29th January 2018 Strategic, multiple, parallel reinforcement.

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Monday 29th 44F, 7C, gales gusting to 45mph and driving rain this morning. Not ideal for walking or tricycling.

I haven't mentioned a new road layout at motorway junctions in Odense. The traffic lanes criss-cross each other like the lines in a rail shunting yard. It seems slightly odd to sit there on the "wrong side" of the road waiting for the lights to change. To allow opposing traffic to diagonally cross one's path. In practice it was quite effortless provided nobody jumped the red lights. Unfortunately Google Earth hasn't caught up in many areas of Denmark and this is one of them. So there are only earth moving scars to see on their aerial views prior to the actual roadworks being started.

Tuesday 30th 38-40F, 3-4C, still dark at 07.30 but the sky looks clear with brightness to the East. Some sunshine threatened with the promise of local showers. It seems Red Kites are going from strength to strength in Denmark. I see birds of prey on most of my rides and walks. Now I am going have to try and improve my recognition skills while hopefully avoiding actually falling off the road. One of the difficulties is judging their size and markings from afar. Dropped, racing 'bars aren't really suited to carrying binoculars.

All this birds and nature stuff is probably of little interest to most of my readers. However, I feel it adds a further incentive to my being outside and active on a daily basis. Physical exercise is an important factor in human longevity and survival into old age. As is matching food intake to exercise levels. An hour and half walking up and down steep inclines on rough ground into the woods and back is valuable life support. Sitting at home on the computer while enjoying the same food intake is not.

Do you still take the stairs? Or slob up and down in the lift? My wife and I have always and quite deliberately, used the stairs in shopping malls. Never miss a chance to raise your heart rate with physical activity.  The latest research suggests a few 10 minute episodes of breathlessness are as goos as the old 10,000 steps routine. No doubt this will have changed by mid morning, next week but it still shows the way.

I used multiple, parallel strategies  to avoid inactivity and depression when my workplace was closed. It would have been so easy to sink into lethargy and feeling desperately sorry for myself. Tricycling, over increasing distances to seek work, was deliberately reinforced by my photography and blogging. I gave myself an invisible audience which I hoped not to disappoint. So there was no cheating by going in the car. I added all our shopping by trike to the list of reasons and that became the main driver behind my daily miles.

I recommend the practice prior to finding yourself without an adequate lifestyle or even an adequate life. Choose your own strategies to maintain your own muscles and brain cells. Giving up some harmful things can be as useful as increasing others far more beneficial. I stopped taking sugar decades ago when three spoons was the norm in every cup of tea or coffee. Later it was chips. [French fries.] I haven't had a "takeaway" between meals since I bought chips as a teenager. Constantly taking up new interests may make me a bit of a butterfly but must make me better mentally exercised than a passive, sports boor.

The receptionist, checkout operators, shop staff and service personnel are often the real face of many businesses. You choose badly or treat them badly at your own peril. Many people are becoming increasingly isolated, particularly the elderly. So your "front line" staff are often the only contact they have all week or even all year. Their mood, as you part company [an interesting term in this context] can vary from blind rage, to suicidal, to warmly appreciative of genuine personal service. Two thirds of UK adults are reported to have nobody to talk to about their problems. This has resulted in increased problems with mental health just the UK government announces they plan to compbat loneliness.

How did your human contacts "make your day?" How did it affect your drive, or cycle, home?  When the robots arrive you won't have a leg to stand on when they ask you about your interpersonal skills. Very soon now it will be the only thing which really marks you out as a useful human being. Or not. Don't say you haven't been warned! AI is polishing its skills at things you hardly consider important. Perhaps you should?

I walked to the village in a stiff, cold wind but bright sunshine.  A solitary goose flew over chattering endlessly to itself. Perhaps it was dictating its flying [b]log to "the cloud?"

After decades of exposing the public to diesel smog it's a bit late for VW to be criticized for experimenting with gas chambers on apes and humans. Perhaps it's not too late to pursue a class action against politicooze who continue to hold diesel prices lower than petrol despite all the evidence against its ab-use?

Late morning ride to the more distant shops on filthy cycle lanes and paths. The road was so spotless you could have eaten off it! The conclusion must be that they are deliberately sweeping the roads onto the cycle paths. Strong winds allowed 16-18mph cruising on the way. 8-11mph on the way back. Sunny periods made a change from weeks of grey skies. I've hardly noticed the Vetta SL MTB saddle since I changed over from the tied, Brooks B17 "Special". 15 miles.

Wednesday 31st 37F, 3C, dark, wet and windy all day. No ride again.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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22nd January 2018 No snow like no snow. 12.9C!

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Monday 22nd 32F, 0C, breezy, heavy overcast with sticky snow falling. Took a brisk, 40 minute walk along the lanes while dodging traffic spray. Snow thinning to smaller flakes now. Only about half an inch of snow lying. Though the roads were clear and wet after salting. It snowed for most of the day but didn't gain much depth. No ride today.

Tuesday 23rd 34F, 1C, heavy overcast, light winds. Half an inch of wet snow should soon succumb to the promised rain.

Five geese went low overhead as I walked down the drive.  Minutes later two large herons appeared flying low along the road directly towards me. They veered off and disappeared behind trees but one came back soon afterwards. Later still, one was sitting hunched up on a field near the road. Saw a large, dead rat with no obvious sign of injury. Becoming windy and misty as the day drags on. The mist cleared mid afternoon allowing me to ride to the shops. Returned in late dusk, flashing like a Christmas tree. The wind was mostly across my path. Only 7 miles.

