20.03.2026 Hi-viz introvert and verge crawling.

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  Friday 20th 34F/1C. [7.30] Overcast with thick mist. Expected to clear to sunshine by 11am.  63F/17C in the room. 42F/5.6C in the greenhouse. 

 Up at 7am after a quiet night. Woke at 6am but decided it was too early. Suddenly it was daylight. No ill effects from yesterday's ride.

 It seems my timing was completely awry on wanting a heat pump. Stump's private war for oil profits for his keepers. Not to mention saving his Russian bosom buddy's war effort. Has many Danes crippled by rising oil and gas prices. Suddenly everyone wants a heat pump! The latest pool of taxpayer funding makes a system change seem almost cheap. Getting rid of their old central heating system is a condition of the grant. I had better buy some more logs! Before those too are driven up in price. I can't afford to burn the last of the [recycled] furniture. Or I'll have nowhere to sit.

 I had better wear my hi-viz [recycled] jacket on my walk this morning. Yesterday I mentioned that am now walking on the rough verges when I can. Having watched another AI YT video. About sending vital, survival signals down to the ancient bod. Walking on the road is no longer good enough. 

 I remember talking about this on the blog years ago. Walking on rough tracks forces the feet and legs to constantly adapt to changing terrain. Not to mention the brain-hips and aging balance systems. Which keeps them all in better shape than walking on smooth, flat surfaces. 

 There is another survival gain from avoiding the asphalt. Commuters on autopilot don't stand such a good chance of hitting me. Try as they might. The main downside of verge crawling. Is the increased risk of tripping. Perhaps falling under the wheels of a passing lorry. Or even injuring myself enough to leave me stranded beside the road. 

 I could be nibbled by stray cats before anybody calls for an ambulance. It's no easy feat being empathetic. Not when it is illegal to stop on double white lines. Or to use one's mobile phone while driving. Especially when you and everybody else in the queue to nowhere. Are always ten minutes late for work.

 8.15 It is definitely brightening up out there. I am running out of excuses to sit here wittering on.  Though I still can't see my neighbours bringing up the rear. 

 8.40-9.00 Morning walk. It continued to brighten without a clear sun. I looped around the drives. The mist is slow to clear. 

 11.40 Full sunshine. I have been using a tall, tripod ladder, chain hoist and slings to lower an old telescope mounting from its massive steel pier. The pier was so embedded in the undergrowth that I needed the car and a long rope to pull it free. I welded the pier together myself. The mounting was placed on top while I was still at work. So at least 18 years ago. 

 12.00 My vision just went funny! Sparkling and misty. I hope it wasn't a minor stroke from my exertions! 

 14.00  52F/11C. Full sunshine. It was 100F/38C in the greenhouse. So I opened the door and all four windows to share the warmth indoors. The temperature has risen from 64 to 70F/18-21C. The greenhouse has dropped to 95F/35C. The effect of the openness to the greenhouse is odd. It feels cooler indoors. As if there is a draught. Yet there is little or no indication of any wind. Standing in the greenhouse it feels hot. Because I am being directly heated by the sunshine passing through the glass. 

 The lean-to greenhouse is a Halls Silverline. Approximately 22' wide by 8' deep and 8' high. Consisting of two lean-to greenhouses placed end to end. Connected in the middle with a doubled, joining profile. Which I believe is long discontinued. I dispensed with the gable ends at the centre. To provide an uninterrupted interior. 

 Single glazed in long panes of 4mm glass. In a sturdy, bare aluminium frame, greenhouse style. With curved clear plastic "shoulders" all along the front. Which are a nuisance. The plastic scratches degrades and cracks over time and is expensive to replace. I would much prefer a sharp angle at the eaves covered only in glass. Beggars can't be choosers. I started with a secondhand greenhouse from the next village. Then added a discounted model from the dealer in Odense. In a perfect world I would have provided a concrete foundation strip. I chose to use green oak. Which has rotted away several times over the years.

 For two decades the interior was covered in white material for shade. Which was really pointless. Once inside the glass the heat is intolerable. So I have been covering the roof with two layers of commercial grower's shade net over the last few summers. This makes it cooler and more comfortable to be out there. Mostly from not having direct sunshine beating down. The shade nets do darken the indoors. Particularly when the sky is overcast.

 14.25 The room has risen to 72F/22C. The greenhouse down to 94F/34C. I have now opened all the internal doors to spread the warmth. My very own "earthship!" 

 

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19.03.2026 A cold 54km ride.

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  Thursday 36F/2C [7.40]  A cool, sunny start but expected to cloud over later. Expected to reach almost 11C/52F after lunch. 63F/17C in the room. The stove was never lit yesterday. Thanks to the continuous sunshine and opening the adjoining doors and windows to the greenhouse. Though it does feel a bit chilly in here this morning. It is presently 41F/5C in the greenhouse. The sun doesn't reach the greenhouse for a while yet. Due to the absent neighbours' trees.

 Looking like toys in the depths of a deep cutting.

 Up at 6.25 after another busy night. I must discover some self-discipline. Stop having a milky coffee every night after dinner. 

 Further to yesterday's meander into buying new doors. I have discovered they have a showroom in Odense. The only major city on Fyn and about 30km away. With petrol prices playing Follow The Stump I may just cycle over there. Though it is much colder than I would have liked. 

 I haven't discovered any parking places nearby. I'd better have a look at the online maps. Before making any silly decisions. Right. There is limited, on-street parking nearby. Providing it isn't already taken up. The showroom opens at 10.00.

 The true scale of the articulated Volvo tipper truck in the previous image. There were lots of these working along the stretch I visited today. I think this was an A30G.

