17.07.2026

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  Friday 17th 64F/18C [7.15]  Bright, but highly variable overcast. Some sunshine on the last warm day for a while. 26C/79F peak but risk of thunderstorms all day. With possible cloudbursts. The weather map is punctuated with local thunderstorms in the west but moving northwards and eastwards.

 Up at 7.10 after a quiet night. My back and hips were painful at first. Caused by the return to cycling? 

 The new security camera lights were on all night again. Lighting up the room. So I have switched them off altogether. The four blinding LEDS are supposed to make night scenes show natural colour. Though this still needs at least some ambient light. 

 My other, identical cameras haven't shown the same determination to compete with sunlight! There is a schedule option to limit these lights to specific hours. The problem is the sheer number of insects flying into the bright lights. Closely followed by spiders webs. Festooning the view on the monitor. 

  New molehills were forming on The West lawn as I peered out of the bathroom window. The grass is pale and badly in need of a rest. After frequent tours of the robot mower. Hopefully today's showers and the return to lower temperatures from tomorrow onward, will help. There is a long history of pale grass in the summer months here. What is now a graveled parking space was often the colour of straw in the past.

 The largest of the goldfish in the greenhouse pond is getting very fat. I hope this doesn't mean hundreds of baby fish swimming about! One of the others has grown to almost the same size but is much slimmer. They must both be around 20cm/8" long by now. There has been some gentle chasing of each other around but who knows? Not a great picture. It needs a darker background to penetrate the surface reflection of the sky. So I hung some black garden fleece as a backdrop. Which upset them. So they started darting about!

 I have been researching the Eufy mower maps and naming zones. So that I can send the mower to mow specific areas on demand and not others. The trick is simply to name zones. Then choose a particular zone to mow. Now I have named the Drive and The West Lawn. The app asks me which zone to mow before it starts. There seemed to be no logic to when the mower would head across the parking space to the West Lawn. Or to wander up the drive. The drive seemed not to be getting the attention it deserved. Now I am back in control.

 I have been remote controlling the mower to the far end of the drive. Including deliberately driving it along the overgrown verges. Which I obviously want to cut too. The idea being to teach the AI vision what it looks like there and hopefully remembers to map it. For some reason it got stuck on memorizing the map at 80%. Requiring a forced system stop and restart.  The first so far. I have sent it off again to see if it remembers to mow to the very end. The displayed map doesn't look any different so far. Nor did it.

 I have spent the day playing with the robot mower. Without managing to get it to reach the end of the drive. I may have to make a Multi-zone Path and make an additional zone of the far end. The Wi-Fi signal should still be useful thanks to the Access Point. I was still getting -67dBm. With clear vision of the antenna back at the house.

 16.00 The "mashed potato" is piling up after a long, hot, sunny day. Just back from the shops in the Morris. A large storm has just slipped past to the west heading north north east.

 Dinner was two boiled eggs on fresh, bread rolls. Still no rain. 

 

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16.07.2026 35km and a recumbent.

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  Thursday 16th 60F/16C [6.40] Bright overcast. A sunny morning, cloudy later. High of 25C/77F. Light, southerly winds.

 Room at 22C/72F without the heat pump. All internal doors open. Several windows on ventilation. Fully open greenhouse 15C/59F. Pond water at 70F/21C. 

 Up at 6.10 after a quiet night. Some wakefulness. Weird dreams.

 The new camera was shining brightly all night. When it only wants to light up on a detection. I have reset it to Smart. [LED lights on detection only.] When constantly lit it attracts countless moths and flies.

 Robot set mowing. I walked to the end of the drive to put up a warning notice on an absent neighbour's bin. Two new, large molehills, Raked them out. The lawn is looking very pale. While the drive is mostly lush green.

 Should I go for another ride? Same goal as yesterday. Major new railway bridge and enormous earthworks. Skewed and very close to the raised motorway. With a major E-W road passing underneath. Shopping midway on my return. Nobody else stocks my favourite, organic, porridge oats. I like to keep a reserve in the larder. In case I can't easily reach the outlet. 

