28th March 2018 Giving the Ecco boots their marching orders?

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Wednesday 28th 32F, 0C, very heavy overcast, light winds building to gales with rain, sleet or snow. The wind was already roaring in the trees on my morning walk to the village and back. I had the boots laced only as far as the ankles and was still in pain.

The tree clearance is almost complete. I'm still wondering how they are going to remove the large tree stumps. Presumably using a large excavator. The stumps with their root systems can hardly be left in the ground if it is intended to plough and cultivate the new area of field. The change is dramatic, going from a rectangle of very tall, mature trees to nothing at all.

Thursday 29th 32F, 0C, breezy, heavy overcast with overnight snow still falling. Only about an inch lying at the moment but expected to continue all day as the wind falls light. Easter is upon us but some supermarkets should be open. I set off in falling snow to reach the woods, skirted the large fields and descended, back home without a pause. The airborne flakes have spoilt most of my pictures. The boots were laced only loosely and not up the ankle. Which helped to avoid the usual pain. It snowed all day but did not accumulate to more than an inch or so.

Friday 30th 26-39F, -3-4C, calm, clear and bright. After a clear night the snow is very patchy. Walked with the boot laces almost undone and the tongues pulled out.  It was a lovely sunny day with the wind only gently increasing. Afternoon ride to the shops to catch up. Headwind going. Effortless with a tailwind coming back. Only 7 miles.

Saturday 31st 32-37F, 0-3C, bright but cloudy with the easterly wind increasing. The wind is highly variable. Going from roaring in the trees to quiet in mere moments. A handy wind direction for felling more trees. Though they relied on a tractor and rope to ensure there were no silly mistakes. Saw my first wagtails of this year foraging on a field near the road. I see huge numbers of them but almost always individuals. The Ecco boots are responding to loose laces but it is hardly practical for wandering on rougher surfaces. I left the boots clamped in G-cramps today. To apply more localized pressure from smaller, bare metal surfaces rather than broader, protective plastic, covers.   

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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26th March 2018 These Ecco boots are [NOT] made for walking!

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Monday 26th 35F, 2C, calm and overcast. A cold and grey walk and all a bit "silent spring" out there. Then  I realised the missing birds are still working to official winter time. They finally tuned up after 9.30am [CET] after my seeing only mink gulls before that.

The Ecco boots are still hurting. I'm going to have to put washers around the plastic lace hooks so I can squash the Ecco, yak, bull hide, bellows tongues in another place. Otherwise they will never [ever] break in! They've had hours and hours of being clamped really hard where I can get the clamp's screw pad to fit between the lace hooks. It obviously isn't doing the job as far as my permanently sore ankles are concerned.

This time I've tried stacks of rubber washers over the lace hooks to protect the lace hook and the leather. After more hours of being squashed hard by the clamp there was still no improvement in comfort.

Now I'm trying a line of saddle oil along the bellows tongue crease. This oil made Brooks saddles far too soft so it might just help the cause.

Now back under the hard clamping for a few more hours. The smaller, round head of the screw clamp provides localized pressure. While the flat, iron foot inside the boot spreads the load along the bellows crease. I'm screwing the clamps as tight as I can physically manage.

It's a shame the thick bellows crease is causing so much trouble because the toes of the boots feel very comfortable.

I've tried all the likely combinations of lacing. Logic suggests tight lacing would push my feet back in the boots away from harm. Loose lacing allows much more flexibility in the uppers. Neither option has worked so far.

The sheer thickness of the leather used to make the bellows tongue means it cannot adopt a nicely flat fold. Instead it feels like a hard, raised ridge right down through the inside of the boot along the edge of the tongue. Fortunately it is only the inside fold which is causing such pain. I'm not even aware of the outer ridge. My last pair of Ecco boots felt like I was wearing carpet slippers. They made the Salomon boots feel like plywood boxes! Distant shopping in the car.

Tuesday 27th 36-47F, 2-8C, thick mist clearing quickly, overcast, calm. Woken by noisy tree harvesting machinery at a distance. It must be hell for those living right next to it! The boots were no better as I limped off painfully to see what was happening.

The deep moan of a big diesel was being overlaid by the rattle of branches being chopped to pieces. With regular, deeper and louder sounds when a whole tree trunk was being fed into the machine. The limit seemed to be set at 2' in diameter because one, larger trunk was left behind as the tractor and machine moved forwards at intervals. The scale of the machinery can be judged by the tractor driver facing backwards in the cab.

All the cutter's grinding action was taking place in the smaller box in front of the huge green hopper. A vertical chute quickly filled the hopper or could be turned to load a trailer behind another similarly massive tractor. This was carted off for the chippings to be piled high where vehicular access from the road was better. It was odd to see a brown bird of prey hanging about on the ground quite near the roaring machine. Yet as soon as I clomped along the road it took off and disappeared into the distance. Birds really do not recognise vehicles as a danger.

