bike. The Ribble has done the job just fine, all be it slower and, in less comfort, than a mountain bike with suspension. Okay, Newbattle isn’t exactly the Pentland Hills but I ask myself, is it worth the expense of buying another bike just for taking around 50 zones, which I could also simply take on foot? I guess not, so scratch that idea then.
Okay, no dithering about on this turf blog, right into the next topic. On Turf Blog 11-08-24, I was hunting for bricks showing their brickmark to complete one of my unofficial Planet Gary turf medals known as Brick Spotting. During a turf session around Newtongrange, I managed to locate four different bricks showing their brickmark, leaving me only requiring one more to achieve the first of the medals, the Brick Spotting-5.
Turf Zone – Mary
So, this morning I was out on the bike turfing around the Newbattle area and picked up another brick at zone Mary. It was lurking half-buried in the burn and scraping off the mud and moss revealed an NCB WHITEHILL, the very brickmark mentioned previously. This now completes the Brick Spotting-5. But success did not stop there. Onwards.
Next stop zone AncientBattle, located beside the River South Esk. And guess what I see lurking in the gravel bed? Okay, I should admit I knew these bricks were likely to be there having been brick spotting here before, way before I discovered the G.O.T. Manged to unearth five more brickmarks including a SANDYSIKE from over the Border in Cumbria, a local ROSLIN from Roslin, an ETNA from Armadale, West Lothian, a partial GLENBOIG hailing from Glenboig, North Lanarkshire and a W. HUNTER & CO, PORTOBELLO and you can guess this one. This now brings my total to 1o and the Brick Spotting-10 medal is complete. More soon.
Turf Zone – AncientBattle
Turf Zone – AncientBattle
Turf Zone – AncientBattle
Turf Zone – AncientBattle
Turf Zone – AncientBattle
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