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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14.07.2026 Backwards and forwards.

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  Tuesday 14th 61F/16C [6.50] Bright but milky sky as we are promised wall to wall sunshine. 22C/71F in the room. Heat pump on all night set to 22C. 16.5C/62F in the greenhouse.

 The Danish news reports that our area suffered the heaviest cloudburst in Denmark yesterday afternoon. With 31.5mm. What is referred to as a Double Cloudburst. I watched as the run-off flowed down the gentle incline of the drive towards the house. Easily visible because it reflects the sky at a low angle. Contrasting with the dark gravel of the traffic tracks.

 Up at 6.10 after a quiet night. With the inevitable breaks. I am feeling more normal this morning. 

 The neighbours cat was sniffing the new molehills on The West lawn. Scratching at the tallest it could find. Then promptly squatted on the heap and unburdened itself. I glared at it through the bathroom window and it glared back. Where's the respect? 

 There were several examples yesterday. Where I caught up with an electric bike. Ridden in all cases by a pensioner. Overtaking these e-bikes proved to be quite problematic. They were traveling just fast enough. To greatly extend the overtaking period and ground covered while doing so. Which meant very careful timing on the winding, narrow lanes. Which I was enjoying at the time.

 With many drivers being totally unaware. Or not caring  damn. About the meaning of braking distance at speed. Relative to their visibility ahead. It could be quite hazardous to overtake with many a blind corner coming up. So that I, and other drivers, found ourselves following these e-bikes for quite some time and some distance. Which may itself cause cause fear and trepidation in the e-cyclist. 

 The high street in one village had a lengthy procession. Where some relaxed, elderly e-biker, was using a lot of road. A total air head. While weaving about as he passed and admired points of interest. He was completely unaware that he had a long stream of cars following him. All unable to risk overtaking. Due to oncoming traffic and the village speed limit.

 My own e-bike is capable of higher speeds than most. Which puts a much greater burden on me. To allow following traffic to overtake as soon and as safely as possible. The same held true with my trikes. So that I would often use the next pull-in, layby or junction to allow a vehicle or [worse] a queue to pass. Which would often produce a wave of thanks or a toot on their horn. 

 The phenomenal acceleration of many EVs [like Teslas] Is worth every penny for overtaking on crowded roads. Provided they do not exceed the speed limit of course. As I potter about. Usually at the speed limit in the Morris. I am regularly overtaken by Teslas and their kin. They go past me like a dragster. Before settling down again in the traffic flow. 

 One must  always be aware of other traffic and their different needs. Despite the ever increasing volume of traffic on the roads. My journeys are increasingly for pleasure and can usually be enjoyed at a slower pace. Others are often working to a timetable. Where dawdling is apt to cause upset and impatience. So again, I make every effort not to be a hindrance. Even though it does seem odd. That the local speed limits have become compulsory for all vehicles. Rather than merely optional. "Sunday drivers" were being criticized at least as far back as the 1960s.  

Enough waffling. It is pleasantly warm outside. I have stretched out the network cable and hose. To see how long they really are. I need a meter of bare cable to reach the POE switch indoors from the outside of the house wall. So chop the hose at 19m? Some leeway? 18.5m? 

 08.30 Still struggling to push the draw wire through the hose. I am standing on a tall stepladder to get some tension on the hose.  With several bricks resting on the far end. To stop it from sliding towards me. Nearly there. I hope. Pulling the cable through will be much easier. I should have pulled out the draw wire to match the length of hose. So that I could easily tell if I was getting close. Or wasting my time. I can see that there only a few turns of the 3mm nylon left on the spool. Pi x D? 

 11.30 76F/24.4C. Sweating buckets. I had to cut the hose in half. It proved impossible to push the 3mm draw wire through 18m of hose. I wasted a lot of time trying. Too much friction. Whereas pulling the cable through 9m was relatively easy. I finally have the end of the cable indoors. Just walking backwards and forwards is hard work in this hot sunshine! I had better sink a few glasses of water. And have a rest.

 13.30 78F/26C. Lunch over. I am staying indoors to avoid being baked. It is quite breezy but I find the heat unpleasant. There is no shelter from the sun where I am working. The heat pump is keeping the ground floor at a comfortable 22C/72F. 

 I cleaned the fish tank of algae.  

 18.30 75F/24C. Still hot. Back from the shops with two bags well stuffed. An immaculate Morris Minor shopping trolley was in the car park. It is surprising how rarely I see another. 

 Dinner was fish fingers and cauliflower. Which was perfect. 

 I fetched the recycling bin from the end of the drive and tidied up outside.

 

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13.07.2025 Back to work?

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  Monday 13th 62F/17C [6.30] 23C/73F in the room. 17C/ 63F in the greenhouse. Some sunshine promised but thundery showers are likely. Leading to 16mm or 3/4" of rain.