After another morning of the boots being clamped at the tongue folds I put the boots back on to work in the garden. Climbing ladders to trim apple trees and generally wandering about gave the boots a different form of exercise. I laced the boots only to the bend at the ankle and this seemed to help. Still a long way to go before they become comfortable. No amount of clamping seems to flatten the fold in the thick leather tongue. I'm not sure the synthetic saddle oil made any difference. The image [left] shows the thick fold today after days of fierce clamping. No ride today.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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24th March 2018 Look Mummy! I'm Napoleon!

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Saturday 24th 38F, 3C, light winds, mist and light drizzle. My boots are still hurting. A large, brown, bird of prey was moving around the shattered stumps of the felled trees. The contractors are now turning the same trees into chippings with a huge machine. Back to clamping the unwearable Ecco boots.

Afternoon ride to the shops. No sign of the promised sunshine. Moron driving far too close, fell asleep when the car in front of him indicated to pull into a car park. Swung wide straight into my path without a care or exposing a single brain cell to active use. Darwin was right. So are self driving cars. Only 7 miles, still not out.

Sunday 25th 40F, 4C, overcast, misty and calm.

Always the Napoleon delusion. Never his batman: Next time you see a cyclist do not assume a bicycle is all they can manage, or afford. Many cyclist are car drivers, van drivers, sports car drivers and even lorry drivers. Some are pilots or even astronauts. When you see a cyclist, never assume that they are riding the hundred yards to the shops. As you are behind the wheel of your stinking car. They may be 10, 100 or even 1000 miles "from home."

You have absolutely no way of telling yourself anything about them. Except that they choose to ride a bicycle for all its clear benefits, except weather protection. What you think of cyclists says a lot more about you, than cyclists. Many treat cyclists with an overt form of racism. If they seem lower on your rigid [non]sense of human hierarchy, than yourself, in your hundred yards car journey, then you are sorely mistaken. A car does not give you status. Though it may well label you as "a complete waster."

Car adverts are often some strange, alternative reality. They are often filmed on closed roads in a "poor" country and early in the morning to give the illusion that traffic will not exist for you alone. Except to turn their heads to admire "your ride." Or your fantasies about avoiding traffic and your ability to find short cuts that no other human being on Earth could possibly know about. I expect the advertisers believe in human abduction and flying saucers too. Probably  because they are aliens themselves. No human being with an ounce of morals would ever work in advertising.

In truth it's just another car to carry you more slowly across town than bicycles. Just as they have for decades in every town and city. Your laziness, as a short distance, city car driver, contributes to global warming and places massive demands on the health services. You are contributing to the ill health of yourself and countless children and adults along your route. As your "admirable ride" pours out toxins and soot particles.

For decades it was lead poisoning too. Because the car builders, politic-ooze and petrol companies were all in cahoots and nobody really cared as IQs fell steadily. So that future, short distance, city drivers wouldn't have enough marbles to build a realistic view of the world.

As they fight for personal supremacy according to their vehicular-specific delusions of hierarchy. And, so that they looked down on all cyclist as a hindrance. When, in reality, every cyclist speeds the traffic by not being a total moron behind the wheel of a big chunk of stinking, rusting toxicity. One of billions of toxic and dangerous boxes which kill hundreds of thousands of innocents every single year. Dictators, terrorists and gun manufacturers would give their right arms to have that much killing power. Except their hands are always too busy doing something else they'd rather you didn't know about.

Remember this, as you ride the world's slowest, hundred yards to the shops. Along will all the other lazy barstewards with delusions of grandeur. Road rage is just one of the symptoms of your serious delusions. See a psychiatrist. Or just get yourself a bicycle for the hundred yard run to the shops.

Short journeys are terribly wasteful of fuel and far more damaging to the cold engine and exhaust which never gets a chance to warm up. Every cyclist and pedestrian, can smell your foul unburnt fuel being spewed out of your standard issue, "sporting" waste overflow pipe as you pass them on the straights between
traffic lights.

If you really were Napoleon you wouldn't be driving yourself the hundred yards to the shops. Not in that stinking death trap. Would you?

"I'm a tree!"

Sunday 25th 40F, 4C, overcast, misty and calm. Despite the painful boots not having been improved by more hours of clamping, I walked a large loop around the fields. This may not be a good idea because the farmers have been spraying. Even on the other side of our field boundary hedge yesterday afternoon while I was working outside. I have been having headaches and dizziness again. Typical symptoms for this time of year. A large brown bird of prey was having a dogfight with aggressive crows as it flew away from my clomping presence on the road. A Chaffinch was drowning out a sweet Yellowhammer's song in a roadside tree. The fields were well furnished with skylarks just being skylarks. Nothing else, comes close.

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19th March 2018 You want extra winter with that?

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Monday 19th 19-38F, -7+3C, calm and sunny. A hard white frost with almost no clouds at all. It will warm up to positive figures with light winds later, but becoming more cloudy.

