First day ramblings

This morning I woke up to a beautiful dawn, with the promise of colour and life in a busy day ahead. This made a welcome change from the cold mornings we have had recently where even the spiders in the garden were having a hard time of it.

We set out in the early morning light to walk the dogs and were surprised to see some new bollards decorating the pavements. As we got closer we realised they were showing signs declaring the pavements to be for both pedestrians and cyclists. Until now the many cyclists using the pavements have showed few manners, not given us warning of their approach and on a regular basis attempted to run us down. Now the council are giving them permission to carry on with this behaviour. What happened to the good old cycle bell? What happened to a good old greeting and thank you? Why does it now have to be that the first thing you know there is bicycle behind you is when the wheel is almost wrapped around your leg? Although, I have to say that this morning we only came across one young cyclist, who we did not realise was behind us and she waited very quietly cycling slowly behind us until we noticed her presence, and she said a very nice thank you as we stood to one side to let her pass. The bizarre thing was we were walking on a pavement beside a quiet dead end road, why did she have to cycle on the pavement at all? Sometimes I think we need to just stop and think about how we are teaching young people to live, I understand about teaching them to be safe, but surely using common sense and a bit of initiative with some good old manners thrown in for good measure, is teaching them how to better get on in life.