Christmas post.....

There's a pure, morning clarity to the sky. Pale blue and infinitely clear. The wintry beauty of the bare trees is enhanced by it and I enjoy the view as a cycle out to Market Bosworth. All is quiet and still and the soft sunlight, thin and weak sends feint sparkles from the gathered puddles of rainwater on flat, bare land.

It is briefly windless as I toil up the hill into the town centre - I am riding on a mission to post Christmas cards, a collection which sit snuggly in my rear jersey pocket.

The town is busy. There is a market, a small affair, perhaps half a dozen stalls and the Christmas lights are already switched on - even though it is barely 9.00am. Every shop has a Christmas display and people busy themselves window shopping, darting in and out of the various vendors and up and down the alleyways between. I post my cards and press on. The swoop downhill towards the waterpark is welcome - although the wind now has lifted again and cools me more than I'd like. Soon I'm heading to Far Coton and from there to Sutton Cheney via the big hill past the Battlefield museum. Another challenging push and I'm quickly warm again.

I wonder when we'll get any serious winter weather? - despite the gales we haven't had anything like the bitter, cold snaps that we might have expected for the time of year - I think there has been no more than two mornings when I've had to scrape ice from the car. But we know it will come, and while it is placid now, the winter beast is out there, a sleeping lion, waiting.

As I get back the postman arrives with another armful of packages - everything except the one I was really wanting. Typical. I push my bike to its berth and change into warm, thick clothes. I think about my daughters - both of whom love the cold weather above hot. I wonder what they're wearing today as I pull on a fleece over my tee-shirt.