I took my Ecco Torquemada GTXs up to and around the woods today. Being careful to wear odd pairs of socks to ensure a place in the Guinness Book of Records, I kept a constant  eye out for the official observer. No observer? No record. Not even if 6 billion "ordinary" people see you do it with their own eyes. That's the thing about commercial monopolies. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Just ask our previous, tyrannical sweep, council worker jobsworths, Gates or Zuckerberg.

The boots were fine on steep ascents but painful everywhere else. So it's back to the thumbscrews, I'm afraid. Yet again I was much too warm from putting on too many layers. Fine when I left, but it had warmed up to 0C but the time I returned. Saw several birds of prey and a small flock of Plovers. Which were flying determinedly, but silently eastwards. The skylarks are beginning to get into their musical stride but still few in numbers. First signs, or rather stinks, of pig shit spreading on the air.

Tuesday 20th 32F, 0C, clear and bright again but windy from the north. One of Uber's self driving cars has killed a pedestrian in a collision. So Uber have paused the self-driving exercise for the moment. There is no information other than that the woman pedestrian was not using a crossing. 6000 pedestrians [alone] were killed in the US in 2016 by human driven cars.

Rather oddly, there is no talk of pausing the use of human drivers. Nor do these tragic deaths make the international headlines. Perhaps they should?  Every mile using self-driving technology is a safer mile than letting the MkI human idiot take <cough> control. No day passes when the Danish motorways aren't blocked [for many hours] by <cough> accidents. Just putting self-driving technology into lorries would reduce accidents and road closures. Is there anyone reading this who hasn't been overtaken by a speeding car in impossibly dangerous conditions?

I tried two pairs of loop pile socks today to cushion my feet from the Ecco boots. It didn't stop the pain until I was nearly home again. I was leaning on the northerly wind as I headed for the lanes. Where I was overtaken by a vast, 7-axle tanker come to collect more muck from a farm tank. The sea-gulls were irritated by the lorry's presence and went up in a cloud to complain bout it. We don't usually hear the gulls despite their huge numbers. Great flocks of them go over whenever a tractor is ploughing or sewing. They make a fine sight on a thermal in bright sunshine. Heavy shopping in the car.

Wednesday 21st 32F, 0C, light winds, heavy overcast and snowing. It dropped to 25F, -4C overnight. The dusting of snow was short lived and was all but gone on my return from my walk. A large brown bird of prey was perched on one of the felled trees. It was still there later as I limped back home. Another day without a ride.

Thursday 22nd 38-43F, 3-6C,  heavy overcast, light winds. Overnight rain and rising temperatures have left the permafrost even soggier than before. It's weird when apparently solid mud turns to liquid on touch. Once rock hard paths suddenly become incredibly slippery and it glues itself to boots and shoes. The only thing which helps is gravel to bulk up the sticky mess but gravel is not always appropriate. Nor can you take it with you in case one's path in the countryside proves impossible. Imagine how they cope with deep-seated permafrost melting in usually, much colder countries.

It was drizzling lightly as I limped off in my Ecco boots. Today I was wearing a single pair of my thickest socks. Some considerable pain to start with but eventually it relented.

After a cold spell, the dynamo of life is beginning to spin up to speed again. With lots of birds about. I even have another mystery bird. A pair of rather dull green birds, not unlike a Green finch, but with bright, white tail lights on the male. Not a Siskin nor a Serin and certainly not Yellowhammers. I'll have to keep searching for an identification.

Just as I neared home I saw a mostly white bird of prey sitting rather incongruously in a dark, garden conifer. It did not move as I walked the length of the drive. By the time I looked out of an upstairs window it had moved much closer. Now perched in a tiny, bare tree out on the front lawn. I took a couple of snaps through the glass at full zoom. Even heavily cropped the bird remains small and not very sharp due to the acute angle of the shot. I was actually allowed out for a shopping trip. Only 7 miles. Going quite well.

Friday 23rd 36-38F, 2-3C, calm but overcast. Enjoyed a lengthy, but painful walk around the edges of fields and up through the firebreaks in the woods. The Ecco boots are still horribly painful on the inside ankle bones. The marsh pond is now unfrozen. A dozen or so mallards were sharing the water with a pair of smaller ducks. Possibly Pochards or Tufted ducks. Very striking male, with uniform grey back, ginger head, dark face, narrow white stripes along the sides [or wings] and strongly cream coloured rear flanks. The female was typically nondescript and brownish. I'll keep looking for a proper identification.

Unfortunately they flew off as soon as I stepped from behind the only concealing bush. They had seemed quite calm as the mallards dashed about.  Buzzards circled high overhead calling plaintively as a small line of Shelducks went over. There are still strips of dirty snow left behind under north facing banks or in deep shade. Busy at home. So no ride.

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16th March 2018 More of the same, but worse.

