22.03.2026 50 chilly km.

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  Sunday 22nd 1F/-1 [6.45] An overnight frost. The sun is just rising over the hill to the east. The forecast is for a misty start with early cloud. Peaking at 10C/50F this afternoon. Sun from 10 o'clock. It seems nobody told the sun. 64F/18C in the room. It was 72F/22C last night. 36F/2C in the greenhouse.

 Up at 4.25. I woke at 4am for the first time to use the fire bucket. Only to descend into a spiral of negative memories. Sleep did not arrive to end the misery. So I got up to escape. Not with any irritation or remorse. It happens. So why torment myself further? Life presents a series of unfortunate events which alter one's path. Once I am upright the memories of those events can be set aside. Peace returns. 

 Overall I think my life has been a reasonable success. Despite the many hiccups along the away. I have created so many peculiar things. It would cover an A4 page if I listed them all by my own illegible hand. Fame was never my goal. Wealth might have been once but it always managed to swerve effortlessly around me. 

 In absence of abundance I was forced to make the things that I wanted. Each new project provided new skills and knowledge. Often involving new tools. Which could all be shuffled along to the next project. Usually with the need for more tools. More knowledge. More research. More reading. The steady, or unsteady accumulation of skills and flexibility in thinking. I am no artist and have the musical skills of woodlouse. My skills at math are so poor as to warrant mirth. Yet I get by. 

 I have been extraordinarily lucky in being able to find "stuff" throughout my long life. The basic building materals needed for the construction of the latest obsession. For I am certainly obsessive. Once the latest butterfly flutters into view. I blame my innate intelligence for much of my creativity. Curiosity has been my main driver. Being unable to turn my intelligence into anything resembling a career was almost beneficial. A computer without a memory is a pitiful thing. Though never to be pitied. 

 I have inbuilt resources and can call upon them when the plumbing needs fixing. Or many other practical needs around the house. Like a new roof. Or insulation, woodwork, windows and doors and tiling. The enormous savings over the long decades have probably allowed me to find the funds for my endless projects. 

My late wife referred to me as a "butterfly." Because I would become so engrossed in a subject or construction. Only to completely lose interest once something was achieved to my own satisfaction. The countless books in my library are witness to my fleeting and flitting nature. I am a perfectionist in my drive to succeed with a project. Dismissive of my unwillingness to compromise. 

 YouTube keeps suggesting videos on "manifestation." The subtle control of one's personal universe by conscious power of will. Which makes me think that my remarkable luck is often my simply having a positive attitude. Not deluded longing. Not a belief in some higher authority. No pie in the sky nonsense. Just a belief that what I need is simply waiting to be found.

 Take a recent example: I needed display cabinets for my late wife's glass collection. Suddenly they were "coming out of the woodwork." So to speak. Yes, it is true that I was deliberately searching for these cabinets in charity shops. Searching for inspiration in online furniture sales websites. 

 I have to ask: Was this all that it required? To have a need. Then to find so many cabinets, so quickly, at such very modest expense. All in the same period style by probably the same manufacturer. Yet I have no memory of these cabinets being available beforehand. Nor for sale before I needed them. They are so distinctive that I am sure I would have noticed. 

 I wanted to find an affordable Morris Minor. Something to suit my slower pace at relatively low cost. So I could get rid of my aging Japanese car. Which we had owned for years and was reaching the end of its affordable life. Hey presto and abracadabra!  A chap in the nearest village was selling a nice one for an elderly owner. Less than a kilometer away. Then I needed specialist advice and expertise. A supplier of unique spares and skilled repair of these old vehicles. There is a specialist restorer within a short bike ride from Chez Hovel. 

 8.00 33F/+1C. It has misted over on the back fields while I was scribbling. Time for a walk.  

 8.30 36F/2C. Bright sunshine. Back again. I used the thick mist as a cover for a loop around the spray tracks on the fields. The overnight frost promised firm soil. My hands are freezing despite the gloves. Traffic very quiet. 

 The temperature doesn't climb much until lunch time. So an afternoon ride makes most sense. I should stay at home this morning and do something useful. 

 12.00 52F/11C. 67F/19C in the room. 95F/35C in the greenhouse. I have opened all the internal doors and windows to share the warmth. 

 13.00 Lunch. 68F/20C indoors. I have sorted the indoor containers into the recycling bin and dragged it along the drive. Made progress with dismantling a heavy old telescope mounting. For packing and dispatch. Watered all the indoor plants and retied the Monstera. 

 13.45 53F/12C. I am going to get ready for a ride. 

 16.55 51F/11C. 68F/20C in the room. I opened the greenhouse skylights before leaving. Currently 77F/25C out there. Returning from a rather chilly 50km/31 mile ride. I explored the still closed and newly opened roads on the new railway route. Took lots of pictures with my phone camera. I was getting saddle sore and tired from about 40km. So I used Turbo mode to help me get home. 

 A pair of storks flew over the road just in front of me. Out in the middle of nowhere. A tractor was ploughing. With a tail of hundreds of gulls. Several birds of prey wanted a free lunch too but were being attacked by the gulls. 

  

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21.03.2026 An icy 25km.

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  Saturday 21st 38F/3C [7.30] Overcast and expected to remain cloudy. Peaking at only 6C/43F. Southerly winds. 17C in the room. 46F/8C in the greenhouse.

 Up at 7am after a quiet night with irritating dreams. I couldn't find my own house in a strange city. I was carrying a tablet but couldn't make it work. The usual drivel but ultra-realistic.

 I'll probably have a Saturday morning ride. Do some shopping. 

 9.15 Walkies. 

 9.45 39F/4C. Back again. Cold and grey. Hands cold in gloves. The skylarks are still singing overhead. It was funny watching a wagtail standing on top of a chimney turbine. Pecking away at it for some reason. One wonders if it would do the same when it is spinning? I stopped to chat to two ponies by the fence. It was more of a monologue than a conversation. They seemed attentive. 

 11.10 Going for a ride. 

 13.00 Back from a 25km ride to the next village over. Going well but the headwind was icy in both directions. The split mitts helped. I shopped on the way home. It remained grey all day. 

 8.00 40F/4.4C. The room has reached 70F/21C with the stove lit. I'll let it ie down now. Dinner was sausage on fresh rolls. I still had half a sausage to use up but wanted to avoid just another full fry up.  I cut them in half after frying for 15 minutes. Then gave them another five minutes. Finger food.

 

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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 inside with white material for shade. Which was really pointless. Once inside the glass the sun's heat is intolerable. So I have been covering the roof outside 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 in the halls ans bathroom to spread the warmth. My very own "earthship!" But without the desert.

 Dinner was giant sausage rolls, mushrooms and beans. I was experimenting with the pastry. Trying to match the format size with the rather large sausage. Not with a great deal of success. Non-organic sausage, discounted. I shan't bother again.

 

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