Paradise regained*
It has been six weeks since I was last on the mountain bike. 
I had to recover from a small operation and am only now fit enough to go off road. As I set off the weather was a bit miserable (below freezing, sleet and snow), but before long I was warmed up enough so that the same conditions changed into not so cold and hardly any snow, with the usual added benefit of this sort of weather that most people hide indoors leaving the woods alone. The thin layer of fresh snow soon smudged out the footsteps, paw-prints and tyre tracks, making it look even prettier. Six weeks of little exercise has of course left me pretty unfit, so I trundled around one our my summer evening favourate routes in twenty minutes longer than the usual hour. Of course, cycling through snow, even if not so so deep slows you down as well. Doubtless what is left of my muscles will be complaining like mad late on. But all that did not matter, I was back on the bike and back in the woods!
(*Note for Dutch readers, the title is a famous poem).