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Friday 16th 31F, 0C, gales, overcast with occasional, tiny blue patches. After more hours of clamping the tongues, the Ecco boots feel no better or even much different. I'm off to try them now. Wish me luck! At least I won't get blown over by the wind. It did its best but I survived despite jackdaws going past like guided missiles. Little traffic or wildlife this morning. I relied on limping and endorphins to reach home again in my vicious new boots. Perhaps they were getting their revenge for my using thumbscrews on them? No doubt the irony did not completely miss the mark.

The 20m/s [45mph] easterly gales are set to continue for the third day in a row. The sky is now a uniform grey overcast. I was just reading about a potential tipping point in the Gulf Stream as warm water builds up in the Arctic. Thereby blocking the normal, thermal sink.

I told you the wind was strong!

Abandon hope all ye who enter here! If  Europe gets an ice age the asylum seekers will all be back on the next plane home to get warm again. I bet they won't let us into their home countries, as climate change migrants, as easily as we let them into "ours."

A good thing too! We made this climate mess. While simultaneously robbing them of their natural resources, with menaces. Of course we squandered it all because it has been so damned cheap to pay a single, despotic 'fence' instead of raising living standards for all. Everything has to be paid for, in full, in the end. There is never a free lunch which doesn't come back to bite you hard, eventually.

Now we're paying for it in non-contributory, lifetime, social security, lifetime health care and equally vast anti-terrorism expenses and spiraling loss of personal and public freedoms. Live with it! You caused it by complaining about the price of petrol for your gas guzzling, people carrier and 'luxury' saloon.

The vile Nazis hardly measure up to the colossal loss of life and freedom around the globe just to keep the oil and toys flowing. Just so you could drive 100 yards to the corner shop, or mall, to buy some other slave-made goods to go with your nice cup of tea, plastic wrapped coffee or takeaway. While wearing your latest, dirt cheap 'designer label' clothing and trainers. All rammed through the rollers of slave-based, global trade by sadistic sociopaths with 'offshore' taxes, mountains of tasteless bling and an unquenchable demand for innocent victims. 

Saturday 17th 23-29F, -5-1C, easterly gales and sunshine with cloud building rapidly from overnight clear skies. I'm off for a [not] nice little bit of S&M with my Ecco boots. My face is as red as a GPO pillar box from spending hours outside in yesterday's gales at -1C. With hardly a full five seconds of sunshine to its name. Bitterly cold on my hands when I removed my gloves for photography. Cold on my face too despite the balaclava and my double fleece hat pulled well down. It's blowing harder than ever now with more and more cloud. My boots were just as awful as their first trial. So I curtailed my walk to limp another day. I shopped for heavy stuff in the car as the wind roared for the third day in a row.

Sunday 18th 25F, -4C, overcast, windy with snow flurries. Gusts are supposed to have dropped from 20m/s to about 13m/s. Possible threat of sunshine later. We'll see, when the snow stops falling. I may be suffering from undiagnosed hypothermia because I'm getting clumsy and forgetful. Or åperhaps it's something in the water?

Denmark gets all its drinking water from deep bore holes. Now these are having to be abandoned in droves after decades of pouring pesticides onto the land. In the absence of ass's milk I suppose it's another excuse to give up winter bathing. The bathroom is below zero anyway and the black slime on the walls has turned to catching insects for protein. It's lucky we have no pets! Pass the bottled water, please? I seem to have a chronic deficit of plastic in my diet.

Well, I'm back from my first winter attempt to reach the village in new Ecco boots unsupported by a backup team or even an official GBR observer. I had resolutely refused to wear odd coloured socks just to gain a new  <cough> 2018 GuinessWorldRecord. So they had told the newspapers I had abandoned my attempt. Not even a hovering helicopter, with emergency medical staff and copious supplies of blood, bothered to trail behind my faltering gait.

A small gaggle of international "Outdoor Wear" journalists had to make do with their UHD4K60FPS "wearable" wrist monitors to watch me though their whining, UHD4k60FPS drone cameras diving and ducking overhead. As I staggered, ever onwards, step by agonizing step. As blood oozed to the top of  my boots to run down the oh-so-recently pristine, yak leather. I glanced back to see I had etched a weaving, comic-tragic trail of pointless, human devastation in the thin layer of freshly fallen snow. 

It was a Sunday, after all, so my torment seemed somehow, hideously appropriate. Not that the solitary churchgoer cared as they roared into the knee-deep, church car park gravel in an immaculate, metallic gold, Volvo, people carrier, without indicating. Perhaps it was just the bishop come to check the takings to see if he could upgrade from his late, last year's model?

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14th March 2018 Ecco torture implements!

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Wednesday 14th 35-38F, 2-3C, overcast, light winds. Saw two, dark brown, birds of prey on my walk. Later I was allowed out for another shopping ride to restock. It remained grey with a cold wind and reaching only 38F, 3C.  There are still lots of bright stripes of snow left from the earlier drifting. The new cycle lanes are still ongoing with drainage work prior to asphalting. I see they are building numerous, flash flood reservoirs.

