The Simple Things

Taking time to live well
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • SHOP
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Work with us
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • SHOP
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Work with us

Blog

Taking Time to Live Well

  • All
  • Chalkboard
  • Christmas
  • Competition
  • could do
  • Eating
  • Escape
  • Escaping
  • Fresh
  • Fun
  • gardening
  • Gathered
  • Gathering
  • Growing
  • Haikus
  • Interview
  • Living
  • Looking back
  • Magazine
  • magical creatures
  • Making
  • Miscellany
  • My Neighbourhood
  • Nature
  • Nest
  • Nesting
  • outing
  • playlist
  • Reader event
  • Reader offer
  • Shop
  • Sponsored post
  • Sunday Best
  • Think
  • Uncategorized
  • Wellbeing
  • Wisdom
lostlanes.jpg

Cycle lost lanes

Future Admin August 30, 2013

Wind your way through the very best of the countryside, on quiet roads, off-road paths and tracks, always striving to follow the ways least travelled. It’s an endlessly rich network with unlimited opportunities for improvisation, variation and detours. Changing weather and changing seasons (Britain sometimes boasts all four in a single day) means no two bike rides are the same, even if they follow the same route.

The journey to become a cycling connoisseur of lost lanes is a simple one and comprises three steps. First, discover the lost lanes nearest where you live. Get out the Ordnance Survey maps (the Landranger 1:50,000 are best for cycling) and look for the thinnest yellow lines. For a bird’s eye view, go to www.twomaps.com and explore the twinning of detailed map and aerial photography. Next, get to know them in the flesh. Identify the wildflowers and come back a couple of months later to see what’s changed. Listen to the birdsong, spot the trees. Take a tramp about in neighbouring woodlands.

Third, and above all, just ride. At any speed, in all seasons, for the thrill of the new or the comfort of the familiar. Alone or with friends, pack a picnic or stop at a pub for lunch, have a snooze under a tree, take some photographs – even write a sonnet if the mood takes you. Savour the beauty and wildness of these perfect threads of common ground and celebrate the very best way to see them – by bike.

In issue 14 of The Simple Things, Jack Thurston shares hand-picked routes from his latest book.

LOST LANES by Jack Thurston is priced £14.99 from Wild Things Publishing. Buy a copy for just £12.99 (£9.99 – 33% off – plus £3.00 P&P) by entering the code ST13 at www.wildswimming.co.uk/lostlanes. Offer ends 30th September 2013.

 

InEscaping Tagscountryside, cycling
  • Blog
  • Older
  • Newer
Featured
  Buy ,  download  or  subscribe   See the sample of our latest issue  here   Buy a copy of our latest anthology:  A Year of Celebrations   Buy a copy of  Flourish 2 , our wellbeing bookazine  Listen to  our podcast  - Small Ways to Live Well
Feb 27, 2025
Feb 27, 2025

Buy, download or subscribe

See the sample of our latest issue here

Buy a copy of our latest anthology: A Year of Celebrations

Buy a copy of Flourish 2, our wellbeing bookazine

Listen to our podcast - Small Ways to Live Well

Feb 27, 2025
Join our Newsletter
Name
Email *

We respect your privacy and won't share your data.

email marketing by activecampaign
facebook-unauth twitter pinterest spotify instagram
  • Subscriber Login
  • Stockists
  • Advertise
  • Contact

The Simple Things is published by Iceberg Press

The Simple Things

Taking time to live well

We celebrate slowing down, enjoying what you have, making the most of where you live, enjoying the company of of friends and family, and feeding them well. We like to grow some of our own vegetables, visit local markets, rummage for vintage finds, and decorate our home with the plunder. We love being outdoors and enjoy the satisfaction that comes with a job well done.

facebook-unauth twitter pinterest spotify instagram