20th May 2019 Pardon?

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Monday 20th 61-70F, calm, quite warm with a bright overcast.  Blue patches leading to occasional, weak sunshine. Walked to the lanes. Paused several times to watch gangs of swallows swooping around buildings. A chevron of 50-60 geese went over heading east.

The crops are maturing. They use stalk shortening technology so the fields are quite amazingly smooth topped. Knee-high crops are supposed to avoid weather damage. I like the odd mixture of mechanical texture laid out on the rolling landscape. The oil seed rape flowers are going quickly now. There one day and gone the next. It reached 70F in a sunny afternoon.

Tuesday 21st 59F, overcast and breezy. Rain is forecast for this morning. There was a 40mm cloudburst in the east. Had to go to the city to buy "stuff" no longer available locally.

Wednesday 22nd 50F, overcast, windy and damp. Spots of rain as I walked to the lanes. I jumped onto the verge whenever a lorry came past. It saved me getting a soaking from tyre spray and usually produces a wave of thanks from the driver. The warblers were competing with the chaffinches for attention above the traffic noise.

Talking of which: Democratic Denmark is having a public demonstration and consultation of the new F35 fighters today at and around their airbase. With the last crop of elderly fighters flying at intervals to compare noise levels during normal taxing and take-off manoeuvrers. Which is a brilliant idea IMO. The affected public in the nearby villages were even consulted about where to put microphones to monitor actual noise levels. Anonymity was guaranteed for those reporting their experiences of noise levels.

We used to live in rural Wales and were frequently overflown by warplanes of every variety. Which were often banked over on their sides as we stared up at the pilots and the rivets on the planes as they roared overhead. Four Hercules transports at a time, with their wing tips pointing straight down at us only 100 feet below was quite normal. The price of living quite isolated, rural detached.

Now we can watch YT videos of the latest planes on their training flights in exactly the same area. Much like farming, I am interested in the technological aspects of warplanes. There is no question that they are impressive machines and often very beautiful in their own way. I just wish they didn't have to drown out all conversation while the pilots practice their remarkable skills for hours on end.  You couldn't pay me enough to make me live in a palace in London. Or near any other busy major airport.

Noise is highly subjective. The wrong music and the wrong noise can be extremely irritating. We both hate the roar of tyre noise from our nearest road. At the same time it is very popular with motorcyclists due to its twisting and humped nature. The sound of  a convoy of dozens of high performance motorbikes "having fun" is exhilarating and often makes us smile. While the roar of planes overhead soon wears thin. As does the racket from a solitary moped, with a noisy exhaust, crawling along at 15mph! Don't even get me started on motor lawnmowers!

And chainsaws? Abusers should be given automatic, life imprisonment as a deterrent! They are not even necessary any more with excellent and powerful electric [battery] chainsaws available now. For those sawing firewood all day long in a village or hamlet there is no longer any excuse for their sociopathically selfish behaviour . Nor is a chainsaw the best tool for dismantling pallets for firewood. A humble Chinese jigsaw will do. You sholdn't burn the chipboard spacers anyway!

It rained lightly for most of the day and only cleared up in the early evening. 

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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