Wednesday 24th 45-50F, 7-10C, unusually mild, heavy overcast, damp and windy. Heavy rain and 45mph gusts are promised for later. My usual walk with mixed birds moving along the hedgerows. Including Coal tits, Great tits and Blue tits.

If it gets much above 12C later it will be a new heat record for Denmark in January. The record was set @ 12.4C in 2005. On only four occasions has the temperature reached or exceeded 12C [53.6F] since 1875. All after 1990. The record was duly broken at Sønderborg in SE Jylland [Eng: Jutland] in southern Denmark with 12.7C. Now updated to 12.9C with higher temperatures possible as they are expected to peak later. These temperatures are still subject to confirmation.

My outdoor sensor is presently showing 50.4F, 10C at 16.30pm. This is the same thermometer I use for recording [rounded] temperatures on my blog. With the outdoor sensor hanging free beneath the northern, roof overhang to avoid direct sunlight. The gales did not make it an ideal day for a ride.

Thursday 25th 42F, 6C, mild, overcast with fairly light winds. Walked to the far woods for a change of scenery. Saw a large heron and several flocks of small birds. Too distant to identify. The landscape is a bit drab at the moment. We could do with some sunshine! The new Danish temperature record for January rests at 12.9C subject to the usual calibration checks. Id have done a bit of sunbathing on the lawn but there wasn't any sun. Imagine how hot it could have been with bright sunshine and a well established El Niño!

Mid afternoon ride returning just before dusk with a crosswind. Fleeting glimpse of a watery sun. The commuters were driving like mad persons on the way back, as usual. I began to believe I was in a Putian YT bad driving video at one point. As countless lives were risked against head on traffic to save 2.015 seconds.

Pulled onto the grass verge a couple of times to let buses pass where there were chains of oncoming traffic and the bus drivers refused to overtake. I can only presume they were holding back to admire the way I can ride for miles with the inside wheel just behind the white line of the 50mm [2"] wide "cycle lane." Only 13 miles.

Friday 26th 37-40F, 3-4C, calm, with thick 100 yard mist. The sun is trying to break through now as the mist slowly thins. I could see blue overhead and hear geese crossing but there was no sign of them. Several drivers swerved away from me as they drove in zombie mode and despite my wearing my bright orange jacket. No ride today. Talking of bright: The Danish government is considering making authorized cycle lights compulsory on all new bikes.

Saturday 27th 37-40F, 3-4C, dark grey, misty and drab with light winds. An early start to my walk gave me time to do my once familiar, clockwise walk along to the woods and back the other way. The same two herons were together on a roadside field but flew away towards the marsh. It was rather wet underfoot as I climbed the reedy tracks between bare trees. Few, or none, seem to go this way.

I eventually reached the beech woods and headed for the field at the highest point. This had been ploughed so I had to change my route. I came across a small deer grazing the low crops. Took a few photographs while I was out despite the melancholy mist and gloom. Or perhaps because of it.

Late morning ride to the shops returning well loaded. Lots of birds of prey looming like roosting hens in the trees. Only 7 miles.

Sunday 28th 38-46F, 3-8C, overnight gales, with strong gusts, continued into the morning. Walked to the village and back. The two, large herons were back on the same field. One was much more nervous than the other and left on my passing along the road. The other sat it out despite being much nearer. Several days of gales with 40-45 mph gusts are forecast as Atlantic lows cross from the UK. No ride today.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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Sunday 21st Super Trash Girl v zombie trash!

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Sunday 21st 32F, 0C, calm with a very heavy overcast. As the litter problem worsens globally [including the oceans] a brave girl in Gravely Blighted has been attacked at school by zombies for picking up litter. Despite this setback, "Super Trash Girl" continues her lone, task.

I just wish she'd use rubber gloves. There might still be the Zombie Slob virus clinging to the discarded remains. Even the risk of catching serious diseases from rats. Not to mention the millions of dogs trained to pee and shit all over the place every single day, in every city of the world. Then there's the zombie's needles lying about everywhere. There were several needles lying on the verge here for literally months on end.

'Trash girl' refuses to let bullies win - BBC News

I might have followed her fine and remarkable example but I'd be prosecuted if I took sacks of household rubbish to the recycling yard. What else could I do with it? The Council took away all the litter bins years ago to avoid them being blown up by zombies of the iRottenApple generation.

If I stacked the sacks anywhere in the countryside, I, myself, would be equally guilty of littering in the eyes of Jante's  Law. So I'd have to drag all the bags of rubbish home and sort it all for recycling. Then the bin men would think that I had developed a chronic and filthy habit of drinking vast quantities of shite in a bottle or can! They might even think the foul brews have made me completely senile. And I can't have that!

So I can't really win. The system is completely against me. There is far too much to collect for a mere, fortnightly bin emptying. And, I have to drag the heavy wheely bin 100 yards along a rutted drive to where the bin men will deign to collect it. So it's LITTER R.I.P. around here, I'm afraid.

I saw lots of Fieldfares foraging on the fields on my walk. They are always nervous and constantly moving about, even in flight. A huge gaggle of geese went over at considerable altitude. Probably a thousand birds in long, ragged lines. A distinct chill in the air, today, despite the wind turbines standing completely still. Judging the air temperature is always a highly subjective matter. The clouds are breaking up to large patches of blue now but the sun is still struggling to find its way through. I have promised myself a ride today while the wind is unusually absent.

