Beetroot and moaning

I pickled some beetroot today. While I’ve pickled beetroot in the past, it’s been a while. At the moment, ICA is selling beetroot at a much reduced rate and it seemed churlish not to buy some, boil them up, soak them in vinegar and seal them in jars. I will buy and pickle some more on Thursday when I go shopping again.

We love pickled beetroot in this house. Something I don’t love is the continued decimation of the woods by the MTB folks.

I thought they’d finished last year but, no, it seems they have to top up the gravel that they spread across the meeting place. This means a digger coming in and spreading it about.

The digger has also been growling up the path to Vitalis School. As a consequence, it has left deep grooves in the ground. Of course, this doesn’t impact the mountain bikes or the digger. No, it only impacts walkers, joggers, people with mobility issues and parents with strollers. And, given the time of year and the amount of rain we’ve had, the ruts will remain for quite some time.

The main path is largely unscathed, fortunately. Though, I do wonder what this is for.

This is on the corner, opposite the preschool. Is it going to be another MTB track? Don’t they have enough already?

Of course, I could be wrong and, perhaps it’s going to be a wildlife shelter for animals and/or walkers when the weather isn’t being very kind. Perhaps a fauna monitoring station to protect the biodiversity of the woods. Or, maybe someone is going to plant something imaginative on the corner, some long-lost local flora.

I will wait and see. But I know where I’d put my money.

Another question I have is also to do with bikes.

When I walked to the ICA, I noticed a strange thing. Two front wheels and two helmets, chained to a light pole. I would understand a bike being chained to a light pole without the loose wheel (though not in the woods) but cannot think of a reason why someone would do the opposite. And yet…

Did someone steal the frames and leave the wheels? I will probably never know.

What I do know is that the number of views today was reduced to a more likely seven. I think the anti-scraping plugin is working. At least as a deterrent, anyway.