Just over 8 miles. With Gordon. Fine sunny day, rollingly hilly. Good underfoot, some paths not clear on the ground.
Exploring more of the many paths around Illston. This time we take the left hand path after the small rough field at the southern end of Illston. This goes through the middle of the field, and is fine and wide through the growing wheat.
We follow it downhill and up in front of Illston Grange, which lies on our right as we walk.
The path leads to the road - a metalled section of the Gartree Roman Road - and crosses it. We carry on in a southwesterly direction until we reach another minor road. We stray slightly from the route, then find the cattle grid and the path signs. Over more fields to the road down into Burton Overy.
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| I like these brickwork patterns |
We walk straight on past the Bell - too early anyway. After a couple of hundred yards we find the footpath sign on our right. We pause to say hello to a solitary walker indulging in a peaceful coffee - he tells us he's on his way back home.
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| The black sheep family |
We head north west to the opposite corner of the field and carry on in this direction until we meet the road between Kings Norton and Great Glen. The path becomes bridle way, and continues along the field edge past a couple of houses marked on the map as The Cottage. We go pretty well straight and up hill, then have a break before making our way by an unintentionally devious route to the road junction. I blame paths not made good and clear for our straying.
At the junction we take the road towards Little Stretton - this is the busiest stretch of the route, but it's not long.
Our next footpath sign is at the end of a drive on our left. Public Footpath for 420 yards it says. It goes right into Little Stretton past a pond on our left and a big house and some smart barn conversions on the right.
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| In reflective mood |
We cross a small field of shade-seeking cows. From the path we can nearly see the church.
The cows move considerately out of our way, and we take the path behind the church and into the small village.
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| Little Stretton Church -with sunny bench |
We turn left along the road and follow the footpath through the hedge on our right. At first the path follows the hedge, and the grass is quite long. We concentrate on finding our way through, and don't see the path which has been made good. We discover it when we get to the other end of it!
For the rest of the way into Kings Norton the way is clear, though there is another short section of road. It's warm and sunny - we have another break outside the church.
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| Kings Norton church shows its less imposing non sunlit side |
We walk down the road from the church, and at a left hand bend take the public byway, which runs in a straight line through fields and a couple of gates to Burton Overy Lane.
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| I stop to take this pic once I'm through the gate. Now all I can see is the anatomical detail of the calf's rear end. |
There are more fields with cows, most of whom are wearing collars - at first I thought "Cowbells - how odd?" but they were not bells. Could this be the explanation? Their own GPS tracker.
At Burton Overy Lane, we look back at the churches of Kings Norton and Gaulby, which dominate this area.
A short walk along Burton Overy Lane brings us to the crossroads with Gartree Road. The footpath through the hedge on our left takes us behind Illston Grange, then down hill and up along by the hedge and back to Illston.
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| One of the horses at Illston Grange. |
- ignore anything after the 8 miles- return to start.
There's a love 
From the Crest of the Sandia Mts you can look almost in all four directions. It was so hazey that day that we weren't getting the best views as you do on some days. I didn't get any good ones from the walkway but did get this one at the start of one of the trails where you can actually hike from the top of the Crest all the way down into Albuquerque, about 11,000 feet down.
Today I had the pleasure of visiting Geekhouse Bikes in Allston, Mass. A region of greater Boston that's just across the river from Cambridge, Allston is notorious for how dangerous it is to cycle there and I was fully prepared for a journey fraught with peril. Instead, I found myself pedaling along a bike lane followed by a series of quiet streets - at the end of which was Geekhouse, nestled picturesquely between a white picket fence and a rusty chainlink fence, amidst rows of family homes with tidy back yards offset bya sinister-looking warehouse in the distance.
When I saw this out front, there was no doubt that I had come to the right place.
Geekhouseis a small shop that has been producing their distinct custom bikes since 2002.
TIG-welded steel, clean lines, and candy-coloured powdercoat, make their handiwork easy to spot on the streets of Boston and beyond. The powdercoat is done in-house by the Geekhouse subsidiary, Sugarcoat.
While I generally prefer lugged steel construction, there is something about the "New England bad boy" look of the segmented forkon a neatly TIG-welded frame that makes me feel all funny inside. Now imagine a workshop chalk full of these forks, in candy colours... I did my best to keep calm.
The main man behind Geekhouse is Marty Walsh, who learned TIG-welding while apprenticing for Mike Flanigan of ANT and began making his own frames shortly thereafter. His work embraced the influence of ANT and the Fat Chance legacy, while developing a trademark aesthetic unmistakably his own.
As Geekhouse grew, Marty was joined by Brad in the framebuilding department
and by Gregory in the running-of-the-business department.
The sense of comradery between the three boys is endearing, and entertaining to watch.
They clearly have a good time working together,which makes for a comfortable and lighthearted atmosphere in the shop.
But getting back to bicycles - One development I find exciting, is that Geekhouse has recently made a number of beautiful custom frames for women, reflecting the increasing number of female cyclists who are opting for handmade bikes. Unfortunately none of these frames were at the shop during my visit, but here is a glimpse as photographed by others:
The personality of Geekhouse bikes is certainly distinct, and I look forward to a possible test ride... hopefully something with a delicious segmented fork!