27th February 2019 "Avoidable" SMIDSY!

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Wednesday 27th 37/50F, bright, clear and sunny, with only a hint of mist. A walk to the lanes then busy all day.

Thursday 28th, 37F,  calm and cloudy but bright. An early shopping ride beckons. Nope! A walk first in a cold and steady, West to North-westerly wind.I was allowed out for a shopping ride. Returning heavily laden. Only 7 miles.

The death of Mike Hall, a top British and world class endurance cyclist was "avoidable." He was riding in Sky-style, dark clothing, at night, with unknown areas of reflective material and [presumably] no lights. He was struck by a car doing 60mph and suffered critical injuries.

Lessons to be learnt? Don't ride in dark clothing day or night! Only professional asthma sufferers wear dark clothing on a dark bike and they ALWAYS have the roads closed and an escort for their own safety. A few even manage to complete a ride without falling off. Stabilizers spring to mind but they would have to be chemically ingested to avoid added weight.

Be visible! Because car drivers have enough distractions without you appearing from nowhere. An iPhoney covers an awful lot of windscreen and phones are getting bigger! The compete opposite of the brains of the mugs whom buy them and use them behind the wheel. Think retard. Or whatever the PC term is these days for a drooling, criminally insane, lump of toxic meat, with no useful purpose.

Riding at night, without lights, should mean a mandatory term in a mental institution for the criminally insane. Including several mandatory tours of A&E departments following serious RTAs. RTA is an innocent term for slaughter house levels of human injuries. Including mangled children. Bring your own sick bag!

You can be literally covered in flashing lights these days without the weight penalty of a single light of my youth. Get a light! Keep the only life you have on loan.

Nobody gives a flying shit how far you've ridden on your bike today. Except other cyclists. And most of them are completely, bløødy invisible! So they don't count. Except in the gory statistics of blood and bone and shattered limbs and skulls. The "competition" has air bags and massive steel cages for protection. Are you feeling THAT lucky, punk?

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Scientists have discovered a low energy way to produce solid carbon from CO2, at room temperature, using liquid metal. So you can still drive your VW diesel guzzler the 25 yards to the nearest McLardy's with a completely clear conscience. Assuming you had one in the first place. Statistics would strongly suggest otherwise.

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26th February 2019 Killing us slowly with dense fog between the ears.

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Tuesday 26th 36-41F, calm but less misty than yesterday. But, as I sit and type these words of wisdom it is getting foggier by the moment. Where will it all end?

The EU and Danish politicooze are discussing ways to get hundreds of millions of electric cars onto the roads before it is [far] too late. The cost is likely to run into the hundreds of billions and must be raised from somewhere. The statistics tell us that the vast majority of car journeys are within walking distance. With only the driver seated in the vehicle. So why build electric cars with five seats?

Meanwhile, the climate scientists are piling on the misery of "tipping point" effects due to atmospheric CO2 unleashing tens of millions of years worth of naturally stored methane. Anthropogenic CO2 is still increasing. So it now looks highly unlikely our grandchildren will be able to survive out of doors over much of the cloudless globe. It will be completely impossible at temperatures that ensure the complete eradication of anything living on the surface. Except nocturnal ants? The seas will be long dead. So don't bank on a fish diet to replace your guaranteed, forest clearance burgers.

Just in case you thought that was bad: iOgre Google does not recognise "anthropogenic" in its US Inglés spelling checker. Only the UK spelling checker recognises the "anthropogenic" in AGW. So you can safely kiss your 160 million, fat butts goodbye. As you sit in your 1950s gas guzzlers. With your uprated suspension springs sagging. While completely out of your skulls on prescription opiates and riddled with measles. As you try to treat the pain of the constant queuing in the drive-through of your local McLardy's only 25 yards from home. Or so the statistics tell us.

The American car: The socially acceptable face of owning a massively oversized, ridiculously overpowered wheelchair for the deliberately, self-handicapped. Golf bags with wheels? Are you serious? Golfers with caddies? Slaves for the obese, self-handicapped. Golf carts? Electric wheelchairs for the obese, self-handicapped who are afraid of the sky falling.
 