 Just had an online chat. To make sure I am fairly upright today.  

 That was interesting. The neighbour's cat was walking down the drive. It seemed to completely ignore the oncoming robot until the very last moment. With their paths opposed but parallel and only inches apart. The cat did a sudden loop around the robot at a slight trot. Then on without caring if it was being followed. Meanwhile the robot ignored the cat. It would have stopped if the cat had presented a real obstacle. 

 9.15 Early morning coffee and the bike is prepared. The robot mower is working along the drive. I shall send it home before I go for a ride. 

 9.45 74F/23C. Bright sunshine. Off we go.  

 11.45 79F/26C. Back again. 35km. A chap on a recumbent was resting at a bus stop. So I stopped to chat. In Danish. Later I reached the new railway bridge. Where the main road underneath has been reopened. Along with two cycle paths. Protected by pillars. For safe passage in the darkness. 

 Note the striking skew of the bridge relative to the roadway. The approach embankments, for the new railway, are still a long way from completion.

 The next image shows the similar skew of the existing motorway bridge. Complete with sound blocking fencing.

 The afternoon was spent much more quietly, online. 

 Dinner was a salmon pasty, peas and chips. Before you all tut-tut, it is over a fortnight since I last ate chips.  

  I reset the new security camera to stop showing lights day and night. I was seeing insects in close-up even in bright sunlight. I was hoping it would only show lights when it detected an alert situation.

 

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15.07.2026 Oh dear?

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  Wednesday 15th 59F/15C [6.50] Another sunny day is promised. With a high of 27C/81F. So hotter again. 22C/71F in the room. No heat pump running. 15C/59F in the fully open greenhouse.

 Up at 5.50 after a fairly quiet night. It took a long time to get to sleep. Too many naps during the day! 

 I ought to get on with the camera installation before it gets too hot again. Refilling and compacting the trench is a priority. 

 7.20 Trench refilled. It is pleasantly cool outside.  

 9.30 I have connected the camera and tidied up. Five camera viewpoints now. The robot mower is busy again. I am watching it from indoors. It is never out of sight now. No more blinds spots. I found the beech, asphalt rake ideal for leveling the new molehills on The West Lawn. I'll have a shower and go for a modest ride. Morning coffee before I go. Just to ensure I am topped up. 

 12.00 78F/26C. The dentist gave me an immediate appointment in one hour. Having just ridden 10km I had to turn round and ride straight back home again. For 20km. It was hot and quite a crosswind. Legs achy and without much strength. I had planned to ride onward but now had no time. I can shop from the car.

 13.30 79F/26C. Back from the dentist. Over half an hour in the chair. Uncomfortable but no real pain. A new plastic filled tooth. I didn't feel up to shopping afterwards. So drove home. I suppose I had better have some lunch. Relaunched the robot mower.

 The mower has done a remarkable job on very rough West Lawn. There is no doubt that it has been mowed. This is after two tours today. The drive is rather less impressive. No doubt it will respond to more clipping. The robot has gone back to its charging station for the moment.

 I have switched on the heat pump. After the room reached 24C/75F. 

 I spent an hour filling the drum of the garden roller with sand. The silly thing has a hole and a stopper only about 30mm in diameter. So I sat on a little stool beside the sand heap and used a narrow trowel to shovel with. 

 I am thinking that it ought to be filled right up. Or the sand will act as a brake on the inside of the drum. There is plenty of sand left but rapidly diminishing patience!

Dinner will be toast. Or, rather, fresh, bread rolls with tuna. 

A trial with the roller proved that I had exceeded the critical mass. I could hardly move the thing! Barely pull it. Impossible to push! Grr? I'll just have to empty it again. But how? Leave the stopper out so the sand dries and pours readily? That would take ages. Even in a heat wave and sunshine.

   

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