This time of the year, it is a real treat to be able to jump on my bicycle after work and cycle for an hour or two without having to worry about lights, traffic and whehter it will rain.

After a particularly stressful day, nothing calms the nerves and helps me sleep than a ride through picturesque countryside, complete with frolicking bunnies, noisy pheasants, and fields full of flowers. I might be still a city girl at heart, but going out and being in somehting like this within minutes is one of the up sides of living in a sleepy town in Northern England.

I usually take my ageing Canon Ixus40 point and shoot camera on my trips, hence the somewhat ropey quality of these pictures, but they make good mementos nonetheless of carefree, freewheeling sunny summer evenings.