And, those UK readers at the back can stop sniggering! You're close behind the US in national obesity rates. 🙊 When I were a lad.. nobody could afford to be fat! There were only a couple of fat kids in the entire school and they never stopped eating sticky sweets force fed by their fat mums.

London Transport is banning advertising of junk foods and beverages from their premises. The overpaid fat and sugar laden, sociopathic lobbyists are incensed but need not worry. The ambulance chasers will be along any minute now to reinstate the  genocidal wholesaler's advertising of wholesale misery. It is a basic human commercial right to be genocidal.

It was 50 yard mist on my walk. Which, quite literally, meant nothing was visible beyond 50 yards. Nowt, nothing, bugger all. Not even car headlights. Not that this affected driver behaviour one iota. They were as dense as the fog. The hedges on the opposite side of the road were visibly softened by a white haze but they could all still drive at an illegally high speed. Do they really believe they have "special powers" like the comic characters on Netflix?

Only one car had a rear fog light showing. Which, almost miraculously, increased their visibility by another 10  or 15 yards. While those driving with normal tail lights were completely extinguished long before the body of the car vanished into the opaque whiteness. Several drivers were running only on side lights. Which is illegal in Denmark whatever the road conditions and should receive a compulsory, mental health warning. And a full medical and driving test before being allowed to have their joke shop license returned.

What is the answer? Sociopathic laziness of thought and action? Imaginary anonymity from driving an identi-box?  Familiarity breeding contempt for the law and basic common sense? A rabidly rapidly developing species desire for slow suicide through indifference to constant negativity? The zombie culture, the obesity culture or the lemming culture? Take your pick. They all mean much the same.

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25th February 2019 Tour de Asthma comes to Denmark!!

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Monday 25th 32F, thick mist, almost calm. Possible sunny periods later. Or quite possibly no sunny periods at all. Take your pick. Walked to the lanes and was roundly scolded for returning too early for morning coffee. Not one vehicle was showing fog lights and some had no lights on at all. Until they braked half way around the blind bends, of course. A speeding Audi driver miserably failed to run me over. So has booked himself into a top spa and therapy centre to recover at taxpayer's expense.

It seems the entire outpatients list of chronic, elite, asthma sufferers is to congregate in Denmark for something called: The Tour de France Asthma. It has already been announced that [asthma drug advertising sponsored] electric motorcyclists carrying red flags will ride in the peloton carrying spare oxygen bottles. Just in case any rider should become breathless while trying to keep up with his fellow sufferers in the vicious crosswinds on the sea bridges.

The Tour de France Asthma is considered far more important than the Tour de Denmark because it actually makes money. From obscenely overpaid TV sports journalists staying in posh hotels and dining at 5 Michelin star restaurants. So the race gets special dispensation from the politicooze to <cough> race cross the motorway, sea bridges in front of the world's slowest, motorcycle cameras.

In "cycling friendly" Denmark the most important, annual cycle race globally [for elite asthma sufferers] must not allow any ordinary motorists to wait for more than 20 minutes, for once in their lifetimes. Just in case they need emergency treatment for PTSD.

There is a minimum, one year waiting list for psychiatric treatment, here in benign, socialist "Soylent Green" Denmark. So the politicooze dare not upset the motoring lobby. The Tour of Denmark isn't allowed to cross these bridges. Because it is a net, domestic, tax loss maker. With no chance of stashing any of the proceeds safely offshore.

The sea bridges were never fitted with cycle paths nor pedestrian pavements. They didn't want [just] anybody crossing the bridges without requiring a paying [and polluting] vehicle. Luckily, after Fat Baby Kim and Fat Baby Chump come together, to exceed the critical mass for unstable, narcissistic sociopaths in one place, the world as we know it will end. Then [just] anybody [left] can tricycle across the bridges precisely when they feel like it. See you there? 😉

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22nd February 2019 iOgres finally react to collapse in blood sugar!

