Category Archives: Harley Davidson

Mists and Mellowness

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Just for a change, we have certainly had a proper summer this year! Here in the extreme South West corner of the British Isles the harvest is almost over, sure there are still some crops to get in, but largely it’s all done. Quality and quantity in this part of the world have been tremendous. The silo sides are creaking under the load of the settling grain and the machinery is almost able, like me, to take a breather! I am really looking forward to the chance of getting out on Harley for a relaxed pleasure ride, rather than a quick and frantic commute across Bodmin Moor; not that there is anything wrong with my route to work…wouldn’t swap it for 22miles across London at all!

Back at Dookes HQ we look set to enjoy a bumper harvest of our own. The trees in our orchard are laden with the most amazing crop of apples and medlars, whilst the hedgerows are full of blackberries, rowan and sloes. Just take a look at these beauties!DSCF2825

This is a Medlar, very popular in the time of Elizabeth the First, you have to let them go almost rotten before you can eat them! They taste like a baked apple with cinnamon.

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These fellas are pretty special and rare; Cornish Gilliflower apples, first discovered in 1813 near Truro. Happy 200th birthday you beauties. I grafted this tree myself, no, not 200 years ago either…!DSCF2820

Blackberries, of course!DSCF2830

The mornings are getting colder now and a myriad host of spiders weave duvets of silver webs that catch the dew in the grass each morning. Autumn is steadily arriving. It really is a wonderful time of year. John Keats called it “the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.” I think he got it about right too. Riding a motorbike your senses get bombarded with the smells of any season, this time of year they always seem so much nicer!

I posted a sunrise picture the other week, how about a sunset this time?  This was the view from Dookes HQ a week ago, pretty stunning eh? No filters, it really was that colour.
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Right ho, that’s all for now; I know it’s only rock n roll, but i like it!

Dookes

Home Now

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After a pretty OK crossing on board Brittany Ferries MV Amorique, during which I grabbed some much-needed sleep; I finally got home at 22:00hrs yesterday, Sunday.

Today has been spent tackling the jungles that were lawns before I went away! It feels like it took for ever, although four hours is probably more accurate. Thank goodness for ride on mowers!

Harley has been taking a well-earned rest in the workshop. All I did with her today was to swap the “drive on the left hand side of the road” headlamp unit for the ‘Continental’ one that I use in Europe, which saves using beam deflectors and loosing headlamp performance when abroad. The poor old girl is filthy, best put aside all day next Saturday for that job.DSCF2661

That’s it for now. The blog will live on…as usual, so please keep in touch and I’ll catch you all later down the line. Thanks again for the all the messages, emails, texts, etc. Always good to hear from you.

Oh, I nearly forgot, total trip mileage was 2372.

Travellin’ man, that’s what I am, guess I’ll always be…

Dookes

Goldfinger: The Start

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OK, so James Bond 007 is a secret agent, but this mission isn’t, so it’s time to share the first part of the route briefing, pay attention all you ’00’ agents.

The film is initially true to Ian Fleming’s book, with Bond following super-villain Auric Goldfinger across France to Switzerland. Both Bond and Goldfinger’s cars are transported to France via air ferry from Kent, but as these days the air-link is long gone and as I live in Cornwall, we are going to have to bend the rules a bit, anyway I end up driving more miles than Bond as a result! So first up, it’s the ferry from Plymouth to Roscoff in Brittany.

Bond, in his Aston Martin DB4, follows Goldfinger across northern France to an overnight stop in Orléans;Bond Aston

“Bond had never cared for Orléans. I was a priest and myth ridden town without charm or gaiety.” Good enough advice! Harley and I will stay in my regular billet near Chinon and pick up the trail near Nevers.

From there the antagonists head south on the N7, before picking up the N79 to Macon. In the book, it is here that Bond runs into Tilly Masterson, literally! In the film we will see it is a fair bit different.gf_goldfinger_fleming_map_france_02-01a_900

Bond traversed Bourg en Bresse and passed through Pont-d’Ain then picked up the N84, which is now the D1084; we will cut the corner on the D979 and link into the old ’84 near Nantua. I’m going to take a check then how I feel about things. In the  book, Bond goes into Geneva and finds Goldfinger’s lair at Coppet on Lake Geneva; the film is different…so ride along and find out!

Catch you down the road…

Under your feet the grass is growin’!

Dookes