4th November 2015 Toxic smoke from demolition waste in [un]happy Denmark!

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Wednesday 4th 44F, 7C, overcast, light breeze. Forecast threat of sunshine, repeated daily, has not [yet] caused undue suffering from a lack of the SPFs. No walk. Mist now thinning slowly to safe cycling levels. The dark grey is even becoming lighter grey! Where's my sun cream? No sun. Just a short ride, late afternoon, returning at dusk. 13 miles, later lit up like a Christmas tree.

Thursday 5th 46-52F, 8-11C, heavy overcast. light breeze, rain possible.Walked my usual loop up through the woods and back by another way.

 The Danish police were having a campaign last week and caught 10,500 drivers speeding. Over half of those were in built-up areas. After a mid-morning [rain] shower I left for a late morning ride of 17 miles. I was dressed for 46F but it rose to 52F [11C] and I was sweating on the way home despite having the jacket open.

Friday 6th 52F, 11C, heavy overcast. It looks as if the stable, but rather grey weather is about to change. Much stronger winds are forecast. No walk as I had an early appointment.

Another old farmhouse is being sold off with enough land to make a garden. It seems idyllic until you see the heating bills and have to pay the exhausted team of stokers constantly shoveling coal into the vast boilers. In reality most are furnished with equally unaffordable, oil-fired central heating.

Another illegal lorry load of demolition waste has just been delivered next door. A mix of painted hardboard and chipboard to poison us with their toxic brown smoke for yet another month. The vast container lorry ripped the grass verges of our drive to a mud bath as it made a 3-point turn to back into the neighbour's chainsaw woodyard. While the driver remained [illegally] welded to his mobile phone throughout the maneuver. Every member of this family has their own car so it can't be poverty forcing their fuel choices. It's odd how Denmark, alone in the EU, has absolutely no environmental rules or controls, isn't it?

The irony is that if I published photographs of their lawbreaking online it is I who would be prosecuted for invasion of privacy! There was a story in the Danish news only yesterday about 600,000 security cameras existing in Denmark. This in a country where it is illegal to have security cameras covering public places. A private householder who sets up a camera to monitor their own property has to be careful to avoid recording passers-by on the road or pavement. The dashboard cameras, so popular in many other countries, would be illegal in Denmark. A cyclist with a helmet cam posting videos of an accident online would be prosecuted even if he was directly involved.

Despite the supposed ban on cameras the Danes are the most watched nation on earth per member of the population. Typical hypocrisy along with the supposed environmental standards. Britain is notorious for having literally millions of cameras in public places but also has a much larger population. It seems the majority of Danish cameras are not even registered. So presumably the police and security services can't even use them for fighting terrorism and crime.

A hundred yards of Japanese knotweed adding to the autumn colour. No doubt the verge grass cutter is carrying small pieces onto its next site of permanent establishment. I see it popping up everywhere but the Kommune isn't allowed to use toxic poisons. So the knotweed goes unchecked.

No ride today either. A grey, wet and miserable day. I drove to Odense to collect a large but cheap water butt to use as a tool shed and weekend summer house. The roads were packed to the gills with a miles long, nose to tail crawl out of town. Once clear of the traffic the psychos were putting their symptoms on display by overtaking in built-up areas with very low speed limits. While I was simultaneously overtaking cyclists, joggers and pram pushers on the same narrow road without verges. It's nice to know exactly how reliable commuting psychopaths really are. You could set your [stop]watch by them.

Saw lots of cars driving without [any] lights, at all, despite a heavy overcast, dusk falling with patchy, thick mist. Not to mention a legal requirement to drive on dipped lights in Denmark during daylight hours. Loads of drooling, mobile phone addicts, with delusions of grandeur that they have anything interesting to say. As each in turn overshot their junction with the main road. One moron had to reverse swiftly to avoid being hit by a long chain of cars! Thank goodness none of these morons have any brains. Or iRottenApple would be short of gullible idiots loyal customers to fleece. Pavlov's drooling consumers constantly waiting to be temporarily satiated with this week's, latest and greatest, slave-produced toys. What do you call a mobile phone in a car? iSuicide6.

Saturday 7th 54F, 12C, mild, with light winds and the overcast clearing to brighter periods. A walk up to the woods and back in an hour and half. Everything is very soggy after heavy overnight rain but the autumn woods were pretty still despite the dull conditions. A smart SUV interrupted my journey on the heavily puddled track as I stepped back to let him pass. It is easy to see how vehicle tyres cause damage to gravel tracks. The tyres drop with a bang into the existing holes already filled with rainwater. The water weakens the gravel's adhesion and reduces the mass of the gravel by displacement. Forcing the loose stuff on the bottom of the hole to be ejected along with some of the water. Water run-back further erodes the sides of the hole. The next thing you know, walkers need a rubber dingy to walk to the woods.

A storm is forecast for tonight with gusts to 60mph possible. The rain and wind are supposed to start after lunch so I'd better not delay my ride. Did a hilly rural detour between shopping villages in fairly light winds. Heavy grey overcast with spots of rain. Just noticed a puncture as I put the trike away! Grrr! I remembered seeing shiny broken glass in the roadside gravel. As well as lots of sharp stones scattered everywhere on the roads. 23 miles.

Sunday 8th 48F, 9C, bright sunshine and blue skies with pinkish cloud. We never noticed the storm despite a late night when the wind should already have peaked at over 20m/s.

Woken by deafening whistle of tinnitus. Tried the drops of oil but it made no difference. Flocks of Fieldfares and/or Redwings have arrived. Both are similar to thrushes but constantly moving around in rather nervous flocks. The birches are full of them this morning. A Lesser spotted woodpecker has also flown in to hammer a slender willow. It never ceases to amaze me how extraordinarily skilled birds are at flying. They constantly avoid collisions with each other and their tangled, twiggy environment with effortless ease in all winds and weather. Clumsy humans can't even share the same pavement, road or street without bumping into each other or falling over. Yet we claim to be the brightest species on earth? The birds need no hospitals nor even doctors. Animals do pretty well too provided no humans are involved.

Only an hour's walk in bright sunshine under a cloudless sky. The landscape has that "just washed" clarity after the storm. A considerable improvement on the seemingly months of misty greyness. The view through my binoculars had become rather soft through an accumulation of moisture and dust over time. So I carefully cleaned the lenses and the images have returned to their normal razor sharpness.

The net curtain from my dormer window, where I sit and scribble on my computer, has been taken down for laundering. It was put up to stop insects getting in when the window was opened for fresh air. A rare treat given our neighbour's habit of burning rubbish year round, presumably for water heating. Without the net curtain my usual views of the garden trees is suddenly sparkling. So I was easily able to confirm the birds are Fieldfares. The downside is that they must be able to see me more easily because they vanished as quickly as they had arrived. Perhaps it was just coincidence as they are rather twitchy by nature. Rarely staying in the same roost for very long. Despite is being a sunny day with fairly light winds I was busy. So another cycling rest day apart from mending the puncture. It turned out to be a perfect little triangle of razor sharp flint only 1/8" on all sides. It made a nasty hole in the Durano tyre tread too!

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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