  Up at 5.50 after a quiet night with some sleeplessness and weird dreams. I tried the single bed sheet and quickly went back to the lightweight, down duvet. 

 Still feeling a bit rough. My temperature is 35.6C. I don't think I was exposed to excess heat but I must get away from the screen. Before it triggers dizziness. 

 Dehydration and high temperatures must be taken seriously when one has a weak, heart circulation system. Dizziness is a symptom of overheating. Where the brain is denied blood circulation. I don't believe I have risked myself by overdoing it in hot weather. I usually retreat indoors. Simply because it is unpleasant to be active in what feels like being in an oven.  

  7.15 I have assembled the garden roller. With difficulty. Despite 70 years of experience dealing with mechanical problems. The handlebar tubes were inaccurately bent. So I had to resort to a Stillson wrench to press the overlapping joints together. Just to get the screws through the prepared holes.

 Perhaps it truly was the work of a great designer genius. Hoping the plain nuts would still hold beyond the first use due to tension alone. The threads on the scraper bar were already rusty. Yet were supplied with Nylock nuts. Luxury beyond the dreams of avarice!  

 In practice the nuts were entirely unnecessary. Since the scraper bar was captive between the handlebars. Next, I have to fill the drum with sand. Or water. It's dry [tare] weight would hardly handle pastry. Not with any sense of urgency. That scraper will take ages before it is useful. It needs to rock into contact with the drum.

 My dual computer screens are still playing silly bøgers. Certain apps open on the second screen. Others on the first. Some Windows features and queries open on either screen seemingly at random. Yes, I have clicked the box to say "This is my main display." I even swapped them around to no obvious benefit. 

 10.50 Back from two builders merchants. The first had no large masonry bits [drills.] The second added 20 miles, had lots of drills but were horribly expensive. I wasn't going to pay £90 British pounds
equivalent for a 40cm x 22mm. Just to drill one hole to the great outdoors. I ended up paying £35 for a similar 18mm drill. Big enough for my needs.

 The DeWalt uses the SDS-Plus bayonet system in the chuck. Which made a number of the bigger  masonry drills in my collection obsolete. Though they still fit normal hammer drills of course. The smaller drills lack the torque and brutal hammer effect. Which makes the big drill so incredibly quick and useful. Plus the non-rotating hammer effect for chisel use. Which isn't available on the DIY sized hammer drills. 

 I have discovered, somewhat belatedly, that the Morris Minor has air conditioning. A Tesla in a matching colour parked right next to me. There was a large notice inside. Stating that the car was a comfortable 70F. So no panic should kids or dogs be ensconced therein. I thought to myself: I can do that too! By fully opening the quarterlights a strong, cool wind is blown across the driver's naked arms and legs while underway. Nice! 

 11.45 Drilling the brick wall to 18mm was quick and effortless. Using the big hammer drill. I ran a 40cm x 10mm pilot and then a series of larger drills. 40cm was a good guess. It only just broke through. I had drilled downwards to avoid water finding itself inside. 

 The hammer drill was an excellent investment. I used it to drill through the kitchen floor for the 4" drainpipe for the washing machine. The drill was invaluable for clearing the cement and concrete below the new glazed door using chisel bits. The door is proving much easier to navigate with the telescope tripod. Instead of struggling through the entrance hall. 

 12.45 Running in and out and moving the furniture made me very breathless. My vision was disturbed. Everything was going white! So I had a half hour nap with the heat pump going. It had reached 24C/75F indoors. Already dropped to 22C and still falling. 

 A rather interesting design of 20m draw wire. The handle rotates freely around a peripheral slot. About £10 in a big shed DIY outlet.  

 13.15 78F/26C. It feels like an oven outside. Had lunch. Ready to start again. I need to find a length of tube. To sleeve over a joint midway along the 20mm garden hose. Which I am using as a protective conduit for the POE 20m network cable out of doors.

 An old, tubular curtain rail will do nicely. It will be easier to pull 10m lengths of cable through the conduit than the entire length of 20m. Minus the  naked cable at each end of course. 

 The required conduit length is 18m measured in straight lines with a taut fiberglass tape. 1.5m of bare cable. To have enough length indoors. Including the 40cm thickness of the wall.  There is plenty of room in the hose. So I could try pulling the full length first. I found some very long zip ties to hold the hose firmly to the 3m tall, wooden pole. 

 14.35 Suddenly dark outside.

 14.44 Tidying up outside and the first clap of thunder! Dash around to collect all the tools. Close the car windows.  

 14.55 First rain. 

 15.02 Torrential! The woods have disappeared completely. More thunder. The whole drive is bright with reflective water. 

 Dinner was  salad. I had to wash up for half an hour first. Or there would be no clean plates, pans or cutlery. I forgot to buy cucumber.It didn't seem to matter.

  

 

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