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Friday 22nd 36-41F, dark grey and windy but expected to brighten.  The degree of brightening depending on which weather service you trust. The independent TV forecast is always far more optimistic.[Warm sunshine] The Danish national weather service far more miserable.[Wet and windy.] Eeny meany miney mo..

Following on from yesterday's rant DO NO EVIL iOgres Google/YouTube have finally reacted to the loss of genocidal, sugar wholesalers, Nestlé dropping their advertising spots because of all the YT perverts. YT has closed down several hundred accounts and banned comments on hundreds of millions of others. It seems iOgres only react when the <cough> bottom line is publicly threatened! Is YT a diabetic that can't tolerate a sugar collapse in advertising?

There was no mention in the media of bringing back the STOP YT PORN button. To stop iOgres Google/YouTube video auto suggestion when a user's video ends. YouTube prefers to use algorithms to detect unwanted behaviour in its abusers. But has failed miserably to either notice or react to life changing behaviour against countless, innocent children in exchange for its own, increased, tax-free profits. The news of advertisers withdrawl is rolling. With more and more companies joining the ranks.

The trillions in value that the iOgres enjoy is largely based on advertising. It's just a shame that advertising is not seen for the outright evil it is in its own right. There is no basic human right to be free of advertising. We are bombared by their lies and crap from morning to night and from cradle to grave. It fills our lives and denies our attention on far more important matters. Even when driving we are confronted by posters stealing our attention. Imagine how cheap their products would be without the billions spent on advertising?

Every bus shelter in Odense was covered in huge images of scantily clad women when I was there once.  Buses have advertising plastered all over them. SMIDSY? 18 dead? The [innocent?] driver was staring at an advertising poster of a half naked woman. Nobody had any idea what they were advertising and cared much less.

Who else do we know with very similar behaviour going back for countless hundreds of years? Presently exchanging favourite, children's, fairy tales in just one of countless, tax-free, gilded palaces in an impoverished, mafia-ridden backwater, somewhere down in southern Europe.

Despite two optimistic forecasts it remained resolutely grey for my walk. With a cold, easterly wind on the way back from the village. A Great tit was singing opposite the church but moved away as I trundled past. It eventually brightened to cloudy with only very brief flashes of sunshine. Too busy for a ride.

Saturday 23rd, 32-48F, overnight frost, calm and threatening to be bright.  The Danish news is that a "nice" member of parliament was too soft for the party leader. So she has been sacked after only two days. It seems that she couldn't lie through her teeth to the media without blinking.

The Australian politicooze [aka: The Black Hand Gang] plan to use the Great Barrier Reef as a "landfill" site for a million tons of coal waste sludge, dredged from a major, coal export harbour. Coming on top of the run-off from recent and unprecedented flooding the GBR need not worry about coral bleaching in future. The sunlight will never reach the remaining coral!

Walked up to to the woods and back in a large loop. Frost in the shadows and a cool wind but I still needed to remove my hat and gloves for the second half. Saw the same three deer grazing on the farmer's crop as last time I was up there. Shameless, they are!

I was allowed out for a foraging run on the trike. Returning quite well laden under continuing grey skies. Though I drew the line at bringing a large bag of compost home on the back. [I was carrying eggs and tomatoes!] Only 7 miles.

Sunday 24th 31-50F, calm and clear with sunshine promised. Cloudier later. Went for a mid-afternoon walk.
 

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21st February 2019 iOgres Google/YouTube caught with its kid's nickers down! 😳

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Thursday 21st 42F, grey and windy.

DO NO EVIL iOgres Google/YouTube's unquenchable greed has finally begun to bite back. Major, genocidal, sugar wholesalers, like Nestlé, are pulling adverts. Because of iOgres Google/YouTube's direct association with promoting child porn. Rotting kid's teeth and childhood obesity must not be sullied by smutty images not of their own manufacture!

There was a time when those who embedded iOgres Google/YouTube videos on their websites, blogs and forums could tick a button to STOP iOgres Google/YouTube video auto-suggestion when the user's own video ended. 

