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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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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