Despite being heavily laden, I decided to detour uphill on the way home. Once clear of the uphill main roads I could enjoy the empty and undulating, rural lanes. I was doing quite a bit of climbing out of the saddle to try and stay in form. While I constantly try to keep my cadence above 95rpm, my average, according to the cycle computer, is only 85rpm. Though I often see over 100rpm when cruising.

I suspect it is the out of the saddle climbing which drags down the average. I find it impossible to stand up and pedal rapidly. So change upwards of two gears is vital to avoid simultaneous loss of speed. Some pedal resistance is always required to help support my body weight. My average speed is now only 12mph based on only 240 miles since the last battery change. 19 more miles today.

Thursday 15th 33F, 1C, breezy with heavy overcast. The forecast is for 45mph easterly gusts for two whole days and chilly down to -3C! My face is still burning from yesterday's promised sunshine. NOT! It is the DMI who should have red faces. They keep threatening sunshine but we see less than none at all. Not even a glimpse between clouds let alone a real shadow!

I am getting fed up with the damage my new Ecco boots are doing to my ankles. So I had a proper look inside. The bellows tongue is made of very thick and stiff leather. Which doesn't want to bend or lay flat at the fold. The result is a hard, raised ridge running upwards on both sides. [Arrowed.] I'm now thinking of clamping the fold to speed up the flattening process. My ankle bones were hurting so much after yesterday's walk that I could feel them hurting while cycling in my years old and well worn in MTB winter boots.

A grey cool walk with the eye-watering wind increasing steadily. A bird of prey came down and landed on a mole hill near the road. So I stopped to watch it as it looked around. Then another similar bird swooped low overhead and flew off into the distance. I am walking in two very thick pairs of socks with the boot laces very loose and only laced up to the ankle.

I think I'll use padded G-cramps [C-clamps] to flatten the tongue folds. I obviously don't want to spoil the boots exterior cosmetically so will have to be careful. I don't think clamping the fold internally will do much good. I can't return the boots now because I've worn them. It's no wonder the dealer is discontinuing Ecco and selling off his stock at a major discount. An hour of pressing with F-clamps had no effect on comfort. So I moved the clamps further down and am trying again.

There followed a morning of runny nose working outside in a gale @ 37F. The trike was so filthy I was ashamed to be seen out on it. So I removed the rack and 'Overboard' duffel bag and gave the whole trike a thorough clean using cold rainwater, a washing up brush and car shampoo I bought years ago and never used. I even fixed a broken cable outer which was causing friction on upward changes. Then it was up on the work stand with the trike to check the indexing. Trikes don't respond well to work stands. The back wheels get in the way when you try to turn the pedals. Nobody knows the troubles I've had, tra-la. <sigh>

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12th March 2018 Out at 52F!

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Monday 12th 38-52F, 3-11C, calm with thick mist. Half of the traffic had no rear fog lights and the other half were driving on sidelights alone. Which is illegal in Denmark in any daytime conditions. Where headlights are a legal requirement at all times of the day and night. Many were speeding along the straights and cornering as badly as ever. But then, what is the opposite side of the road for, if not tom cut every corner and overshoot the rest?

Walked up to the woods and back along the marsh. A flock of perhaps 500 small birds were moving about in the marsh trees. None came near enough in the thick mist to identify them. They were all very quiet. The sun keeps trying to break through but is very soft. I was much too warm on my walk. Needing no gloves or hat.

It was the same problem on my ride to the shops. I forgot to check the thermometer before leaving in my winter gear. I rode back with my jacket open and no cap under my helmet. Fortunately I wore the thinner gloves. Only 7 miles.

Tuesday 13th 37F, 3C, light winds, heavy overcast, mist clearing. Next time you switch off a light to "save the planet" remember all the football pitches and sports grounds kept warm all winter for only occasional use. I suppose it hardly registers compared with the cost [to the planet] of leaving countless lights on in office blocks around the globe for the overnight cleaners.

Not to mention the air conditioning running night and day because architects know nothing about glass buildings and the greenhouse effect. If they put computers in charge of office block lights they could make patterns, letters and pictures by selectively leaving on lights. And turning off all the rest! Do Russian mafia oligarchs leave the AC/CH on in all their deliberately empty [investment] mansions around the globe?

A cool, grey and damp walk along the lanes. Late afternoon I was allowed out again to ride north to the shops. Headwind going, with fine drizzle on my cheap, yellow, safety glasses. It seemed more like a crosswind coming home with my rear lights flashing to warn the commuters. Most of whom gave me a wide berth. I would too if I saw an old fart doing 100rpm on such an unlikely contraption!

