Today, courtesy of my brother, we visited Jo in Stoke Mandeville National Spinal Injury Centre. This is an excellent facility devoted to helping recuperation from spinal injuries. When we arrived, Jo was playing a game of Boccia. This is a bit like bowls or boules with slightly soft balls – two teams compete to get their balls as close as possible to a target ball. Our mother, who had come too, joined in. It seemed a good and fun way to rebuild motor skills of the upper body.

I have not seen Jo for several months and it was good to see how much progress that she has made now that she is being worked hard in a dedicated facility. It is sad that it took so long for her to get admitted – a demonstration of some of the limitations of the National Health Service. One of the charities that my bicycle ride will support will help as patients move on from Stoke Mandeville. Please do support the Spinal Injuries Association at https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MarkTasker5. Thank you very much to everyone that has donated so far.

I am visiting my mother and my brother’s house for a few nights. Brother Guy was kind enough to lend me his bike for a spot of training this morning (2 hours). Norfolk has very many fewer hills than NE Scotland, and has lots of quite high hedges – ideal for reducing wind. His bike has already done the Lands End to John O’Groats run and is much lighter than mine, so training down the lanes was quite easy! There are also a few more migrant birds in here than in Aberdeenshire, and we added Muntjac deer to my “seen while training” list.

Dementia Research UK have been kind enough to provide not one, but two cycling jerseys and a bright orange neckwarmer/hood etc for my big ride. I definitely needed the latter today – a very cold strong south-easterly wind. Which jersey do you prefer?

This fine gentleman is the grandfather of the last person to be born in our house. His granddaughter was kind enough to let me take a copy of it. She is as bright as a pin, still lives in Banchory (my home village) and walks around for a cup of tea every two or three months. On her last visit, I explained my interest in memory and wondered if she had any old pictures of our house. She said she had the picture above that includes the old house that stood on our land before our current house was built.

This seemed like a nice story until I started looking hard at the picture. The light on Sandy Calder comes from his right and high, so it seems likely that he is facing east, with the doorway of the building facing south. However, the landform in the background does not match that to the west of our house – in fact it does not match the landform in any direction from our house. The house in the picture is also thatched. Thatching is rare in this part of Scotland (I do not know if this has always been the case), and in addition the steadings that still stand from this era (pre-1900s) are slated. It seems unlikely that steadings would be slated, but not the main croft house. So I think it is reasonable to conclude that this is not the old house that once stood on our land.

I will continue to investigate where this is though – Mr Calder always lived near Banchory, so it is local. This picture apparently shows him in his postman’s uniform, but he also worked on the railway (that existed then). Before anyone asks, J. Collier, the photographer’s company no longer exists. I think this is a good case of a photograph showing that memory is not perfect.

Dreich is a fine Scottish adjective meaning dull when related to weather. It was definitely dreich as I set out this morning on my training ride – a good test for my wet weather clothing – waterproof overshoes, waterproof trousers, waterproof jacket, waterproof gloves and topped of with a waterproof helmet cover. I was also checking whether my luggage carriers were waterproof (thanks to brother Guy for the loans). Everything worked fine I may well change the gloves though – they proved very difficult to get back on once I took them off.

It stopped raining after an hour and a half, though it remained cold (around 2C) for the rest of the day. I had decided to do 100 km today – stretching my training a bit. It went well, but there are too many closed cafes in Aberdeenshire at the moment.

I was delighted to be sent an XL cycling jersey by the Spinal Injuries Association, along with an interesting fund-raising pack. I’ll certainly be wearing this on my long ride – today though I had to cover it with my winter cycling jacket due to the strong northerly wind maintaining temperatures below 10C!

My helmet is from Lumos. I participated in a Kickstarter fund-raiser for this helmet. It has built in front and rear lights – as well as left and right rear indicators; it is due to get a firmware upgrade to show red when braking, but that seems to be taking a while. All of the above adds to bike safety in my view – assuming the lights are not too distracting to motorists!

One of the real pleasures of cycling is being out among wildlife, particularly on quiet roads. As many will know, I am a keen bird-watcher/bird-listener. I shall keep a list of birds encountered while on my long ride, and am doing so during my current training runs. This time of year marks the change over between our winter visitors and those who join us for the summer. Wintering geese in the fields are difficult to photograph from a bicycle (as soon as you stop, they fly away!), but some summer visitors, such as this chiff-chaff are slightly easier – I must have heard at least 30 separate individuals over the past few days around Aberdeenshire/Kincardineshire. The resident yellowhammers are also “camouflaging” themselves on the gorse that is in flower (where Aberdeenshire Council has not flailed it down in the interests of having verges that people can drive upon).

On a bike, wind is like Marmite – you love it in one direction, but hate it in the other. The “other” of course dominates time wise as it takes longer going into the wind that down wind… the cunning training course allows you to be blown uphill though. I got it wrong today and spent about 13 km heading uphill into the wind. Views on such a clear day were great though. My computers tell me that I did 54 km in just under 3 hours – fully loaded panniers as well. Training continues….

Great view across Aberdeenshire countryside towards Torphins

I will be taking a train from Aberdeen to Penzance (via London) on 22 May, with my bicycle. Between now and then, I need to get fit enough to be able to bicycle back. I will be away (working) for several of the weeks between now and then. Training needs to include getting used to a heavier bicycle – while I will not be camping (I’ll be staying with friends/B&Bs/hotels) I will need to take clean clothes and other items. My brother Guy has been kind enough to lend me his panniers and handlebar bag that he used in his ride from Lands End to John O’Groats a few summers back. These seem adequate to carry my things, but the bike definitely handles differently with these strapped on.

I will be bicycling the length of Britain (all being well!) in late May/June 2019, visiting all of the places that I have lived for longer that a month (cumulatively). Since I was born in Redruth, Cornwall and have lived in Orkney I shall cover Britain from south to north. I also lived at Minsmere in east Suffolk and Walney Island off the Lake District, so there will be some good coverage from west to east too.  My route takes me to all other places that I have lived, and past quite a few friends and family that I hope to visit as well.

I am seeking to raise funds for two charities related to the human condition: my blog is called Down Memory Lane as I am interested in the importance of memory and the impact of loss of memory caused by dementia in its many forms – so one charity addresses that: Alzheimer’s Research UK. The second charity is the Spinal Injuries Association: my sister had an accident before Christmas that badly damaged her neck/upper spine. She is presently in Stoke Mandeville hospital making good progress with the help of the excellent specialists there.

I will try to update this blog regularly between now and the start of my ride – perhaps illustrated with the scenery around Aberdeenshire within which I’ll be training.  Once the ride starts, I hope to update more frequently.