This meant that the embedded video screen stayed SAFELY with the original "thumbnail" or user's chosen screenshot, after their own video finished. But the sociopathic dictators, in charge of the world's favourite soft porn, advertising empire, decided that increasing their dirty, tax-free profits was FAR MORE important. 

So now, when somebody posted a video about their hobby on things like cycling, clocks or astronomy. Their blog or website would be desecrated by images of child porn, or other salacious material, when their own video ended. 

Video, auto-start embedding soon became popular on forums dealing with the complete range of subject matter. Because it brought interest and movement to the rather static text. Now when the member's YT video ends it can be replaced with some very doubtful material. Which reflects DIRECTLY on the innocent member who posted the original video!

Not to mention the completely innocent forum. Which is now "promoting" iOgres Google/YouTube's very doubtful message and even worse imagery. Where does the innocent forum member, or the forum, stand legally if the sordid iOgres Google/YouTube following material brings a local prosecution?

DO NO EVIL  iOgres, Google/YouTube decided that their tax-free trillions were not nearly enough to satiate their Midas greed. They had to rule the entire universe. Just to rub it in that they really were all-powerful and completely untouchable by any laws or any moral code. 

Much of iOgres Google/YouTube's mass consumption dross is undeclared, product placement. By overpaid and directly subsidized "personalities." So it was very likely that iOgres Google/YouTube's video auto-suggestion would bring this vile scum to the surface of the iOgres Google/YouTube's sewer.

Anything goes to provide increased and untaxed profits for all concerned. The hordes of drooling followers lap up the transparent iOgres Google/YouTube sales pitch and place orders with their idol's crooked promoters.

Today's exercise, apart from brisk typing, was a 50 minute walk to the lanes. I was entertained by a skylark's song. Dark grey and 44F, 7C here. While Britain is enjoying 18C, 64F in February.

By coincidence I discovered a former home of ours in the UK is up for sale. The asking price is exactly 5x what we sold it for 23 years ago. After years of hoping the iOgre's Google Earth would update the aerial views, it is very odd to be presented with 30-odd, estate agent's pictures of "our" old cottage. The one we rebuilt, ourselves, from an uninhabitable ruin with the help of a one man, part time builder. The ancient cottage was half buried in a field, with several sheep clattering on the roof when we "viewed" it. UK house prices are a completely artificial concept with absolutely no bearing on any reality. Just the price of the politicooze not taxing property investment, money laundering.

Friday 22nd 36F, dark grey and windy but expected to brighten.  The degree of brightening depending on which weather service you trust. The independent TV forecast is always far more optimistic.[Warm sunshine] The Danish national weather service far more miserable.[Wet and windy.] Eeny meany miney mo..

Following on from yesterday's rant DO NO EVIL iOgres Google/YouTube have finally reacted to the loss of genocidal, sugar wholesalers, Nestlé dropping their advertising spots because of all the YT perverts. YT has closed down several hundred accounts and banned comments on hundreds of millions of others. It seems iOgres only react when the <cough> bottom line is publicly threatened! Is YT diabetic that it can't tolerate a sugar collapse in advertising?

There was no mention in the media of bringing back the STOP YT PORN button. To stop iOgres Google/YouTube video auto suggestion when a user's video ends. YouTube prefers to use algorithms to detect unwanted behaviour in its abusers. But has failed miserably to either notice or react to life changing behaviour against countless, innocent children in exchange for its own, increased, tax-free profits.

Who else do we know with very similar behaviour going back for countless hundreds of years? Presently exchanging favourite, children's, fairy tales in just one of many, tax-free, gilded palace in an impoverished country somewhere in southern Europe.

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18th Februrary 2019 Baby Chump's tax-free iOgres.

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Monday 18th 37-48F, slightly misty after a cold and clear night. The forecast is offering sunny periods and light winds. It took me an hour to walk along the road, up the steep track to the woods and then back down the ridge, by the field edges.

The endless rows of tufted grass provide an interesting geometric variation on the familiar folds of the huge fields. GPS has a lot to answer for! Still signs of white, overnight frost in the deepest shadows. I saw more skylarks this morning after seeing my first, of the year, only a couple of days ago. No sign of any hares. It's ages since I last saw one.

