18th May 2018 Dandelions to the right of them, dandelions to the left..

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Friday 18th 60F, 15C, bright sunshine and hardly any wind. Walked to the marsh. The Red-necked grebe dived as I approached the pond and never visibly surfaced again. A couple of mallards kept a safe distance on the far side.

On, up through the firebreaks in the forest and then out across a field by the bare spray tracks. That was a mistake. A tractor with a huge sprayer arrived over the brow of the humped field. I beat a hasty retreat along the edge of the field. Wounding myself with brambles and nettles as I went. No ride today.

Saturday 19th 54F, 12C, light winds, cooler and overcast. Yesterday's promised thundery showers never happened. The same is forecast for today but I'm hoping for a Saturday shopping ride to a slightly more distant village. I'm often the only one cycling on the new [but still unfinished] cycle lanes. Most are just white lines on a narrowed, bumpy and tarmacked verge.

Protective roadside kerb stones are only being used within the villages. So roadside houses now have somewhere to park. On the cycle path! Remember Jante's Law! [Huske loven!] Which roughly translates to: You can't teach a Danish, village idiot anything because he already knows everything worth knowing. Any attempt to 'improve' them will be a waste of time.

There are still incomplete stretches of cycle lane with drainage work. The construction traffic is leaving masses of mud and large, up to golf ball sized, flint gravel strewn generously for miles. Roadside households are still letting their overfull, gravel drives flow, like terminal moraines, over the new cycle lanes and paths. Just as they did before, with the unmarked roads.

One old idiot still comes out with a ride-on tractor dragging a rake behind along a considerable stretch of roadside gravel. Which leaves the new lanes literally covered in decorative stone confetti. Give an old man a bit of power... He wouldn't bother if he had to use a hand rake. Certainly not for all his roadside neighbours as well!

Walked to the village as swallows whizzed overhead, skylarks did their thing and all the rest added to the background soundscape. Checked my tyres before I left. They felt rock hard to my thumb but were only around 40psi. Out with the track pump and they soon were, really, rock hard at 90PSI. Rattled my teeth to the shops with a head-crosswind. Easier coming back despite the added load of shopping. Only 15 miles in warm sunshine.

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