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Saturday 7th 40F/4.4C [8.50] A rather cloudy start clearing to sunshine later. Peaking at 8C/46F. Breezy from the east. 23C/73F in the room.
Up at 8.20 after several, earlier misfires. A fairly quiet night. Again with weird dreams.
Another ride is likely.
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Nothing that precludes a ride. If sufficiently or even efficiently wrapped up. A windproof jacket blocks the headwind but is flattened against my inner clothing. So the inner layers need depth to distance the bod from the cold fabric. This can be achieved with a pile lining to the windproof jacket. Or multiple layers of inner clothing.
What is not needed is excessively warm clothing on a bike. You'd be daft to wear a down jacket for example. Simply because the exercise of cycling produces heat. Sweating is the kiss of death on a bike. You heat up on a climb and then shoot down the other side. Which is the equivalent of a cold plunge after a sauna!
Get really sweaty and you won't dry out and warm up for the rest of the ride! Which is misery! So you need breathable fabrics. To allow your sweat to evaporate. I am lucky to have so many jackets. Mostly recycled. I have a hi-viz, windproof jacket with a pile lining. It is waterproof and breathable. So works well for me on the e-bike. Because I don't heat up remotely as much as a normal bike or trike. I can easily carry a spare, windproof jacket in a pannier bag. To have change of outer shell. Just in case I do warm up more than expected.
For really cold conditions I have a pair of Reusch, Powder Spirit, Gore-tex, skiing gloves. Made in China. Each step up in insulation makes handling handlebar controls more difficult. The MTB gears and brake levers are okay.
The problem lies with the stupidly small Bosch computer control keypad. I can do without changing screens but changing assistance modes becomes very difficult through thickly padded gloves.
That's always the problem with nepotism. Design is left in the hands of drooling idiots. If the Bosch e-bike head designer had ever ridden an e-bike it would be glaringly obvious. Instead of an endless, irritating bore!
No doubt the same individual will be the last to be fired. When the Chinese completely dominate the e-bike market in a couple of years. He/she can safely move across to Bosch electric shavers. Or Bosch nail clippers. Manufactured in China of course.
Up at 6.30 because I became bored with lying there awake. I think I am spending too much time dozing during the day. Which speaks volumes for my tastes [or lack of] in YouTube videos. Or Netflix series for that matter. I am hardly aware of having a Chump nap.
It was just below 22C/72F in the room earlier. So I have stepped the heat pump remote up by a degree to 21C. The badly insulated walls are probably cooling with falling outside temperatures. The human bod radiates to these surfaces and feels chilled. Despite the higher, indicated air temperatures. Sitting at the computer does not produce much heat. I feel no pressure to fire up the wood stove. Delightful as it is in radiating heat. Perhaps more enjoyable in the evenings.
I ought to go for a walk. To gauge the temperature and get a feel for today's conditions. In preparation for a ride.
10.05 Back from my usual loop. It was obvious which way the light breeze was blowing. My eyes and nose were streaming on the way back. The thinnest GripGrab gloves were Ok. Certainly not warm enough for any forward speed on a bike.
I am putting off a ride until this afternoon.
11.55 Sunshine! I am seeing ever more signs, large and small. Protesting against wind and solar farms. As well as data centres. Several, large fields near Ebberup had been turned into a solar farm several years ago. These are hard to see from the Glamsbjerg-Assens main road. Since they lie downhill and are shielded by hedges.
Now another "Energy Park" is planned for a hill overlooking the main road south of Aarup. At Basselund. A tiny scattering of house on mostly eastwards sloping fields. Three wind turbines and a field of solar panels are planned. Covering 30 hectares. The plan by the Assens Kommune [County Council] is up for public discussion. With a website showing the suggested appearance from lots of viewpoints.
Ironically, three wind turbines have been working at Kaslund in the background to the site for decades. They are seen over the brow of the low, N-S ridge and are two kilometers away from the main road.
The plan seems to be to replace these three with turbines at the new site. Which would make them much more visible. I often use the existing turbines to confirm the local wind direction. One can well imagine that farms struggling to survive economically can see the benefits of such energy farms.
As a lifelong fan of alternative energy I like wind turbines. I've built several small ones myself. There are already lots of wind turbines south of the intended site. Hårby, 17km to the SE has very many! Mostly arranged in scattered groups of three. Over a wide area around the village.
14.20 Back from a chilly, 44F/6.5C, 19km ride. I was going to photograph a group of wind turbines but the conditions were all wrong. Haze and the sun in the wrong direction.
The pictures above are how the old railway once looked. Before they lifted the rails to make the new cycle path. Though I cheated as there no plans to change this section. Which is out in the gorgeous countryside beyond Glamsbjerg.
Dinner was a rather excellent mushroom and cheese omelette. My first attempt at folding.
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Up at 7am after another night of weird dreams. 22C/72F in the room.
Cooking class this morning. Chops, roast potatoes and rhubarb crumble. Hopefully the mist wont slow the drive too much.
I remembered to recharge the spare battery on the e-bike. I had run it right down to the lowest charge yesterday. Knowing that I had a half charged spare on the rack. The air temperature affects range as well. Leaving a battery flat will probably damage it. It is best to leave between 20 and 80% charge if it isn't to be used for a while.
The lower temperatures are affecting the fish in the greenhouse pond. The water temperature is just above 50F/10C. The fish have grown far more lethargic. Though they still gather for breakfast, lunch and teatime. There isn't remotely the same feeding frenzy. They will take only one or two pellets from the surface and then sink down for a munch and meditation. Goldfish have tiny stomachs. So overfeeding is possible in winter.
The fish like to hide under the weed and seem to enjoy brushing through the fronds. There are still eight fish left. Ranging from a remarkably solid 20cm down to about 15cm.
After three decades of feeding wood burning stoves here, the heat pump has taken over. This will be its first winter. So I have no idea what the electricity bill will look like. It will certainly reduce the physical labour of buying, collecting and moving logs. Whether this is a good thing I am not sure. Carrying baskets of logs indoors was hard work and made me breathless. Avoiding that workload may not be beneficial.
14.00 Back from cooking class. Where two of us made a huge pile of roast potatoes. By a very complicated route. Others made a complex sauce with chops. Desert was a very tasty rhubarb crumble.
I visited the Morris Minor specialist on the way home. I am hoping for a service next week. He is always so busy on restorations that it is difficult to fit me in.
16.00 Returning from a late afternoon ride into the village. To do some shopping. It felt very cold and my eyes and nose were streaming. Yet it was only 41F/5C. As a blinding, red sun just reached the horizon on my return journey. Low mist was forming on one sunken field but nowhere else. I had found the rush hour. A tractor was spraying close to the road! Will I survive? Or will I become a zombie?
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