Tuesday 19th 41F, dark grey and breezy. The headlines suggest Baby Chump is about to  destroy the entire world's car manufacturers. With new car sales already down, there is talk of imported European cars being penalized for their threat against US national security. National security? Why does nobody investigate McLardy's for causing 50% heart disease in the US population?  Burp! Meanwhile, US car makers are practising hard to become Cuban and Soviet era car makers. No competition leading to total stagnation in design and zero exports beyond their captive audience. Only Tesla has a working electric car and everybody hates Tesla because it trashes their legendary 1950s styled, muscle cars.

Saint Margrethe Vestager de EU is complaining about Danish politicians being terrified of taxing the iOgres. Amazon pays not one cent in taxes on countless billions in profits.

Facebook, Google, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple and others pay almost nothing in taxes using laws and loopholes. The same "dirty tricks" which get global headlines for private citizens hiding their paltry nest eggs "offshore."

The question facing the Danish politicooze is why their own citizens should pay any taxes at all? If foreign monopoly invaders, coming ashore from the USS Chump landing craft, don't have to.

Many of these vast enterprises are direct competition for every business in Denmark. The Danish government is directly subsidizing their competitors by failing to tax them in the same way as Danish companies and citizens. The hospitals, education and transport are all being savagely hacked. Just to save money for the billions it costs in buying and running Baby Chump's noisy, toy F35s. Which nobody wants because of their racket. Except for a few lucky pilots who get to play all day up in the sky.

Today I just made it to the lanes when it started raining. So I turned around and came back. Of course it stopped again within minutes. There is a treemendous crop of Hazel catkins this year. Perhaps last year's drought has them thinking about survival?

Wednesday 20th 40F, cloudy but brightening. Or not, depending on your loyalty to which weather service. A 90 minute walk to the woods, up to the the ridge and back down the steep track on the other side. Spotted a deer through a gap in the woods. There were three and chose to run right across the prairie rather than return 10 yards to the woods. After that I walked back along the road playing dodgems with the traffic. 

Researchers say that we need 1,200 billions more trees to be planted globally. But not like the Danish forests. Which must earn a living producing timber. So that light never reaches the ground and plants and animals can't survive there. Nor can the billions of new trees [globally] be harvested for firing power stations. That would release the CO2 they have absorbed in their growth and make the entire project pointless.

The Australian politicooze is said to be in favour of planting trees. The vital message is that trees must not be planted on ground provided by felling existing trees. Though it sounds just like the sort of trick used by creative landowners to claim subsidies and grants for new planting. Deforestation still goes on right around the world to make room for more slums and to waste more land on producing more waste meat. The problem of forest fires in a warmer environment must also be addressed.

Talking of crooks: Large cities in Denmark are suffering exactly the same fate as many other in Europe. Foreign capital buys up flats and properties as they come up for sale. They do up the property, often using cheap labour or trafficked workers. Then double the rent for instant income on their guaranteed return on investment. It all sounds like the perfect money-laundering scam.

Meanwhile working people are increasingly unable to afford to live in the cities. So they become strictly dormitories and summer houses for the elite. With the loss of familiar infrastructure, services and outlets through lack of customers. No affordable accommodation for the working classes means no nurses, council workers, transport workers, etc. All of whom must commute. Which puts inflationary pressure of incomes and increases traffic and pollution. It all means that foreign money is being used to destroy the fabric of European society. Without ever firing a single shot or dropping a bomb. 

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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11th February 2019 Do you want ice with that?

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Monday 11th 37F, cloudy start but supposedly clearing to sunshine. Northwesterly winds. 8.00: The early cloud has cleared to a low grey stripe right around the horizon. It's looking promising for the sunny day we are threatened with.

An anticlockwise walk up to the woods and back via the field edges. Saw a distant deer and two more running away. A sunny day, as promised, but a cold and occasionally strong, NW wind.

