3rd March 2016 Gone, but not forgotten.

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Thursday 3rd 33-40F, 1-5C, light wind, overcast clearing to brightness. Enjoyed my usual walk up through the woods. Thanks to the light frost making the surface crispy the ground was just firm enough to walk on the mud. Two deer were grazing on the crops but seemed unmoved. Too far away for a decent shot [with my camera.] A Yellowhammer, a Skylark and a Great tit were singing their little hearts out. Definitely official approval of spring having sprung. With light winds it should be a good day for a ride.


A late morning ride in grey, but almost still conditions. I seemed to be going quite well but not particularly fast. Quite hilly on the way back with a very long, but enjoyable drag up out of a valley. I keep trying to extend my climbing range while standing up on the pedals. [Climbing, out of the saddle. Or "honking" in past cycling parlance.]

Yet more old farm buildings have been completely demolished. Leaving only a large area of clean but rough soil. It must be a huge burden to have re-thatching, hanging almost literally, over one's head. The old place had been on the a market for years with emergency tarpaulins having totally disintegrated over time.

This image is from 1988 and the latest of a series from the free online aerial photograph archives hosted by the Royal Danish Library. Called "Set Fra Luften" means "seen from the air" and is remarkably comprehensive with many tens of thousands of images going back to just before the War in many cases.  Most of these, once commercial images, were in B&W but this later one is in colour.   

Syremosegaard  means "Acid Marsh Farm" in English and lies in the foreground. The long, thatched Stuehus [Farmhouse] is on the left of the very typically enclosed yard common to very many old farms. Re-thatching would have costs many tens of thousands of pounds equivalent for a building of that size. The much smaller, thatched farmhouse in the background is still standing and still thatched. I have darkened and increased the contrast of this image using PhotoFiltre free image handling software to bring out the detail.

The image on the right is modern and from yet another Danish free online service called Grundkort. [Ground map.] The waterproof wrapping on the farmhouse and dilapidated condition of the old outbuildings is clearly evident. The [optional] yellow lines indicate the ground area owned by any property. Just one of the many online services available to the Danes. The quality of the more recent aerial images is often far better than the standard Google Earth and has very many options available to be laid over the image.

The aerial images on this service also go back many years. Though not always of the same high standard seen here. On a casual note it can be amusing to see which car or caravan was parked outside one's home when the older images were taken. Trees and hedges grow and buildings come and go over time. One's memory of the past often plays tricks and can be confirmed or denied by the dating on the images. All hope of the neighbour's not seeing the mess behind the hedge is lost.

Anyone can view the complete details of any building in Denmark. Including the owners, the building's size, valuation going back for years, number of times it has been sold, when and for how much, construction materials, number of rooms, heating system, bathroom or toilet, land area, outbuildings, valuation for rates [local taxes] etc.etc.etc. Which may all seem slightly odd when one cannot legally take images of people on private property without their permission. It is illegal to allow one's home or business security camera to capture the pavement or car park outside or to monitor other's private property. Taking images of a crime is also illegal and has even resulted in court cases for victims of a crime while the perpetrators have walked free. Camera drone use is also very strictly limited.

I was definitely tiring towards the end of my ride so it was lucky I didn't try for a much longer route. Perhaps I was merely hungry from having ridden well past lunch time. 21 miles.

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