Summertime and the livin' is easy....

Since the last blog; the weather has taken a dramatic change with day after day of heat, work has changed from the frantic end of  financial year rush builds  - which kinda dragged on into June (ahem), to the more relaxed 'designery' type work of wandering about in lovely forests looking and thinking about trail issues. I love running a big trail project, but I like the peace and contemplation time of designing new trails in my own time frame - it's a ying and yang thing.
The only thing that ruins my karma is having to tender for jobs, I know it's just how things are done these days, but as a sole trader the time taken to put together a good submission is often not recouped on some of the smaller trail projects that are out there, multiply this by half a dozen tenders and that's a lot of non money making time. I'm coming round to the idea that I might not bother with the process anymore unless it's something meaty that I can really get my teeth into and I like the look of the contract.
Call me fussy, but it's my little niche career and I'll do what I want!
At the mo' there are some really exciting and challenging builds in the pipeline, all fairly local and all trails that I have a real love for. The only sticky bit is scheduling them in before winter bears it's fangs again - winter eh! Mid Aug' and I'm already worrying about fitting work in before the frosts and snow!
Anyhoo, July means Scottish school hols, so Cycletherapy closed down for 3 weeks, loaded the van (still very shiny) and drove the family off to deepest France and Switzerland.
We 'did' Disneyland (don't ask) Paris (with small children) and then settled down in a gorgeous campsite in the Jura region of France. The van allowed us the space to take all the bikes and I was able to fit in some lovely road rides including one of those 'col' things, in 35º heat and with a 'proper' chain set. Ouch.
We eventually arrived back home 2500 miles later to the unexpected pleasure of more 30º+ heat, which in our neck of the woods is a rare and delightful treat, resulting in more beach days at the Costa del Loch Morlich and a few more road rides without needing to pack a waterproof!
So, as we head through August it's trying to balance the needs of work / family / kids off and my ever present 'need' to cycle as much as possible ;-)
See you in the Autumn.....