One driving fuckwit did brush past very closely in a small car. Which promptly turned right across my path! I only mention this because it is such unusual behaviour in Denmark. It probably occurs several times on every ride in the anarchy and mindless aggression of Gravely Blighted. Where one's road-going pecking order is strictly dictated by the make, year and model of one's mass produced Eurobox and any <cough> standard Manufacture's accessories. Like brakes and wheels and seat belts. Not that they ever use them, of course.

Perhaps this errant driving fuckwit was an immigrant? They wouldn't have learned the correct behavior towards cyclists from a 'proper,' Danish upbringing. Or perhaps they were simply senile? Or registered blind? I had an elderly neighbour with a brain tumour who became blind in one eye but continued to drive. But only the wrong side of the road. I met him head-on returning from the shops one day but just managed to avoid him by taking to the verge. He was probably on another booze run so he could sit outside and consume it all day long.

Or this bad driver may be one of the huge fraction of Danes on prescription 'happy' pills? This may explain why the Danes regularly <cough> score <cough> high on international happiness checks. They'll need all the pills they can get with a civil service, national strike in the offing. 1/4 of all Danes work for the government or as teachers, doctors, or what have you. So it will be mayhem. The politic-ooze are threatening to lock them out if they don't go on strike of their own accord.

Or the awful driver may be one of the many drunks who drive without a valid license, tax, insurance and routine vehicle safety tests. They eventually find themselves in routine traffic stops having already been banned numerous times. They pay the fine and then go straight out and buy another secondhand car and continue the same behaviour.

Having so few road cameras, particularly those with registration plate recognition software, means they are very unlikely to be caught by any other means. Not unless they foolishly misbehave in front of one of the very few police cars. The drunks automatically blame any <cough> accidents on a cat crossing the road in front of them. Causing them to swerve. A common trait amongst Danish cats, or so it seems. 13 miles, despite the pain in my ankles caused by my new walking boots. Grr?

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10th March 2018 59% and rising.

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Saturday 10th 33F, 0C, light winds with heavy overcast. The forecast is for continuous rain or sleet after lunch. I'm slowly breaking in new walking boots. Managed to get a hefty discount for a shop display, discontinued model in my large size. They hurt on the inner ankles so I'm only lacing them up to the ankle. I had the same problem with the even taller, Salomon boots. After lacing them low they eventually gave enough to become comfortable. It would be very risky to wear new boots for an expedition without thoroughly testing them first. Fortunately the rest of the boots are comfortable but I'm limiting myself to a couple of miles a day. By deliberately walking on different surfaces and inclines to fully exercise the leather. A day of wet snowfall.

Sunday 11th 35F, +2C, breezy, heavy overcast and misty. Showers forecast. The steady loss of trees and hedges had me seeking some data. Agricultural land, as a percentage of total land area, stands at 59% in Denmark. This makes Denmark fifth in the entire world. With regular complaints about loss of natural habitat and poor public access to nature. There is no public footpath system as there is in the UK. Though many [but not all] private woods allow public access on existing paths and tracks. Former access routes to nature are regularly lost due to prairiefication of smaller fields by large and acquisitive, highly mechanized, holdings.

Forest area in Denmark is 135th in the world at 14% with much of it conifer growth for timber production. Even when clear farm tracks exist, with vehicle tyre marks clearly visible, there is no public right of access. There is supposed to be a wildlife corridor beside field hedges but the rules are rarely observed. These would offer a massive and effortless increase in public access routes to natural areas. Or simply an escape from the traffic.

Organized shooting is a popular pastime in winter at all social levels. Somewhat ironically, the income from this activity, allows copses and marshes to continue to exist in the corrugated landscape of endless fields. Many copses and woods are used to raise pheasants [as prey] in fenced off enclosures. Some field ponds are actually improved to help increase duck populations for shooting. Field drainage is a constant activity in the local, agricultural landscape.

Exploitation of coasts and beaches, in the day tripper, entertainment sense, is almost non-existent in Denmark. Access to the sea is often hampered, or completely blocked, by sprawling, private summer house areas and their deliberate chain building along narrow beaches. These houses and huts often attract higher prices than normal homes despite the constant drone of motor lawnmowers and coastal erosion in some places. Rising sea levels would suggest the loss of many of these seasonal villages. There are marinas in many coastal towns where deep water conditions exist.

My walk was accompanied by fine drizzle. Lots of small birds about, some singing. I wore cuffs of cut off [holey] socks to help pad out the stiff [boot] ankles. It seemed to help but there is much more walking to do before any level of comfort is achieved in place of very real pain. Thick mist kept me at home and off the trike.

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8th March 2018 Winter unplugged into ripe old age!

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Thursday 8th 32F, overcast, calm, everything plastered in an inch of sticky, overnight snow. It is snowing steadily now. Grr? It carried on snowing as I walked down the road to explore the sound of chainsawing and the distant crack of falling trees.
All the mature trees around a narrow field were being felled to extend the vast "prairie" behind it. This will make the new field 950 yards x 800 yards. It may not sound much but it is a very big, empty space worked by huge agricultural equipment already.

