15.06.2025

 ~o~

  Sunday 15th 59F/15C [8.00] Overcast with showers possible. Including thunder and cloudbursts. A high of 22C/71F after lunch. The wind has dropped.

 Up at 6.45 after a quiet night. Late to bed at 11.30. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ~o~ 

14.06.2025 The Arrival.

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  Saturday 14th 53F/11.7C. Bright. The last day of the formerly promised sunshine. It could reach 24C/75F this afternoon. Rain and showers overnight tonight and tomorrow afternoon. 

 Up at 4.45. I was already wide awake. I have a lot of tidying to do in readiness for my visitor. Who will be staying for a week. Hopefully she will be able to make another dent. In my lifetime collection of untidiness. Detachment from my belongings and those of my late wife, is the trick. 

 If only I had enough storage I could ignore the problem. Storage is the problem and always has been. I have collected more tools than many small businesses. Few of which will ever be used again. Too many tools. How to downsize which doesn't involve a skip? [Large rubbish container outside the door. As they drive me off in an expensive, chipboard box.] 

 These tools have saved me a fortune over a lifetime. As I learned to do most maintenance, repairs and replacement. Buying tools as I needed them. Do they still owe me anything? I constantly struggle with this problem. Do I give them away to charity? Sell them for a pittance? It was never possible to hold a flea market here due to poor access and a lack of parking. 

 How many takers would a small ad for 100 different pairs of pliers bring? 200 different screwdrivers? Dozens of spanners? A dozen woodworking planes? Would I find myself unable to repair the simplest items for want of any of them? This thought torments me every time I think I'll get rid of something. 

 The cost of hiring a tradesman is far beyond the true value of the work they do. One buys them a smart house, a van, a smart car, a second car, sports equipment, including a boat, family holidays, expensive clothes and toys for their kids. All the things I don't have and never did. 

 I see their vans with their logos on the side everywhere I go. Outside other people's houses in the week. Parked beside their homes at the weekends. I should have done an apprenticeship. Then I could have had all of these things. Instead of a hovel and a shed full of well used tools and all my untidy memories. The endless searches for just the right tool for the job. Or finding the tool I already owned. 

 7.00 Time for a walk? 

 7.40 Just a short walk. The traffic was very light but it is early. I was surrounded in birdsong. The warblers were in fine voice in the roadside trees. Blackbirds singing at intervals. The odd wren scolding the day.  

 Back to more tidying and a second batch of laundry. It is quite breezy again. The towels are flapping wildly on the rotary airer. I raked the parking space for a bit of exercise. The depth of granite chippings is much too variable. It is still far too early for morning coffee. 

 12.00 73F/22.8C. My third load of washing is bone dry after a quick tour on the outdoor rotary airer. I have never seen it going round until today. I have swept, mopped and vacuumed. Dusted polished and tidied. Sorted tubs of recently used tools into their correct trays. 😇

 14.00 I collected my guest from the village in the Morris. She had taken the train to Odense and then the bus to the village. We had a good natter to catch up since her last visit at Christmas.

 Dinner was a cooperative affair of pork chops, mushrooms, peas and boiled potatoes. Aided and abetted by Bisto gravy. All washed down by an excellent, organic, red wine. Enjoyed at the dining table.

  ~o~

Friday 13th June 2025 What can possibly go wrong?

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 Friday 13th 59F/15C [7.45] Bright but windy. The garden trees and hedges are rocking. All day sunshine is promised. 

 Up at 7am after a very quiet night. I got up only once at 3.30. Probably tired from the longer bike ride. I am aching in my back and shoulders, hands and wrists. 

 Sandholt Slot. With a huge farm to the left. Just out of the picture.

 The doctor has advised me to stop taking two of my tablets as no longer necessary. I should go for a walk to loosen up. Though I should get enough exercise from tidying up today.

 I am expecting a parcel. Though I have opted for a pickup point delivery in the village. To avoid clashes with bolshy drivers. 

 My visitor is arriving tomorrow. Where to start? The whole place is a tip! At least it isn't raining. So I can finally tidy the garden after the observatory demolition and gravel work. Where do I put it all?  The lawn has got away from me again!  

 Arreskov Slot. Another stately home with huge farm buildings.

 Three of the neighbour's hedges are leaning over the drive. Two are absent neighbours. A third is absent but doesn't have any hedges on their boundary. A fourth [present] is attacking another absent neighbour's hedge. Just to keep the main drive navigable. 

 The same absent neighbour is completing blocking the view down the road. At the dangerous exit from the drive on a sharp corner. By not trimming their roadside hedge.  

 The council hedge trimming tractor doesn't trim roadside hedges on private property. Presumably to avoid conflicts of interest with property owner's shrubs and trees. So must somebody innocent die, for private profit, on property investment? I hope you are taking notes. Because I shall be asking questions at the end. 

 Snap of screen showing CX810 video in sunshine. The image has been resized from the original 4k. [3840x2160] The blog format does not support huge images. So I routinely resize all my images to 1000 pixels.

 I drove into the village to shop and to pick up my parcel. The shopping is put away and I have installed my new CX810 Reolink security camera on the system.  

 12.30 I have been replacing the TP-Link camera at the front of the house. Connecting up the newly arrived Reolink camera with a 10m Cat7 cable. The quality improvement of the Reolink CX810 over the TP-Link Tapo CX325WB is night and day. The 4K picture on the CX810 is crisp and colourful. Without being washed out like the Tapo. A closer view makes person identification immediate at any reasonable distance. The CX810 does suffer from considerable field curvature. Not quite barrel distortion but very noticeable. Probably a result of the very fast, f/1.0 lens.

 The Tapo is so wide angle that everything in view is tiny. Which has its uses but not for my main security cameras. Which I can now view both, side by side on my PC. I never managed to make the Tapo work on the PC. I'll point the Tapo over the western lawn for even more coverage. Though visible only on my phone. 

My nice neighbours' ponies have arrived. They have plenty to eat. Unfortunately they have wandered over to the far side of their paddock. So can't pose for a first portrait. The 3rd image is the new Reolink CX810 which was triggered by the cat retreating down the drive. The ponies have moved nearer at centre right.

I have some hedge clipping to do if I want to see the junction with the main drive. Duly done.

 Dinner was fried chicken, mushrooms and chips.

 

  ~o~