Riding when it's Cold AND Windy

I finally jumped back on my bike for the first time since the beginning of winter - and what a day I picked to get back in the saddle! The wind was cold and biting and very blustery. I nearly got blown over when I went to stop at the turnaround. Then I came across three b-doubles taking cattle to the abattoir and got covered in bits of dust and grit and dirt and whatever else as they went past me (I guess it could have been worse).
As you can tell, my gear is rather dusty from sitting outside in a box for a couple of months - and my poor bike is much the same. I'll be taking it in for a service first chance I get.

It was nice to be back. I don't expect I'll ever ride competitively again but that's ok; I intend riding purely for two reasons - for fitness and for the mental health benefits. My computer isn't working so there's no pressure to perform! Just ride for pleasure.
These are my favourite socks, a bit worse for wear now. I bought them four years when I did my first Gold Coast 10km. They're supposed to have special somethings where the pressure points are to make your journey a more pleasant one (or something like that, I can't remember now). I just know that they're my favourites and I love to wear them cycling.
This is kindergarten alley, where you go when you leave the nursery (which is actually a setup of five brooder areas in the garage). You stay here for maybe two months with your mates, eating as much as you can, then you graduate to the big cages where your life of reproduction really begins. Most of the birds pictured are roosters - we seem to breed an overabundance of them; plus we've sold a couple of girls from this first pen.
These are some of Gibbo's Jacobin pigeons - a side view and a front view.

Today's garden shots.

The chinese star jasmine in the roundabout garden looks fantastic and smells magnificent.

...and Woofy thinks it's Christmas. We picked up half a beast today and G threw the bags of bones out onto the lawn to pick up later.........but someone else got to them first. How exciting!! He was very pleased with himself.