November 14th, another Thursday and I wake up to fog. I draw the curtains, the grass is still growing, the leaves are still on the trees. It’s my son’s birthday he’s 32. I remember the fortnight before his birth only too well. Nottingham had snow on the roads for all of the two weeks before. The ruts were so deep I had to park the car several streets away from the hospital and trudge the rest with two carrier bags. They mostly contained spare clothes, nuts and chocolate. Apparently women in late pregnancy double their calorie intake. Believe me that’s a lot of nuts.
Still this day was warm enough for shorts, just about. I got the bike out but could hardly see the road from the house. Still off to a Maurice organised ride from the Black Bull at Balsham. The fog on the way was even worse than at home.
Driving along I remembered on my son’s 10th birthday, our first in Chrishall, it snowed. His birthday party turned into a massive snowball fight. I’m convinced there is no joy greater than when 10 year old’s engage in a snowball fight. My only regret was I missed much of it while consoling a delicate, weeping boy whose hands were too cold to stay outside. The tears were half for the pain, half for missing the fun. A terrible life-lesson for anyone too sensitive about their environment.
Coffee and a chat in the car park passed the time as the fog gradually lifted.
It was predicted to clear around 10.30. Although they aren’t perfect, I’m sure weather forecasts are better than they used to be. It transpired that they were right this time.
See the fog at the start. Like hovering rain, it stuck to my legs. Yuk, where was that sun.
I set off thinking about how there had been no snow on his 20th or 30th birthday. I started thinking about the Gaia theory (pronounced Ga-ee-ya) In this theory, stuff living on the planet, in the oceans, jungles and everywhere else, interacts with the environment to form a self-regulating system that makes life on Earth possible, by stabilizing the system as a whole. So, you can think of the earth, the whole environment, as very like yourself on a ride, cold at the start, warm after a while and back to normal after half an hour in the pub. A wonderful self-regulating machine.
If you look at the temperature for November in the UK you might see what I mean. The black-dashed line in the picture above is the average, the trend, over 130 years.
Looking at the dashed-black trend line, in 1900 the earth is a bit warm, but by 1920 is back to feeling normal again. This undulation in temperate has been going on for thousands of years. Undulations that return to where you start will feel very familiar to anyone riding with the club. By 1950 it’s getting warm again, but as Gaia theory would predict, all the living stuff on the planet starts to restore normality. However, by 1970 it can’t quite do it, something’s in the self-correction machine is bust.
I’ll leave you to contemplate how thinking of the whole earth as being like a ‘single body’, like yourself, is a bit like a religious belief. After all, many ‘primitive’ religions emphasized one-ness with the sky, the rocks and rivers, being as one with all living and non living things.
One thing this religion of ‘eco-stuff’, like Gaia, does have in common with other faiths, is that it annoys people. It annoys them a lot. Its like having a Methodist berating you about drinking beer. “For goodness, sake leave me alone, I’m a grown-up”. Or a Jehovah’s Witness on blood transfusion. “My blood, my business”. Likewise, my organs, and as long as I’m completely done with them, I’d be delighted to help someone else. If you ask me, it’s wicked to bury or burn life-transforming biological material. That’s my firmly held belief, but you don’t have to share it.
So, no preaching about the climate. The data are the data and likewise your experiences might make you suspect that the trend is right. Remembering my son’s birthdays has convinced me, looking at data from expensive satellites has too. Some truth is inconvenient, that’s why it isn’t always popular.
By 11 the world around me had nicely warmed up, as had I. Time for a coffee at at Winners in Finchingfield. Nice place, very efficient and Group 1 (Roger, Maurice, Alan, Charles, Rod and Howard) already had their coffee and were comfortably seated outside.
If there had been more space outside, group 2 would have opted for that as well. But they had nicked all the nice spaces.
So group 2 (Neil, Myself, Brian, Tom, Chris, Gareth, Martin) settled for coffee and a cake inside. We made the best of it.
Actually it turned out to be a beautiful ride, designed by Maurice, with a few gentle undulations. Just enough to keep it interesting.
Special mention goes to Martin since it was his first 30 mile cycle for a while. Having missed much of the summer, at least there was a little sunshine and it must have been great to get out again.
Back at the pub we had a table and a room of our own. The service was as welcoming and as swift as ever. My meal was only interrupted when I realised I hadn’t paid at Winners.
Too busy taking photos for this blog. Still they were very nice about it. And lest we forget something much more important I include one of my pictures here.
Nice ride. Not too complicated. Made time for a bit of contemplating and reminiscing. Not too much I hope, since we all have to focus on enjoying the here and now.
Still this weather makes you think. Doesn’t it?
The Windmill Cycle Club 