I'm wondering how they will clear the tree stumps of some rather huge trees. Some are 60 feet high and perhaps 6' in diameter at the base. The tree removal will completely alter the nature of this area. The former, parallel rows of mature trees had an enclosing effect. Being so sheltered and low grass it was a natural foraging ground for countless birds. Including nesting sites for birds of prey in the background trees.

A minor headline in today's Danish news demanded drivers turn on their fog lights in poor visibility conditions. Tell me about it. Only a tiny fraction of drivers, I see, switch on their fog lights even in the densest fog and blizzards. Though I blame the constantly lit lighting rules for this to some extent. Danish law insists on vehicle lights being lit during the day. My own fog lights switch doesn't work unless the lights are set to normal night time driving. With the dash lit up as well. Most drivers are too lazy, or bored, to think about anything [at all!]

I watched a van vanish rapidly into the 100 yard mist earlier this week. His normal rear lights were extinguished by the mist long before his dark outline faded from sight. The car following had a fog light lit and this was still clearly visible when the car's outline and rear lights no longer were.

Bring on the self driving cars! Separate humanity from all responsibility for their daily game of fairground fantasy dodgems! You would not believe the number of vehicles travelling literally nose to tail on this blind humped and sharply winding road in foul weather. Nor the number who literally cannot stay on their own side of the road.

No single day passes, on my walks or rides, when I don't see a vehicle completely in the opposite lane after overshooting a blind corner. Or a bus, lorry or car in the opposite lane when cutting exactly the same corners. The entire length of the road is marked with double white lines. Much like speed limit signs, these double white lines have no obvious meaning in Denmark. Perhaps they are seen as Nazca lines from Viking prehistory? Or are merely decorative. In an attempt to break up the, otherwise boring, asphalt?

"Ancient" endurance cyclists have the health of 20-year-olds:

 http://www.bbc.com/news/health-43308729

I'd better get back on my trike! I wonder if I'd qualify for a gate pass from The Head Gardener? It's not old age that gets the cyclist <cough> in the end .. it's the saddle sores and being run over by Audi/BMW drivers on the their iPhoneys.

Friday 9th 35-41F, 2-5C, calm with thick mist. A caterpillar excavator was clearing the felled trees into long and neat rows. Seeing 30 foot, mature trees being swept effortlessly into the air only emphasized the sheer power of modern machinery. I had missed seeing the largest tree come down. It must have been 80 feet high to the tips of the upward facing branches and five feet across the bole. Now it lay in massive logs scattered around.

Rode to more distant shops. Going quite well with a gentle tail to crosswind. Coming back with a light headwind I really noticed my lack of miles. I was still maintaining a high cadence but it meant I was traveling quite slowly. The new cycle lane is still under construction and still deep in gravel carried on from the surrounding drainage works and road. The tractor with the large roller brush is still sitting there but still not being used.  The moron who rakes the gravel verges of several gardens, using a ride-on, garden tractor, is still scattering the new cycle lane with loose gravel. 18 miles.

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Monday 5th March 2018. Spring is cancelled, rescued and cancelled again.

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Monday 5th March, 29-36F, -2+2C, gales and slightly misty with fine snow falling on 4" of new, overnight snow.

To add to the fun, it seems that loadza dosh, Sky and its multimillionaire, non-inhaling team members are now alleged to have fallen off their bikes so regularly simply to hide the needle tracks with scar tissue. Dare we hope for the removal of all winner's trophies and medals to a place of safety? No, NOT the UCI nor the Olympic Committee.

 http://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/43280081

No morning walk, so spent hours clearing snow with a large plastic snow shovel and wheelbarrow. It turned to rain just after 12am. Choking on the neighbour's recycled, industrial strength, pallet smoke, again, for most of the morning. It continued to thaw and to rain steadily in the afternoon with little real sign of snow depletion.

Tuesday 6th 32-43F, 0+6C, thick mist, overcast and still at 7.30am. National warning of icy roads.  I have been getting painful knee and hip twinges after a lack of cycling during the wintry weather. It may also be due to walking on very lumpy and snow covered fields. There is only a short period when I can enjoy new vistas. So I have been taking advantage while no damage can occur. It is only now that walking on the [hard frozen] clayey soil does not result in huge "diving boots" of mud.

My Ecco walking boots are getting near their "use by" date. With the heels chamfered completely away, the toes turning sharply upwards and cracks appearing between the various panels. They only cost me a fiver in a charity shop. So have paid for themselves hundreds of times over. They looked brand new on the shelf but had the insoles missing. I just moved my old Salomon insoles over and started walking.