A late morning ride along new cycle paths and lanes. By which I use the term 'lanes' for enjoying road markings alone and 'paths' being properly isolated from the road.  It is taking years to widen the road to allow for new cycle lanes because so much other work was required. Electricity, fiber internet, copper telephone cables, mains water, sewage and district heating were mostly laid under the new cycle lanes rather than under the roads. The verges are always covered in a whole variety of pipes of all sizes.

There were some mistakes made over missing drainage with large puddles forming regularly over the cycle lanes and newly laid road surfaces. So then the new road and lane surfaces had to be ground away, dug up again and protruding drain covers fitted. Presumably these will be levelled when the entire road surface is relaid at the end of the project. Meanwhile the 'works' traffic is badly messing up the new cycle lanes. They sweep the roads but leave the lanes completely untouched! The very same cycle lanes they all drive along to avoid slowing the traffic. So this cyclist often finds himself on the old road surface to avoid the golf ball sized gravel in places.

The new cycle lanes in the villages are protected by pale granite kerb stones but cyclist have to make do with protective white lines in the countryside. Many of the houses and fields along the route lost a  narrow strip of front garden. Each house had to be reconnected with services and ramps. There were a few drainage becks to deal with and several flood ponds were provided for cloudbursts. Originally tree lined, amongst mixed natural hedges, many of these enclosing avenues were lost. The once narrow verges were widened where they coincided with rough fields or scrubby and unkempt woods. Providing a tidier and more relaxed appearance but completely lacking in shelter. This has completely changed the original character of the road.

Always a race track, the frequent speed limit signs are still being completely ignored by the vast majority of drivers. I was traveling at the weekend so there was no active construction work today. Hopefully the workers are seeing better behaviour while they are busy risking their lives to improve the infrastructure and scenery. Only red traffic lights seem to work on many drivers but even here I have seen them entering one lane stretches against the lights. Even when a column of traffic is already progressing towards them in several cases! The irony is that there are signs at each end of the project thanking drivers for <cough> driving sensibly. I didn't know sarcasm was so rife amongst the road sign makers!

The nominal cycle lane is extremely bumpy in places with years-old sink holes directly in the path of cyclists. Causing me to regularly rise from the saddle to absorb what would otherwise be terrifying hurdles to safe progress. I do wonder why they bother making cycle paths and lanes sometimes. The filth which builds up and is never [ever] cleared meant my front brakes were literally jamming the [slick] tyre from all the crap which collected. I had to keep stopping to bounce my front wheel to try and clear the mess! Every cycle lane on my route on both sides of the road haven't been swept in years! I once stopped to photograph, what I thought was a narrow road sweeper, for headline publication in the local paper. It turned out to be a weed burner but no sweeper followed up.

The cycle lanes are constantly covered in tree branches, twigs, leaves, compost, sand and gravel. Particularly where the 'decorative' stuff flows constantly from private drives where the home owners are obviously far too impoverished to afford a broom as well as several luxury cars. Mud and gravel flows steadily from farm entrances.

Even if they rarely send out sweeping machines for the roads they never [ever] touch the cycle lanes. Nor do they remove the decades old moraines of stones and gravel on most road junctions. I often wonder whether there is a half width, Caterpillar D11 bulldozer suitable for this sort of work. Just to clear the overburden. Before the teams of archaeologists come in to look for fossils and Viking artifacts.

15 miles today, going well again, between frequent stops to clear the front tyre!

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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17th January 2018 Knit 1, purl 1... Litter R.I.P.

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Wednesday 17th 33F, 1C, light wind, overcast clearing to some brightness. Walked to the village and back. My chest has been feeling a bit 'wet' for the last couple of days. With occasional feelings like breathlessness or mild asthma. The same symptoms I experience after using WD40. Not much to report today except for a heron landing on a roadside field. The temperature didn't change all day.

Knit one, purl one.

Rode north mid afternoon returning at dusk. Which was delayed by a late excursion of a watery sun along the horizon. Only a few GTGPs drivers to worry about. I managed 28mph on one descent with a light crosswind. [-7C equivalent allowing for wind chill] Without the slightest discomfort from the GG Nordic gloves. They really do isolate the hands completely from both the cold and the wind. The mild winter has resulted in almost a doubling of the usual rat population according to the news. 13 miles.


Thursday 18th 33F, 1C, very heavy overcast. Less than an inch of wet, overnight snow. My walk started with light rain but  soon turned to sleet and then continuous wet snow. I walked far enough to disturb the fidgety gulls and then returned to the main road. Dodging the slushy tire/tyre spray then became a priority. Molehills are disfiguring many a lawn now. I'm not sure covering traps with black builder's buckets actually improves the view.

Friday 19th 35F, 2C, calm, with still windmills, cloudy but brighter. I walked the opposite way to my usual direction as a low sun broke through the clouds. Having turned a corner I was treated to a very mixed flock of birds foraging in the leaf litter of a small beech wood. There were leaves going everywhere as Bramblings, Great and Blue tits, Chaffinches and Blackbirds all busied themselves over procuring breakfast. Then a pretty grey Shrike arrived and worked the leaf litter in front of the woods. Unfortunately it flew off as a car passed along the lane.

2017 was the second warmest year since 1880 following 2016s all time record warmth and matching 2015. So there's really nothing to worry about. It looks like a strong cooling trend, to me. Global warming is cured and we can all relax by the pool in December.