Tuesday 12th 29F, white frost, calm and sunny. Just a brisk 40 minute walk to the lanes in brilliant sunshine. Saw a flock of Fieldfares with a couple of Redwings mixed in. The traffic was crunching over a load of ice on the road. Which had obviously fallen from the roof of a container lorry on a sharp corner.

It is difficult to get the [right] staff when you are competing against sociopathic, Danish, transport company bosses who use trafficked, slave-wage drivers. The same sociopathic, Danish, transport company bosses who make their trafficked slaves sleep on the floor of the shipping containers before driving for an illegally long, 8 day week behind the wheel! Safe in your hands? Righto.

Wednesday 13th 42F, dark grey with light winds to start. Danish politicians are competing to shorten the timeline before petrol and diesel cars are history on Danish roads. The next great idea is to boost prices for liquid fuel to get drivers to invest a small fortune in an electric car with 200% import taxes. Nice idea? That means the millions who cannot possibly afford an electric car, at Danish retail prices, pay increased taxes on the fuel they need to run the only car they can afford to get to work. Heads you loose. Tails you lose.

Meanwhile, a group of early adopters, who installed solar panels to enjoy free electricity and very short repayment times, are suing the Danish government. Why? For changing the rules to stop the massive proliferation of privately owned, solar panels at taxpayer's expense. Heads you lose. Tails you lose.

The Danish news headlines have just recognized my comment about taxing the poor on fuel prices. i.e. the vast majority who cannot afford an electric car at artificially inflated prices due to the government's own import duties.

Walked to the far woods for a change of scenery under grey skies and pushed along by a thin, cold, Westerly wind. There were lots of birds in the bare forest. Mostly Great tits, but I saw a male Bullfinch singing at the top of a tall and slender tree. A Long-tailed tit came right down within 6' of me to forage on a spindly bush. It seemed completely blind to me. Or simply unconcerned at my presence. A pretty, male Yellowhammer kept a wider berth.

An hour to reach the main road at the far end of the forest tracks and another half an our to walk back. Mostly on the grass verge to avoid the traffic. Builders are repairing a big, old farmhouse now the weather has improved. The tiled, barn roof had been allowed to go into holes by the previous owners. Which was shame because it spoilt the appearance of the entire property and area. A modern, hydraulic lift made quick work of reaching the roof without the need for scaffolding or risking the obviously fragile roof with worker's boots.

Thursday 14th 41F, dark grey, breezy and misty. Walked to the lanes. Not one vehicle had their rear fog lights lit. A farming lorry was making noises like gunfire from the wheels or axles. Bearings or loose wheel? Who knows?

Friday 15th 32-41F, misty and frosty start, then clear and sunny all day. Walked to the village and back. Lots of birds about today. I saw a Nuthatch walking repeatedly upside down on a large tree trunk by the church. I was allowed out later for a short shopping trip. Only 7 miles.

Sunday 16th 37-44F, clear and sunny start but cloud expected. In fact it was a long, sunny day. Walked to the lanes and back. A large brown bird of prey on the roadside hedge.

Sunday 17th 43-50F, grey, calm, misty and more grey today. I wonder if I could sneak out for a ride? Walked to the woods and back along the marsh for an hour in all. Not a single bird on the lake but Yellow hammers in the roadside hedges. I was trying to capture the misty greyness but my pictures just looked out of focus and dull.

Managed a ride to more distant shops. Returning heavily laden. Hard work on the hills! Particularly when I was overtaken by a battery driven pensioner, laughed and then had to stay on her back wheel. As soon as we crested the top I overtook and cruised at 16mph leaving her far behind on the flat. Then I was overtaken by a keen group of about 20 riders cruising at ~19mph. I jumped up a ramp onto the pavement to let a bus go past and received a wave in thanks.

Nearing home I was overtaken by a criminally insane driver in a dark bronze "Nondescript." I could hear his tyres from half a mile behind as he accelerated to 70mph in a 50mph national speed limit. He slipped past me straight into the path of a bus emerging from a blind corner and forcing me off the road and onto the potholed rough verge. 15 miles. Still not out.

