9.05.2026

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  Saturday 9th 50F/10C [8.30] Last fully sunny day for the moment. Peaking at 16C/61F this afternoon. A modest, easterly wind. 63F/17C in the room. With the stair well now fully open again. I took the heavy curtains down. They had made a useful contribution to keeping the downstairs warm. 50F/10C in the greenhouse. 

 Rain and a northerly wind expected tomorrow. Just as the carpenter is coming to fit the new doors. On the northern facade. Hopefully the roof overhangs will provide some protection.

 Up at 7.40 after an untidy night. I was awake at four and 5am and then it was suddenly much later. My back is still hurting. Though I still plan to have a walk. 

 9-9.30. My usual loop along the drives. Warm sunshine. Very little wind. I almost walked off the back pain. 

 

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8.05.2026 48km and some gardening.

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   Friday 8th 53F/12C [8.00] Another sunny day is promised. Peaking at 16C/61F after lunch. Easterly winds starting light. Gusting to 10m/s by late afternoon. 70F/21C in the room. After feeling cold in the night and starting up the heat pump. I put on my thick jumper but my legs were still cold. 50F/10C in the greenhouse. The Danish news media is talking about a drought.

 Up at 7.15 after a disturbed night with weird dreams. I was awake at four. Then it was five and six and seven. All in the blink of a closed eye.

 I think I'll have a ride to Fåborg via the pretty lanes. Headwind going. Helped home later.

 9.50 Returning from another loop of the drives. It was warm with a steady easterly breeze. I was overdressed. The robot mower was sitting [stuck?] in the same place as before. In a steep hollow around a drain. A few swallows were zooming over the fields. I have seen very few this year. Wagtails were landing on the drive and going again. I followed an orange tipped butterfly for a 100m. 

 13.30 Back from a 48km ride. I never made it to Fåborg. It didn't seem as if I had the range. Despite leaving with a 100% battery charge. I stayed in Tour mode to conserve battery power. Until I headed for home. Taking a major detour along a narrow lane. Which became a gravel track several times. Middle of nowhere hardly begins to describe it.  I saw several birds of prey and a single hare while I was out.

 16.15 I have replaced the line in the DeWalt strimmer with the 2mm gold coloured stuff. Then strimmed most of the western lawn. Which had become 90% dandelions. The strimmer was very effective but hard on my back. So I added a support sling at the handle. Which went diagonally over my shoulder and certainly helped. 

 There are still lots of molehills. Which were hidden until now. I tried the strimmer on the grass already growing through the gravel parking space. Too vicious! The mower was no better. Now I need a rest!

 I should go shopping. I'll see what's in the fridge. Shop tomorrow.

 Dinner was mackerel in tomato sauce on toast with tomatoes. 

 

 

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7.05.2026 Hedge? What hedge?

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 Thursday 7th 41F/5C [7.15] Bright but rather cloudy today. 64F/18C in the room. 48F/9C in the greenhouse.

 Up at 6.30 after a fairly quiet night. My back was killing me when I got up! Was it the mowing?

 Cooking class today. I have colour recipe papers again. After a long time with black and white. The HP printer would not recognize its own obscenely expensive "economy sized" ink cartridges. So when it stopped feeding paper as well it was quickly replaced by a budget Canon ink jet printer. 

 Now the Canon wants to update its firmware. As I don't have a Masters degree in Canon updating textual nonsense it is likely to remain "unimproved." Fortunately it produces excellent prints as is. So I won't repair what's not broken. 

 Besides, I did not take the option of the accessory Atomic Tunneling Microscope. To be able to read the sub-micro [3 micron] text on the sub-miniature display panel. There is somebody very twisted at Cannon to have let that become an official feature. Nepotism? Probably.

 In fact the updating was only a matter of repeatedly pressing the OK button to prompts on the tiny screen. Read with the aid of my trusty 10x compound, magnifying glass. Job done. Now it will probably start misbehaving. Or displaying adverts on the tiny screen! 😱

 However tempting to ride the 32km to cooking class I think it's a bit risky. I am feeling a bit fragile this morning.

 I have now heard back from the county council about the overgrown, larch hedge. They have decided that it does not present a serious hindrance to normal movement along the drive. I may trim the hedge to ensure free passage but may not damage the hedge. 

 So any plans to take a chainsaw to the trunks at head height is obviously out of the question. The image [top right] shows the towering hedge. The hedge in the foreground is the legal height for a shared, boundary hedge.

 I have discovered the name of the investment company. Which I am presuming is [slowly] repairing the house for rental. One might have hoped the recent run of fine weather would have signaled the arrival of more builders. 

 13.45 Back from cooking class. Where I made beef burgers.

 No dinner required. So I used the time to wash up instead. 😇

 

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