 8.25. Time for a walk. 

 8.55 45F/7C Back from my walk. I had a quick chat with my nice neighbour as he left for work. His flock of chickens is expanding. I walked on the verge as much as possible today. Though I was hampered by all the deep tractor tracks. Presumably the drivers were pulling over to let following traffic pass. A vast crop sprayer was trundling across the prairie in the distance. It was just warm enough to take my hands out of my jacket pockets at times. I hadn't bothered with gloves.  

 9.40 Off we jolly well go.  

 12.00  53F/12C. And back again. I chatted for an hour with the window salesman/advisor. His excellent command of English was very useful. As he shared his knowledge of his products in response to all my questions. 

 Concrete work for a cutting and a bridge support. 

 I passed another site. Where the new HS railway line crosses the motorway. At a major junction with the main road. On the western approach to Odense. Great mountains of soil and sand. Were matched by great chasms. With pale concrete castings visible below the road for bridges and cuttings. 

 Unfortunately there was nowhere to stop to take pictures. I might use it as a goal for a ride after lunch. The sun has gone in and today's temperature has already peaked.

 16.20 Back from a 54km ride. I captured lots of images of the new railway. Mostly beyond Skallebølle and around Blommenslyst. A driver drove at high speed onto the motorway against a red light. Just as I was pulling away. The light had changed several seconds earlier. 

 It was cold and grey. With an irritating wind on the return leg via Tommerup St. My hands and toes were getting progressively colder.  

 Laying soil for leveling the new track bed. A giant CAT D7 bulldozer spreads the dumped soil. While a road roller compacts it. Volvo tipper trucks ply constantly back and forth. A white, off-road, box shaped tanker [?] is busy too. One of several. I could see white in the distance but have no idea what they were spreading. Not for dust I don't think. It looked too damp and muddy for that.

 I found a new cycle path beside the road. Between Tommerup St. and Skalbjerg. Which I hadn't heard about. Nor discovered until now. It was laid in smooth asphalt on the verge but rose and fell with the level of the fields. Rather than the road beside it. I was at least three meters lower than the traffic at times. It stopped abruptly in Skalbjerg. Though there were small red flags in front gardens on the opposite side of the road. A possible extension towards Vissenbjerg? Where there have been cycle paths up and down the big hill for decades.

 17.25 49F/9C. 62F/17C in the room. It has just started to rain. I have lit the stove.  

 I don't need any dinner tonight. I've had breakfast, lunch and two bread rolls today. Hours after I usually do.

 

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18.03.2026 Two doors.

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  Wednesday 18th 38F/3.3C. Bright with all day sunshine promised. 64F/18C in the room. 42F/5.6C in the greenhouse.

 Up at 6am after a busy night. 

 9.15 leaving to visit my English friend. 

 12.30 Back from my visit. It is sunny but does not feel particularly warm in the wind. Gusting to 10m/s from the south. I took a picture of  some flowers in his spacious greenhouse. Where we enjoyed coffee and Danish pastries in the sunshine. 

 13.00 53F/11.7C. 65F/18C indoors. 98F/37C in the greenhouse. I'll open the doors out to the greenhouse. To borrow some of that heat. I have also opened the living room windows covered by the greenhouse. To try to speed up heat flow to the indoors. I also gathered the open stairwell curtains and tied them with a cord. To hopefully obtain a chimney effect.

 I have decided to order two new doors for the north facing facade. A panel front door with diamond shaped square window near the top. To provide a smarter, far better insulated and much beter sealed entrance door. With a bit of extra light for the hall. Plus a triple glazed, terrasse door. To allow greater freedom for bringing things in and out of the living room. 

 It was an awful struggle to get the furniture in when we first moved here. The removal chap handed the heavy, three seater settee/sofa up to me. While I was standing on the 1st floor balcony in the gable end! Once safely upstairs it then had to be lowered down the narrow 55º stairs. That was 30 years ago. When I was still strong and fit at 50.

 Similarly, the home helps and district nurses couldn't get the hospital bed indoors. When it was needed for my wife's final days here. The bed had to be dismantled just to get it in. 

 Getting Her coffin out ten days later was similarly difficult for the funeral directors. Very undignified! I couldn't bare to watch as they struggled mightily! 

 The narrow entrance hall forces a sharp bend from the living room out to what is the main entrance door. Which does not allow much freedom for anything longer than a few feet. 

 The new doors will help to lift the presently hideous appearance of Chez Hovel. Though how much it will improve the value is debatable. It might help the place to sell after I am gone. Every little helps.

 The current window is a lanceolate topped, single glazed, pine antique. It was there when we bought the place. With the firm intention of getting rid of it at some point. It has some historical value and arguably some character. The old pine will probably last another century. 

 I shall have to do some demolition work to fit the new, full height, glazed door in its place. The area above and below the present window was bricked and blocked up to close the gaps. The floor level indoors is a bit higher than the black painted, ground bar. The ugly, lightweight building blocks badly need repainting. After decades of knocks from gardening tools being leaned up against it. Cream was my wife's choice. After much discussion. Only the back of the house was ever painted. I left the white front alone. With the lean-to greenhouse hiding most of it. The gable ends are still patchy white.

 I presume this old window was once a real door in the long history of the hovel. Which dates back to the 1700s and was once a tiny, thatched, double hipped cottage. It was still like that in the 1950s. With a small porch to the main, south facing, entrance door. And another door directly into the living room facing east. Now converted to another window. 

 The last owner before us expanded the place and did it up [very badly!] I spent years doing the place up and making repairs myself. Once it became our new home. Though it was never really good enough. 

 I finally placed the order for both doors. After hours of re-measuring and deciding on the finer details. Some at extra expense. The living room rose to 75F/24C in the sunshine. Though it has cooled off to 71F now. After I closed all the doors and windows. 

 Dinner was cheese on toast with halved cherry tomatoes. 

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