The Eccos have felt far more comfortable than the two pairs of Salomon boots. Both of which had started leaking copiously in wet grass within a year of purchase and within the guarantee replacement. The Eccos have never leaked despite their now decrepit appearance. The Eccos do lack some ankle support compared with the taller, stiffer and heavier Salomons. This is an important factor when crossing hard frozen, ploughed fields. Not so much the danger of injury but it can be painful to have one's feet regularly twisted in all directions due to the complete lack of flat surfaces.

I was reading some idiot's opinions about wearing lightweight trainers for all off-road walking while carrying a pack. He was denying there was any need for ankle support or waterproofing. He claimed he goes thousands of miles each year. It must be the wrong leaves on the trails in the US. He obviously never walked anywhere in Snowdonia or even lowly Denmark during the winter. Wet feet are cold feet which rub however the dampness is achieved. Pain is pain however self-inflicted.

I found boots were the only license I needed for walking tirelessly across the landscape decades ago. Whatever the pack size and weight on my back and regardless of the conditions. Trainer soles are simply far too thin to protect the feet from rough surfaces. Off-road sandals have their place in summer simply because of their usefully thick and grippy soles. They still need care on rough surfaces to avoid ankle problems. Much cooler than boots on smoother tracks, though, under the right weather conditions, even when carrying a pack. Some surfaces are prone to lifting stones which can require stops to remove painful 'boulders.'

This morning, there was still enough snow to allow me to take shortcuts across the fields to reach the woods. Then to skirt the edge of the forest beside dozens of animal tracks. An eery mist hung around the bare trunks of the beeches as I climbed. Drifting had occurred beside north-south hedges where low gaps were open to the easterly wind. Leaving a series of ridges and corrugations across the track more than three feet deep in places. Soil had been lifted too with brown, dusty coatings lying on the pure white of the snow. The roads were damp but not icy underfoot on the walk back against the traffic.

Allowed out for a shopping ride in bright sunshine. Returned heavily laden. Only 7 miles.

Wednesday 7th 32F, 0C, light winds, heavy overcast. The ground and the puddles were frozen again. As were the village ponds. Small groups of mixed finches were busy in the hedges. The Goldfinches looking gorgeous in their Sunday best. Snow or sleet are forecast for the whole day. Moving up from Germany, start time is optional depending on one's optimism. It didn't happen.

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1st March 2018. Where do I queue for spring?

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Thursday 1st March, 19F, -7C, windy and cloudy with the trees swaying. The double glazed windows in the bathroom froze completely over, inside, during the night.

Time for a walk, to warm up, methinks. That proved rather more difficult than yesterday. Today the wind was roaring in the tree tops and had turned easterly. Expected to gust to 30mph+ all day. Lots of tracks in the snow including rats, cats and deer. The roads were caked in several inches of traffic packed snow, in places, blown off the fields.

The main roads were clearer later after a scraping and salting. I managed five lifts of 16 x 10kg for 800kg of wood fuel blocks moved in under half an hour. The temperature is not expected to rise much above zero, even in the daytime, for the next fortnight. So having a few blocks in the house will keep us going until hopefully one of the regular stockists manage to find some.

The wind has dropped a bit and the sun is trying to come out. Leading quickly to yet another snow shower. My anemometers seem to have whizzing around for days now.

Friday 2nd 21-28F, -6-2C, cloudy and windy with only glimpses of the sun. More field walking to avoid the traffic going both ways. The lanes had been "ploughed" to clear the drifting. Leaving large banks of rough snow to be negotiated. The easterly wind seems to be picking up again with the 50' garden trees rocking. Another cold and windy day with no ride.

Saturday 3rd 25F, -4C, heavily overcast and becoming breezy. It had reached 27F, -3C, when I returned from more snowy field wandering. The first bird I saw looked like a large Kestrel as it dived out of sight behind a hump. Possibly a harrier? Then a buzzard left a roadside tree and flapped off into the far distance. Later I spotted a snow white bird of prey resting in a small tree. It allowed me to reach a solitary signpost to brace my binoculars before taking off and disappearing behind trees. I was still 200 yards away so unable to make out any real detail.

Just as I neared home again a Fieldfare landed in the hedge right in front of me. It was all fluffed up and untidy so may have been cold, hungry or unwell. It sat there patiently while I took several snaps. Only when I passed slowly within six feet did it take off and fly cross the road. I hope to be allowed out for a shopping ride today. No.

Sunday 4th 19-29F, -7-2C, breezy but bright, [just for a change.] Threat of sunshine and [finally] positive temperatures [C] tomorrow afternoon. Now comes the thaw and the permafrost turns to liquid mush. For the moment, the roadside slush has turned to rock hard. Another tour of the fields while I still can. Disturbed a number of Wood pigeons and Jackdaws. It's blowing a gale again. Roaring in my ears and in the trees. It has reached 26F, -3C, in bright sunlight, as I wait for morning coffee and rolls. Later, it reached 29F, -2C but a heavy overcast slid across and still windy.

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