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5th February 2019

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Tuesday 5th 38-41F, breezy, heavy cloud clearing to sunny periods. The permafrosted drive has turned to mush with the increased temperatures. The sky was very mixed on my walk to the lanes in light traffic. From blinding sunshine out of a clear blue sky to leaden overcast.

I like the subtle shadows thrown by the low sun on the prairie leading up to the woods. This is only the eastern half of one field. A similarly large field lies on the much steeper eastern side of the same hill. Both fields are nearly 1000 yards by 800 and are managed by very large agricultural machines. Even the sprayers and muck spreaders are based on combine harvesters.  The mixed forest extends for some miles in a more or less, connected patchwork beyond the visible skyline.

I watched as a common gull surfed over the village church from across the fields as I walked on a tangent. The gull had caught the light, as they often do, against a blackened sky beyond. For ten minutes, or more, it soared back and forth at the same altitude above the surrounding trees. Do birds enjoy flying? What drives their behavior?

Wednesday 6th 36-38F grey, wet and windy so far. I left my walk until after morning coffee and still managed to get wet despite the lull which had teased me out. The speeding traffic didn't care if they sprayed me. So I took to the verges as usual. A horribly wet day completely devoid of the promised sunny periods.

Thursday 7th 39F, dark grey and breezy. A repeat of yesterday's forecast. Will it be a repeat of yesterday's weather? 2018 has been recognized as the fourth warmest year on record. It was a year of death and disaster with record temperatures, drought and huge forest fires.

Denmark's farmers and nature organizations are in agreement over taking wet, low land out of farming production. The land will will be returned to nature or grassed. The Danish government is promising funding. It is too late for Denmark's water sources from deep wells. The water table feeding many of these boreholes is already contaminated by pesticides. Another wet and windy day without any of the promised sunshine. It dried up in the afternoon. Heavy shopping in the car.

Friday 8th 40F, dark grey, quite mild and quite windy. Dry so far. Walked to the village. Then off along the marsh to the woods. Up through the forest by the steep fire breaks. Only a heron and a cormorant left the lake in a hurry. No ducks visible at all. Which is a first. Though this may have been be due to the lake being iced over until the last few days. Back down along the edges of the fields feeling much too warm again. It  is difficult to judge how much clothing one needs based only on wind and temperature. An hour and half climbing up and down firebreaks, steep fields and banks is apt to warm one far more than a walk along the road to the village.

Saturday 9th 42F, dark grey, windy and potentially wet. The forecast is showers or rain or sunshine depending which service one trusts. Gusts to 50mph promised by both. The promise was not broken.

Sunday 10th 41F, dark grey and damp. More of the same but with less wind. The few spots of rain steadily increased until it was raining on the last leg of my 40 minute walk. I spotted a couple of smart Northern Lapwings [or peewits] out on a field. Sadly they departed as soon as I paused to raise my binoculars. After hearing their plaintive calls regularly, in previous years, they seemed to be absent last year. Perhaps the crop rotation didn't suit their nesting habits? The various drainage schemes for the fields seem to be working. There is much less flooding despite the recent rain. The beck was flowing strongly again after a complete and unexpected lull only a week or two ago. It rained all afternoon.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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4th February 2019 DMI RIP! 👎

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Monday 4th 33-36F, dark grey, with rain and wind. Rain or wintry showers are forecast for much of the day. And so it was. With wet snow falling for much of the afternoon with strong winds to boot. Or, rather, sans boots, in my case.

I was just reading how "commercial interests" were selling UK Citizenship answers via FBI-style communicators. Any unwanted immigrant person attending a UK Citizenship interview would be supplied with a two-way, communications earpiece in exchange for up to £2000.

2000 squid? Blimey, that's strictly Pussian Mafia, upmarket property investment, money laundering money, in my book! I suppose it helps to keep out the riffraff.

Somebody at t'other end of the "earpiece" would answer any <cough> relevant questions which came up during the citizenship interview. Well, as a constantly resident [for over half a century] citizen of gravelyblighted.uk I would certainly have needed this "service!" Should I ever be forced to return from exile, thanks to that nice Mister Frauge, I shall look them up on the Citizen's Advice Bureau website. It's no use my taking a crib sheet into the interview. I can never find my [supermarket] reading glasses! 