It has now clouded over again as I await morning coffee. A shopping ride is indicated but how long is a piece of string? Only 7 miles apparently. Several birds of prey flew alongside and several more perched overhead in trees. Should I be very afraid? It had brightened up again around lunch time but not for long.

Saturday 20th 34F, +1C, heavy overcast, light winds. Wintry showers possible. And duly supplied! Early fine rain soon turned to a quite a decent blizzard as I walked along. Though it was short lived and I had dried out by my return. McSlob's McSlob is back to its old tricks again. With seven new items since my last inspection tour of two days ago.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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16th January 2018 McSlob's Litter Pt.II. The Director's Cut.

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Tuesday 16th 35-37F, 2-3C, breezy with a heavy overcast at first. The heavy cloud broke up only slightly as I walked to the lanes. Yesterday's wind passed without much notice. The storm warning for tomorrow, Thursday, has been cancelled. Wintry showers are still promised.

The flood on one field dip has almost completely disappeared and the "spring" has completely dried up. Presumably it is a broken field drain but it must be producing thousands of gallons per hour at its most active. At times the rising water looks clear, like tap water, but at others it is more green or brown. I checked with the water supply company but they said the site did not coincide with any of their water pipes. Though there was some sporadic digging in the area with a mini excavator, at a much later date, this did not seem to help.

Later afternoon ride in wet, wintry showers. Only 7 miles. Four items not in stock.

McDonald's aims for fully recycled packaging by 2025 - BBC News

Who cares if McSlobs makes its packaging recyclable, in only eight years, if most of it ends up on the verges anyway? McSlob's takeaway McSlobs are well proven, serial litterers! McSlobs should have been made to clearly and visibly charge for returnable packaging over and above the cost of the <cough> meal [between meals.]

Just as the sugar and gas beverage companies should have been made to charge a visible recycling fee to the customer for every single can. If every can purveyor had a proper [or general] recycling scheme the public would keep nature tidy because it would be worthwhile collecting it. Instead of which Big Bad American Sugar & Gas bullied the world into accepting non-returnable packaging. With all its foul consequences to make another billion verges untidy with a material which will probably last for centuries.

Aluminium is endlessly recyclable. Which is much cheaper than quarrying and smelting new ore on the other side of the world. Even the recyclable cans must be presented to a machine in pristine condition. Imagine if they could be stomped on to make them less bulky to carry about and each squashed can could still be paid for in full regardless of origin?

There is a stomping machine behind the acceptance machine at the supermarket which flattens the cans anyway. Why not let pensioners, the unemployed and teenagers collect cans from their local verges to make a welcome few extra pennies? And, get some new interest, an improved social life and some desperately needed exercise into the bargain.

I regularly see a lady, now well into into her eighties or more, who clears litter from the verges on either side of the busy road which passes her rural home. She will never be out of work! Nor need to hang up her high viz jacket! What a comment on today's society and the local authority!

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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15th January 2018 McSlob's McSlob litter problem.

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Monday 15th 32-35F, 0-2C, very windy, dark and overcast. Gusting to 20m/s or 45mph later with wintry showers. Dry at the moment so I may well risk a walk to do a physical count of the latest carpet bombing by McSlob's McSlobs.

In breaking news, scientists have described the "toxic, radioactive, curry-diarrhoea-coloured yellow ochre" of McSlob's litter marketing as outrageous. Particularly when far more acceptable colours are available for litter. It is not as if green and brown camouflage is still patented!

The team's conclusion is that the hideous colour was deliberately chosen for its close resemblance to a well filled baby's nappy after a family visit to a McSlobs outlet. The sight of a soiled nappy [diaper] is said to cause a sudden, major shift in parenting hormones amongst the most easily susceptible to binge eating and breeding. The lead author of the paper went so far to suggest that McSlobs is deliberately trying to draw attention to its litter. In order to excite the drool buds of passing McSlob's customers.

The increase in fuel consumption as they all race to the nearest McSlobs, for a fresh fix of the gaudy ochre, could easily disrupt many country's precarious, balance of payments. McSlob's share price was down in the dumps in after-hours, litter trading.

Rumours persist on the Dusky Web that McSlobs was really started by future time travelers. This was supposedly a desperate attempt to thin out their "standing room only" overpopulation problem. They are alleged to have planted the seed of a business idea in an entrepreneurial psychopath's mind and it sort of mushroomed from there. Burp!

Though I am not fully convinced by their arguments myself. Because the "evidence" could just as easily be read as a way to improve future intelligence levels by standard, Darwinian methods.

I walked to the marsh to disturb fidgety herons and a pair of rocket-propelled Shelducks. The few remaining Mallards just moved quickly and quietly to the far side of the pond and watched me nervously. I was grateful for my wrap-around safety glasses as I turned straight into the gale. Though, yet again, I was overdressed at that point having just climbed the steeply sloping, fire breaks up through the lower forest. The ground remains well frozen. Making for relatively secure going where is is usually very wet indeed.

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12 January 2018 Raw but not rare.

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Friday 12th 35F, 2C, a light wind at first, building to breezy. Heavy overcast and light rain on my grey walk and later. I saw a jogger today, which is almost a first in all the time I have been enjoying my morning walks. No ride today.

Saturday 13th 33F, +1C, windy, overcast and dark grey. With flakes of snow in the light sleet as I walked briskly to the rural lanes. "Raw" is a good expression for today's weather. Even with my hands behind my back, to shelter my cheapo fleece gloves from the wind, my hands were soon aching from the cold. Six, and then five more Whooper swans flew over heading north.

