ABC discuss

[Aravis]

Crossing a river is often a big moment on a ride. I imagine there is wide agreement on that. A while ago I suggested rivers as another possible A-Z subject, for which it would be nice if every river crossing were treated like this:

Even if there isn't a sign of this type, many bridges, and other places where a road or trail comes close to a river are marked in some way. Often there's a commemorative plaque; here are a couple of nice examples:

Although you'd hope that the name of the river would be important enough to mention in the text, sadly the priority often lies elsewhere!

In the absence of something formal, information notices put up by the Environment Agency and other bodies often feature the name of the river:

Even so, I don't think there are going to be enough of these to support an A-Z picture thread along traditional lines. One thing that might help would be to include the sort of signs we see all the time - where the river name is incorporated into the name of a village or town. The -on- or -upon- forms are the most obvious. In areas where I cycle regularly, here are some other examples which would probably qualify:

• Highleadon, Upleadon, Ledbury (River Leadon, Gloucestershire/Hereforshire)
• Bishop's Itchington, Long Itchington (River Itchen, Warwickshire)
• Bishops Frome, Fromes Hill (River Frome, Herefordshire)
• Abbey Dore, Dorstone (River Dore, Herefordshire)

However, on balance I think I'd prefer to stick to signs where the river has a primary mention. If there are too few of these for a sequential A-Z challenge, perhaps we could it a bit differently? The objective would be to collect as many letters as possible, but in any order.

Any thoughts?

 

[Katherine]

I was thinking about an ABC challenge for interesting features that you see whilst on bike ride.
It should make for quite a diverse mix of pictures.

I was thinking about this on my ride yesterday, but didn't actually stop and take a picture for A so if anyone else wants to, feel free.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I was thinking about an ABC challenge for interesting features that you see whilst on bike ride.
It should make for quite a diverse mix of pictures.

I was thinking about this on my ride yesterday, but didn't actually stop and take a picture for A so if anyone else wants to, feel free.

Start a thread and let's see what turns up

 

[Katherine]

Start a thread and let's see what turns up

Just about to.....

 

[Aravis]

(Quoting @Dogtrousers from the Towns and Villages thread)

Going off topic a bit, how about "Your bike in a place that is mentioned in a song" ?Might be worth a thread, but it would be too much of a push to expect them to be in alphabetical order.

Should this be genuine references to a particular place (as in Streets of London), which would be quite difficult, or would any word match be OK? Near Stratford-upon-Avon there's a place called Broom, as in The Ballad of Green Broom, one of Benjamin Britten's Five Flower Songs, and probably many other songs. That would open things up quite a lot.

Or perhaps we could have an A to Z of your bike in front of a feature recalling a song title, such as a field of strawberries? That might belong in the "interesting Features" thread. The feature could be a place name, but not necessarily.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Is there a thread about possible threads to discuss this? (Edit: duh we're in it)

I think "your bike in front of a place or thing named in a song" might have legs. I can think of a fair few, ranging from Abergavenny to Wye. (Although I'm not suggesting an alphabetical challenge) Suitably lax rules to be invented.

 

[Aravis]

Is there a thread about possible threads to discuss this? (Edit: duh we're in it)

I think "your bike in front of a place or thing named in a song" might have legs. I can think of a fair few, ranging from Abergavenny to Wye. (Although I'm not suggesting an alphabetical challenge) Suitably lax rules to be invented.

Love the edit! I don't think it was there first time I looked, and I seriously wondered what point you were trying to make.

For myself I definitely prefer to be looking for place names rather than more general things, and so far I haven't been able to get into the "interesting features" thread. You look for places on a map, very likely somewhere you haven't cycled to before, then figure out a way of getting there. A perfect combination, and it's transformed the way I go about conceiving and planning rides - for the better.

So I think I'll carry on plodding through A-Z towns and villages for as long as I'm riding, and using a theme seems like a good way of keeping it interesting. I suppose the first time round my theme was trying to do it in the fewest rides possible, and I'm happy with the namesakes idea this time. A couple more ideas might be names which are also everyday words, such as Ash, Broom, Cross, Deal, Eye, etc., and also names of a particular length, say 5 letters. I did actually start this one on Saturday. Running 2 themes concurrently?

In Oxfordshire, and a horrible spot to be taking a photograph.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Really off topic but I had a themed ride of "number of trees" earlier this year. I managed 16: Four Elms, Five Oak Green, Sevenoaks. Then ran out of trees. Although I do know of a One Tree Hill but it's not really a good place to take a bike.

 

[burntoutbanger]

What about place names that contain a colour? Just today I've been through a small village called Blackborough. And I also passed signs for Redball and Whiteball.

Wouldn't have to be done in alphabetical order and there could be a bonus point for each of the colours of the rainbow?

 

[uphillstruggler]

Once I’ve finished the current standard A - Z, I’m going for Z - A with the rule that the next letter can’t be in the same county as the last

I live in Milton Keynes and have Bucks, Beds, Oxfordshire and Northants all in reasonable reach Plus working countrywide May help too

 

[Aravis]

Would there be any appetite for relaunching A-Z place names in the new year as a forum game rather than an individual challenge?

The idea I have is to start with names of length 3*, run through the alphabet with those, then 4, and so on. Any which are deemed impossible can be by-passed by general agreement. The sequence ends at a village with a railway station on Anglesey.

As soon as someone's posted an A(3) - there are several places called Ash, there's Aby in Lincolnshire, and of course Ayr - we'd move on to B(3). Box and Bow seem the most likely for that one.

* Strictly speaking the sequence should start at Ae, which is a bit of an outlier in more ways than one. It would be a shame if the game can't get properly started for several weeks.