SUMMER'S END

There’s a fair amount of pick-your-own when it comes to when the seasons change. You can go astronomical, official, linguistic, academic or – well – natural. And summer, according to nature, is over. I noticed this on the last ride, when I could smell sweetgrass (I had no idea it grew in this country, but you learn something new every day) in the fields, and hay drying in bales, and the acrid damp of the first bonfire of the autumn. The leaves, too, are turning yellow and brown and falling – although in some cases, I’m prepared to believe they just got parched in the last heatwave. 

Summer’s signature of lavender fields, barbecues and mown grass has dissipated, and no matter the weather, the message is clear. As far as the plants and the environment are concerned, it is now autumn. Summer, regardless of calendars, stars or even Celtic terminology, is at its end.

MS ADVENTURES

Of course, I am entirely pro women on two wheels. I still remember many years ago stopping to admire a lady in knee-high heeled boots threading a red Ducati through London rush hour like the bike weighed nothing and the traffic was simply so many roadworks cones. I more recently got stuck in roadworks alongside a lady on a Brixton BX125, a bike I’d never seen before. very nice! It’s a new bike, but very much in retro cafe racer style. We had a brief mutual admiration society before we could move on.
And when I came back to my bike after a coffee stop, she was getting chatted up by a bus full of senior citizens. She’s a beautiful machine and attracts a lot of attention, but it’s more often from men or other bikers. This time, the attention was from women, and even more so when they realised she’s mine.
The more we can get women onto bikes and into biking, the better.

ACTS OF GOD

Where I grew up and first learned to drive, there was a weird little piece of legislation that said accidents that occurred while sneezing were acts of God and therefore not covered by almost any insurance. Luckily for me, hay fever wasn’t a problem there. It is, however, a problem where I live now, and I have frequently sneezed, veered a bit, recovered and wondered what the situation would be should I one day veer into something while sneezing. Are hay fever-induced incidents covered by any insurance anywhere? Or are such things a convenient loophole for insurers not to pay? And has anyone ever stopped to work out how many accidents do occur, on a global or national, annual or monthly basis, because someone sneezed?