27th December 2018 Gloomy.

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Thursday 27th 45F, still mild, dark grey and misty with possible rain. As I write this at 8.45am it is still quite dark outside. The latest statistics show that 30 MILLION passengers passed though Copenhagen Airport this year alone.

A longer walk up to the woods and back across the edges of the fields using the cover of the mist. Three deer scampered away as we met in the middle of a field. The air was so damp that my hat was soon as wet as the legs of my trousers. I could have taken my leggings but never thought about it.

I have treated my Ecco boots to an impregnation spray and and applied some wax. It must have done them some good because they didn't darken after 3/4 of an hour walking through sopping wet grass. The early mist thinned quite a bit so I was allowed out for a short ride to the shops. The trike and my MTB boots are splattered from the filthy roads. Only 7 miles.

Friday 28th 43F, very dark grey, calm  and mild but no mist today. A bit of sun is threatened. But not yet. Walked to the lanes with a limp due to a painful knee. Somehow I walked it off and it was better by the time I returned. The westerly wind is slowly picking up. We even had an hour of sunshine in the late morning.

There was nearly an international incident recently. When all of the supermarkets began to stock only one make of [very unpleasant] baked beans in tomato sauce. Yet another monopoly rears its ugly head and they all follow the same bandwagon.

Saturday 29th 43F, very, very dark. Rain promised for this afternoon. It was drizzling lightly, driven by the wind, as I crossed the prairie up to the woods via the heavily rutted, main track. They had been trying to fill the worst dips with demolition gravel but not with a great deal of success. It is too soft and just sinks to the wheels of the hunter's 4WDs and tractors. My shortcut through the forest was greeted with constant, heavy dripping from the high, beech canopy.

Perhaps a dozen hunters were standing around a copse out on the fields. Though there was only one shot despite the dogs being noisily encouraged to dash back and forth through the dense undergrowth. A tight formation of four cormorants went over followed by untidy stragglers. Probably heading to the sea for a bit of peace and quiet!

It's not easy to capture the grey gloom of winter with my camera. It just looks miserably [er-um-er] gloomy and badly out of focus. The winter woods are looking a bit thin since the clear felling of a big patch on the local summit. The tallest on the left [image right] are beautiful, mature beech trees.

On the right is a mixture, with younger growth underpinning them. The forest covers several miles off into the distance. Though it rarely sees anyone other than forestry machines in these parts. A few miles further on there are well worn tracks where the villagers an enjoy their forest strolls.  

A steep track runs down the far edge of the huge field in the foreground. It runs from the center of the picture and downwards following the mature hedge to the right. In past times there were a series of tracks rising in parallel lines up to the woods. They have all been lost to intensive farming with huge machines working vast fields. 

Modern woods are very odd. They look completely haphazard until you catch them at just the right angle. Then you an see the long, neat rows of trunks going away into the distance. Conifers were found to be extremely vulnerable to snapping off half way up their trunks during a major wind storm. So deciduous commercial growth is the new order of the day. Except where the conifers can be protected by deep shelter belts of mature, deciduous trees. Not a good day for a ride. So I didn't.

Sunday 30th @ 40F was sunny all day. I spent it constructively at home. No ride today.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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