The McSlob's McSlob is back to its litter broadcasting tricks. It must have taken years of practice to achieve such precision, simultaneous littering on both sides of the road. If they can just master the art of changing to one red sock and one blue sock they can instantly claim a new Guinness <cough> record for being a complete idiot. In every sense of the word.

Talking of which: Get your laughing gear around this:

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-australia-42660071/truck-ploughs-through-cycle-race-finish-line-in-australia

Later afternoon ride to the shops. It stayed dry and cool but I was quite comfortable. 7 miles.

Sunday 14th 32F, 0C, breezy with a heavy overcast.  Possible brightness later. The solid grey sky is giving way to slight variation. Another raw walk thanks to the wind. The cold dry air has dried out a lot of mud. It has taken on a crystalline surface in places. The floods on the fields are also shrinking daily. The eternal optimism of the trees is visible in every single twig carrying new leaf buds. No ride today.

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10th January 2018 Welcome to paradise!

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Thursday 11th 36F, 2C, overcast, thick mist and almost calm. Rain later.

Denmark has been highly praised by the BBC as being the most well governed country in the world. Good access to health, welfare, education and a lack of corruption outweighed Denmark's very high taxation and the very high cost of living. From my own viewpoint of living here for 20-odd years I'd say the relaxed, informal lifestyle and general lack of crime ought to have added several more points in Denmark's favour.

Escaping from crime riddled and deeply corrupt Britain was the best thing which every happened to us. Nowhere is remotely perfect but Denmark gets a lot more of of it right where ordinary people are concerned. Though its present "leaders" seem hell bent on undermining all that was once taken for granted. Deliberate inequality is spreading like The Bubonic Plague.

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8th January 2018 Dunes to the left, dunes to ..

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Monday 8th 19-32F, -7-0C, chilly, calm and completely clear with bright sunshine all day.

I get sea-sick just looking at this full screen. Burp! Sand dunes advance on woods in Tricyklist's Desert Kingdom? Tsunami crashes onto unsuspecting woods? Suit yourselves. You will anyway! There are a quite number of sand and gravel quarries around Fyn but not in the immediate area.

Walked past the marsh, around the edge of the wood and back by the icy, puddled track. Wore the GG 'Nordic' gloves again and was very glad for them as the temperature struggled ever so slowly upwards. My thick, fleecy baseball cap with ear flaps and neck warmer [aka: foreign legion, arctic gear] added that certain something to my ensemble. I thought I was quite fetching but there were no loose dogs around.

Some people visit the gym to lift weights. I lift 10kg bags of treacle-free fuel for the wood stove: All together now: Pick up bags of compressed wood blocks from the pallet on the floor and fill a supermarket trolley. Push 100kg of blocks plus trolley up a steep incline into shop without killing any stray and doddery, old age pensioners.

Pay for blocks and restrain trolley on the steep descent back down to the car park while carefully avoiding more stray pensioners. Lift blocks from trolley into car. Repeat as necessary. Drive loaded car home and then lift blocks from the car into the wheelbarrow. Push wheelbarrow across frozen parking space. Lift blocks from wheelbarrow, climb steps and stack inside. Repeat as necessary. Easy peasy? I'm 70¾, you know and I want my medal. And, I want it now!

Tuesday 9th 32-35F, 0+2C, cold and clear but very breezy. Check your chill factor and wrap up well is today's advice from weight lifting medalist in the geriatric, lightweight class. Gusting to over 12m/s or 25mph at freezing a chilly day makes. That's the equivalent of about -16C in still air! A good day to test my GG 'Nordic' gloves, methinks.

An hour's walk, heading at first, straight into the wind. My decades old, Wind Wizard mechanical anemometer showed an average of 12mph with occasional bouts of 20mph. It should start peaking quite soon and keep it up for several hours yet. After the steep climb up to the woods I was mostly too warm.

The GG Nordic gloves were always warm and comfortable without ever becoming sweaty. Mostly they feel pleasantly neutral in warmth. I wore a GG Aviator, soft scull cap with ear covering under the fleece baseball cap and repeatedly had to remove the latter to cool off.

The vegetation was mostly encrusted with large, ice crystals again. As was the ice on the frozen puddles. Much of it broken by vehicle tyres along the field tracks. Showing the ice was about half an inch thick on average but with double that in places.

The marsh water level was at least a foot higher than normal. Spilling onto the lower fields in places. With much of the dense willow growth well under water. Normally it is quite soft but usually accessible in walking boots.  The problem with hard frozen ground is the need for heavier boots with plenty of ankle support. The edges of normally sticky fields are very uncomfortable to walk on at the moment. Particularly where tractors have left their bumpy tracks. No ride today.

Wednesday 10th 35-37F, 2-3C, heavy overcast and occasionally breezy. My walk was interrupted by rain from a grey sky. So I took a short cut over an uncultivated field. Which provided the opportunity to to survey the immediate area from a [very] low hill. As soon as it dries up I shall have to trikle to the shops. However, it rained lightly but steadily throughout my ride. The headwind on the way made it feel much colder than the thermometer suggested. Pleasant enough on the way home while heavily laden and the tyres spraying. Hardly more than a few small patches of snow left now. Only 7 miles.

Click on any image for an enlargement. 

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Sunday 7th January. My new winter gloves!