For the life of me I hadn't a clue as to the answer to any of the trivia questions suggested by the BBC. Who knows, for example, who was the second cousin [removed] of the "real life" girlfriend of a one-episode [seated] actor, in the back of the crowded bar on "Corry" on the 13th of January in 1753?

I mean, for gawd's sake? I'm 71, you know! And still have change for a thruppeny bit in my pocket. Just in case I'm caught short! My father served on the Titanic in the Bore War and my mother knew a friend of Florence Nightingale's sister. So there! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Ms DisMay!

They say everything changes. Well, the Danish Meteorological Institute's "weather" webpage has just taken a plunge to match the awful, bløødy weather. Absolutely dreadful! It's satans forferdelige! As the Danes are apt to mutter in moments of crisis. Like an extra 25 øre on the price of beer.

The old DMI "Byvejr" [Town, or local weather] was truly excellent. Instantly decipherable graphs, symbols, maps and multi-choice, weather map animations. Wind/Rain/Snow or the Lightning radar? It was all there for the asking. As crystal clear and instantly understandable as one could possibly wish for for. A triumph of online "service providing" in an otherwise, barren landscape of the same.

The new version is just plain [sic] garbage. Probably to make room for new, quarter page adverts! Heads should roll! Probably some "new broom" temporarily promoted to a situation well above their normal pay grade. By the time they find a properly qualified candidate it will be far too late. The damage has already been done!

I was putting off updating my favourites link to their new offering for as long as possible. Now my first port of call, every single morning, for years on end, has been closed down. To be replaced by the strictly new, whitewashed columns version.  The old webpage was all horizontal graphs and symbols arranged in parallel. So one could read the entire day's weather and for the next two days at a glance.

They don't even have the wherewithal to update the old URL so one isn't left with "website not found!" This is the DMI, for fandens!! Not some teenage bedroom start up in made to measure viruses or to host revenge porn! It's as if the aliens had just landed and closed down normal online services with an EMP. What were they thinking? Not a lot. Can you imagine the BBC website going down after a facelift? Or rather, a facedrop in this case.

I'll just use another online weather service and their commercials [visual spam] need never bother my well-worn Ad-block software ever again. Farvel dmi! 👎 Velkom til, TV2 Vejret! 👍  [The Danish, commercial TV, weather service.] <sniff>

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1st February 2019 Out and about.

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Friday 1st February 32-35F, dark grey, cold and windy. My intended walk up to the woods and back another way was curtailed by a giant muck spreader on my route. So I looped back through the forest and returned along the main track. Australia has just recorded record January temperatures and the first ever averaging over 30C.

Saturday 2nd 33-35F dark grey overcast with light winds. Walked to the village and back. Hoping for a ride today. Did my regular Saturday ride to a more distant village. 14 miles. Light winds under dark grey skies. My winter gear was too warm and I had to remove my hat and cycling cardigan for the supermarkets.

Heavily laden on the way home which always feels uphill. I just checked and my destination was 60 meters [200 feet] lower than home. So it really is a long climb on the way back. I've never thought to check the elevation figures before.

I seem to be going quite well but my speed has dropped despite easily maintaining 90-100 rpm and constantly pushing myself.

I keep wondering how far I could ride these days when the weather improves. In the past I'd think nothing of doing a 50 miles round trip just to shop for a single item in Odense. Which usually involved sprinting between widely spread shops before heading home with my prize.

Sunday 3rd 33F, a dusting of overnight snow with the dark overcast clearing. Today I just walked a loop to the far woods as a the leaden sky was pushed away to the east. Even brought some brief sunshine home after seeing it light up distant views.

A couple of pony riders were enjoying the quiet lanes under sprawling oaks. A female Kestrel shot across the road looking for trouble from the fidgety, breakfasting rooks up ahead. They had commandeered a lone, midfield tree but seemed dissatisfied with their lot. I was glad of my yellow glasses as I walked back into the cold, westerly wind against the increasing traffic.

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