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Sunday 7th 23-32F, -5-0C, hard white frost, clear with sunshine threatened. I walked in blinding sunshine anticlockwise up to the woods and down by the edges of the fields. Crunchy underfoot but not frozen to any great depth. Crows and gulls did their best to make the place untidy. I disturbed a male Kestrel resting on the very top of the tallest tree on the very top of the hill. A bright moon watched over the chilly scene as chimney smoke drifted south. The turbines stopped at one point but regained their strength later.

The GripGrab 'Nordic' gloves were an excellent choice for this morning's walk. More flexible than my traditional alternatives but much warmer than them all. A normal, fingered glove is fitted snugly inside the lobster claw outer without adding much bulk. I have been delighted with the warmth of these gloves but there is some unwanted variation in sizing amongst the XXL [12] which I tried in the shop. One pair I tried was too small for my hands to go in comfortably!

The gloves were easily warm enough to be able to remove them regularly so I could adjust my camera controls. The moment I replaced the gloves my hands were pleasantly toasty again.  This is actually a first for me. None of my other gloves feel warm enough for walking despite being adequate for cycling within their optimum temperature band. I know this doesn't make much sense because cycling greatly increases wind chill. Very highly recommended for temperatures below 35F, +2C.

The clumsy and bulky scooterists gloves, which I have worn for several winters, are a poor choice now compared with the Nordics. The "lobster claws" work remarkably well on the trike. Providing a secure grip on the brake hoods with the other fingers tucked comfortably underneath. My scooter gloves used to make my hands ache if I tried the same grip.

GripGrab claim these gloves are best between 0 and -10C. Given today's performance at a steady -5C and a light northerly breeze I don't have any arguments with their assessment. The first time I wore them on the trike my hands were already very cold before I left. Which may explain why I doubted their warmth on the way out but found them fine on the return journey.

Another vitally important aspect is that glove inners must always remain securely in place when one withdraws moist hands. The obscenely overpriced Sealskinz gloves failed abysmally on this test. Soon after I bought them I found myself on my trike over ten miles from home, in sub zero conditions, with no usable gloves. All thanks to the Sealskinz readiness to turn themselves completely inside out after making my hands sweaty due to a severe lack of breathability. Another unforgivable habit in any glove!

Once inverted nothing would persuade them to revert to normal. I tried a variety of items on my return including rounded dowels and large, plastic knitting needles. Nothing worked. On that basis I'd call them absolutely suicidal to try and wear them in dangerously cold conditions. A complete and utter waste of money and extremely dangerous to boot. They felt like an inner glove in a floppy sack. With a very poor connection between the inside and out. Leading to reduced ability to manipulate anything fiddly without removing them first. Avoid this garbage like the plague unless you actually want frostbite! Rather than give mine away to an unlucky buyer at a charity shop I cut mine up to find a huge pair of hand-shaped, polythene membranes crammed inside. 

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6th January 2018 Bøgger! Not again!

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Saturday 6th 33-35F, 1-2C, light winds, heavy overcast with an inch, or perhaps two, of overnight snow. It was supposed to be sleet according to the forecast. Rather cold on the hands in the slight, northerly breeze when I paused for photography. The mink gulls did their best to make the distance look spotty as well as misty. Wet roads meant frequent visits onto the verge to avoid a free, salty shower. The field puddles are getting large and deep enough to be quite menacing. No doubt somebody is already planning a circumnavigation in one blue sock and one red sock. Thereby hoping to qualify for a new entry in the GBR tragic-comedy annual of premeditated, suicidal, attention seeking.

7 miles of shopping trip on wet, but not icy roads as a slight thaw rid us of the nasty white stuff. Returned safely but heavily laden.

After what seems like a century of sitting on their pampered, grasping hands, Gravely's Brexit-hungry MPs are considering putting a 25p charge on disposable coffee cups. McSlobs must be quaking in their solid gold sandals! What will McSlobs slobby customers do for a hobby now? Will the verges suddenly become empty of scattered detritus? No, of course not! There are still the vital 18 layers of serial packaging essential to furnishing every  McSlob with a weapons grade, McSlob's McSlob to take away.

It was similarly, some time ago now, that Big American Money forced the Danish government to end recycling charges on beer cans and compulsory recyclable glass bottles or face an EU firing squad! The forecast was empty cans on every verge. The forecasters were wrong. [As usual] There are now hundreds of cans on every verge!

Back then they had regular council litter pickers picking litter from the verges. You never saw any litter in Denmark twenty years ago. Now they have beer cans, cola cans and McSlobs' slobbery. A special class of impoverished Dane now wanders the roads looking for the few recyclable cans and bottles to eek out their heavily taxed pensions. No retiree may start their own small business. Like running a weekend flea market in their empty garage or attending a car boot sale. Not without getting permission from the centralized chief of police and informing the tax office in the centralized council offices in a distant city.   

Just to add to the Danish litter load there is a specially bred type of Dane. One which drives with a trailer to the village recycling station every Saturday without a cover, net or even a length of wet harvester twine to contain their load. You don't need me to tell you how all this ends up scattered on the roads and verges. All of which leaves this special "type" to discover an empty trailer when they arrive at the recycling center after their weekly attempt at the Danish GBR land speed for trailer towing. You can see them standing around and scratching their heads in wonder at the mystery of it all.

There follows a forlorn, wasted journey driving home at a slightly lower speed. Still wondering where all their recyclable crap went to. For some reason they seem completely unable to recognise their own recyclable crap while driving the opposite way. Perhaps they see the other lane as an alternative universe or dimension? Though that doesn't explain why they spend so much time on the wrong side of the road while driving <cough> normally.

Twenty years ago Denmark had council road sweeping lorries. Noisy bøggers they were too! They'd wake up every sober Dane [and unwanted immigrant] in the early hours, every, single morning on every, single rural road. It took us ages to discover why we woke at 5am every morning. To spend two more hours wondering when we could get up! Of course the bøggers had long vanished by the time we rose bleary-eyed and still very cross at ~7am.

Now they have no more sweeper lorries because they were all sold for scrap. This was to pay for a shed load of Danish modern daubery, Danish modern weldery and Danish designer furniture for the latest and even more sumptuous, centralized council offices. Just so that the [millionaire income ] council chief could enjoy <cough> working life in the style they so richly deserved. Think of Trump office style but with proper hair and a bog standard, stubble goatee. Of course their high status means they enjoy a fat bonus whenever they change their jobs titles, mid week, even if they never actually left their own, palatial office.

Impoverished, elderly Danes now need to travel for miles kilometers just to see the modern "art" and the designer furniture exhibition in the centralized Louis 14th  palaces council offices for themselves. Here the lowly citizens can sit about for hours waiting for their number to come up on a large screen. Before being rebuffed by the specially trained staff. Often being forced to leave just in time to have missed the last bus going back home to their creosote reeking, chainsaw screaming, rural hamlet, that month.

It's no wonder, at all, why The Danes left for Gravely Blighted all those years ago. I suppose it was an early form of brain drain because they never seemed to have returned. Legends are still told of danish hamlets, said to be still reeking of wet firewood, being burnt badly, all over the backward backwoods states of the USA. I bet they still have their own marauding Master Chimney Sweeps coming round to bully them into being allowed to polish the creosote in their stinking chimneys, to this very day!  😉  [Humour alert!]

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4th January 2018 A bit of a ride.

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Thursday 4th 36F, 2C, a light breeze and an almost clear sky. It seems the storm Eleanor crashed into Europe further south than us. Walked to the village and back. There is rather a lot of standing water out on the fields.

Later I rode to Odense. Going well on the way at 17-20mph on the flat in the light tailwind and keeping my cadence in the high 90s rpm. Harder coming back into the wind.

I couldn't believe the price of winter walking jackets. £200-500 equivalent for Gore-Tex! I bet they're all made in the same Bangladeshi, deathtrap factory by economic and child slaves! No day passes when some ridiculously overpriced "Labelled" product is not outed as a slave driver by proxy. Not that it bothers the lemming fashionistas.

They still buy iRottenApple's products regardless of the endlessly critical, daily news of their decidedly dodgy, business practices. Perhaps it will finally take examination of their tax returns to match Capone's final undoing? Not paying taxes is just a massive tax-payer subsidy to a private company. Do you really want to pay your taxes directly to such trillionaire, slave driving mafiosi? To give completely unfair, global, commercial advantage to such a corrupt, near monopoly?

I wore the Nordic lobster claw gloves on the way there but then changed to the normal fingered gloves as I warmed up. My Asse winter jacket was rather too warm in conjunction with the 'Aviator' cap. Though I was grateful for the warmth in the cold headwind on the way back.  40+ miles but I forgot to check my computer in the dark on my return. I remember it was 21 miles to my first goal. Though I wandered around several 'outdoor' shops in the city before finally heading home in the gathering gloom. Bike shop winter jackets were all predominantly black. No doubt thanks to the Sky colours. The exclusive, millionaire members of whom never [ever] ride in the dark. That would be suicidal and Sky can't afford to lose anybody from their commuter train.

I can't say I really missed the Brooks B17 saddle today. Though I still haven't found the sweet spot to sit on the now elderly, Vetta SL. The overpriced alternatives are all still, pseudo-scientific, uncomfortable, hyper-hyped crap. Shall, I buy the orange one or the green one? Eeny meany.. I'll just have to wait for the multi-thousand quid, graphene cobwebs to come out. Carbon fiber just isn't good enough for serious tricyklists, like me. 😎

Friday 5th  37F, 3C, heavy overcast and damp but almost calm. Some sunshine is threatened for later. It looked, however briefly, as if the blue would break through the gloom but it wasn't to be. The light wind had gone around to the north. No doubt to the confusion of the commuting birds. The mink gulls had moved to yet another field further up by the woods. Looking rather like a series of distant puddles reflecting the sky to the naked eye. It never did brighten up. I exiled myself to the shed and didn't come out until it was nearly dark. That must have confused the CIA drones circling constantly overhead. ;-)

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3rd January 2017 Thieving scum steal irreplaceable Rotrax.

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Wednesday 3rd 40F, 4C, heavy overcast with heavy rain and 30mph gusts.Wet and windy. No walk and no ride today.

Keep an eye out for a classic, brown Rotrax with 300,000 miles on it. Possibly still in the Nottingham area of Northern England in Gravely Blighted.

 Cyclist, 88, seeks vintage bike stolen at Christmas - BBC News

The thief may well be a violent drug addict or alcoholic, seeking to fund their filthy habit with serial bicycle theft. So do not approach anyone seen with the bicycle. Their need for a fix may well be more than your life is worth to them. Call the police! With so much publicity surrounding the case they can't possibly ignore this one. Can they?

I feel the owner's pain. Having my beloved Jack Taylor stolen when I was a teenager changed the entire course of my life. The police believed the thief took it to return from weekend leave at a Bristol prison. Where it was found with the wheels kicked in. I had only just previously allowed the insurance to lapse because, as a student, I couldn't afford it.

I spent weeks wandering the city of Bath desperately trying to find it. Later, while sitting on a park bench feeling the depression of its loss, I was persuaded to take up smoking by a neighbour. I smoked like an addict for the next 20 years.

I repeated the wandering decades later when a thief stole my rusty old car overnight in Bath. Then dumped it outside the local council tower block with the brake and petrol lines deliberately cut. I was 200 miles from home at the time and had a break-in at my rural workshop on the same weekend.

Professional "thieves" at a Bath, garage workshop then charged me £200 to replace the hydraulic brake lines. Doing it badly, in 20 minutes, but completely ignored the dripping fuel pipe. The car wasn't even worth £200 but I had to get home. To then find all my power tools and other valuable items had been stolen.

The insurance company took months to pay up which made me feel guilty for my own losses, despite the padlocked door. The feeling of vulnerability at the isolated, rural cottage we had rebuilt from a derelict shell with our own hands, never left us. Se we moved to Denmark when the opportunity arose. This was over twenty years ago and I still seethe with rage at the memory of these horrible nightmares.

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2nd January 2017 Use the bløødy hose! This is a bike shop!

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Tuesday 2nd 38-41F, 3-5C, almost calm, clear and sunny. Walked to the nearest lanes in light traffic. The field spring was busy gushing forth. While the mink gulls had moved to another field for a change of scenery for 2018. A ride is promised after morning coffee. And so it was. I headed north with a light crosswind and going well. More of a headwind coming home. Only 14 miles in bright sunshine.

There is a strangeness to riding far fewer miles. I don't have any residual tiredness in my legs. So I feel stronger without having gained any speed. I climbed for two hundred yards out of the saddle just to prove I could. No real pain and only slight breathlessness. Riding up to twenty miles is still effortless so far. Though I haven't tried to go very much further for quite a while.

I suppose you could say that my former fitness level allowed me to ride much further and probably faster without much tiredness. Fifty miles was no problem at all. Only greater mileages tended to drag on simply because of the length of time I was in the saddle. I always had a very poor eating and drinking regime when on longer rides. I never felt like eating or drinking and this really wasn't very sensible.

If I ate ordinary chocolate bars or sweets they repeated on me. My mature cheddar sandwiches became a routine but I wasn't sure how much energy they contributed. Later, I discovered muesli chocolate bars but they usually gave me indigestion. I do wonder, sometimes, whether I am chocolate intolerant. I almost always get "heart burn" after I eat chocolate.

My day would start, as usual, with a bowl of organic muesli with low fat, organic milk. I'd drink one mug of coffee and one of tea before instant morning coffee with two rolls and marmalade. That usually kept me going until well after lunch. I'd rarely drink anything on the bike even if I bothered to take water with me.

Though I did needed it very badly on one 83 mile ride in very hot weather. I'd run out of water at one point and was lost as I rode southwest, diagonally, right across Fyn from Nyborg. I tried asking a southern coastal town's bike shop for a refill of my water bottle. To be told by the owner that I could use the filthy hose lying on the even filthier asphalt in the yard outside the workshop! There was a sink with taps and within arm's reach as I was standing there all parched, weak and wobbly. I finally obtained a refill for my water bottle in the toilets at the local Co-op supermarket a hundred yards away and soon felt much better.
 
Pure apple juice was my later choice but I'd still drink only one little box all day. A banana would help after lunch. Which, of course, I'd missed, simply because I wasn't at home. So I was already in an "energy deficit" compared with my normal home eating routine. Eating sandwiches at home is a tad too late if one desperately needs more energy out on a ride. There is no vast network of "pubs with grub" in Denmark. Nor "greasy spoon" cafes. So they weren't a viable option even if I felt remotely like a pint and a pie. 

The hideous truth is that saddle soreness was always my real barrier to longer rides. The Brooks B17 was always the best option. Though even this did not preclude miserable discomfort after a few hours. I'd deliberately wear bibs on my longer rides when I knew beforehand that I was actually going on one. It was always in doubt whether I would actually be allowed out all day, just to "run away."

Only much later did I discover trouser braces [US pant suspenders?] worked wonders with decent padded shorts like Wiggle's DHL. Though you have to get the more gentle, plastic clamp variety. Not the metal piranha type. Which would soon shred the flimsy cloth. The braces kept the shorts comfortably tight against my crutch [to avoid rucking] but they also stopped the shorts from catching on the typically sharp nose of the B17 when climbing out of the saddle.

Braces are far more sensible than bibs while out on a long ride. Where a visit to the Co-op or churchyard toilets can mean stripping completely naked! After only one attempt with freezing cold, petroleum jelly, I could never bring myself to apply anything between myself and my shorts ever again! No nether-regions grease, please, we're British! 😬

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1st January 2018 Happy New Year?

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Monday 1st Jan 2018, 41F, 5C with a heavy overcast. A very wet, mild and very windy day is promised.

The rain increased steadily as I walked until I decided to take a shortcut across a rather soggy field to save myself a soaking. Very little traffic and only a few birds struggling with the wind.

A typical rural, winter scene of 'Agent Orange' herbicide, grey skies and field flooding due to the incessant rain. A clear spring bubbles up at the far end of this field "puddle." The last remaining, roadside willow is sprouting again after being cut down to a stump some years ago.

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