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Mostly grey on my walk to the lanes. Where I disturbed a few hundred gulls roosting on a field. A single Harrier was visible in its familiar spot in the flattened crops. I glimpsed its partner in the distance, searching for breakfast. Both much too far away to capture their likeness.
A day of showers and weak sunshine. Thunder and cloudbursts are forecast but it's quite pleasant out there at the moment.
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A walk to the lanes under grey skies. Fierce gusts swayed the roaring, roadside trees. I saw the Marsh Harriers in the same huge field. Still too far away for sensible photography.
Fly "Plague" Jinping's "liberated citizens" are facing a widespread outbreak of the Delta variant of his namesake virus.
The genocidal sociopath's propaganda henchmen are blaming local government officials as the first line of token, fall guys. Nobody important. Just the easily disposable.
You'd think they'd have better propaganda than North [1984] Korea but imagination is clearly not their strong suit. Who will they blame when the the "national liberated citizens" start dropping like flies in Beijing? Why Fly "Plague" Jinping of course! Hanging from a lamppost near you? Better ask the "liberated citizens."
Nationalism is the first and last line of defence for any sick tyrant. Just ask Donny von Blimp. He had some GOP, white trash, Red-neck read Mein Kampf for him. Then had them pick out only the "good bits" he could use. It almost worked too. Shame he went off-script and played golf at the taxpayer's expense.
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The radar showed a break of half an hour so I headed off. Even enjoyed blue skies and sunshine. I stayed within shambling/walking distance. Just in case. There were several cloudbursts and/or downpours during the day.
Southern Europe is expected to swelter under a heat dome. 45C+ is threatened around the Med. The wildfire risk is off the chart. The latest IPCC report is due in early August. It might as well have been printed in invisible ink. There is too much dirty money tied up in dirty energy. Too many corrupt politicooze being bankrolled by the dirty energy sector.
The irony is that China is adding a new coal fired power station each week. Providing the vital energy to build nuclear weapons and more roads. The rising [peasant] masses must be taught that private greed is good. As utterly predictable as it is routine. For every genocidal dictatorship [or limping democracy] relying on mass slavery for cheap labour.
Nature abhors a monopoly as much as it does a vacuum. Political monopolies are hideously inefficient. Positive feedback leads to runaway corruption and colossal waste. The worst examples of crippling sociopathy rise inexorably though the ranks. To become the norm in all decision making. Without the vital controls of open dissent and a free press, Sly inevitably becomes the New Improved Hitler.
The Emperor surrounds himself in brutal Yes-men. All on the make. Each desperate to outdo the others in their supposed, extremist ideals. To prove their untouchable power by fear of reprisal alone. The rest is the failed history of tottering human "civilisation." As it sinks beneath the rising waves. The same mistakes repeated endlessly. From invading a bigger cave. Purely for insatiable, personal greed. To final obscurity as a footnote in a tattered, archaeologist's textbook.
A top-heavy hierarchy of deranged psychopaths. Riding on the bloody backs of a massive, individually-disposable, slave class. To prop up the obscenity of extreme wealth differentials. As if by some divine right. The control system, masquerading as laws, applies only [ever] to the lower orders. Generation after generation, since before pre-history and so on down along the well-trodden, deeply rutted, blood soaked path.
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A walk in mixed sunshine and cloud. Warblers being warblers again. Noisy but shy. Constantly moving.
The Marsh harriers were playing hide and seek in the distant crops.
A tour onto the harvested fields before they rake and plough again. They disk harrowed the huge field later that morning.
There were several downpours during the day. The worst, with continuous thunder and lightning just before 19.30. Fierce gusts too! It poured down for 20 minutes. The continued raining more lightly.
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Tuesday 27th 70-75F, sunny, rather than the forecast grey. It remained dry with sunny periods until 14.15 when there was only a light shower. Yet again we were spared a soaking and without the threatened thunder and lightning. The bad weather had passed us by on either side. As ugly stripes of violent colour on the DMI radar. It looks as if Jylland and Copenhagen copped the worst of it again.
Just a walk to the lanes and back over the harvested fields. Two, dark birds of prey were flying away from me.
Most of the day was spent on my latest, construction project.
A Danish news story covers the number of summer house owners who have installed charging stations for electric vehicles. There is a worry that it could cause power cuts due to the massive, yet unexpected increase in energy demand in largely rural areas. Add this to the increasing number of heat pump installations. Which can be used as air conditioners with very poor efficiency.
A rethink of the national supply grid is now said to be needed. Why not insist on solar panels being a requirement for every charging station and heat pump? With summer houses often being far more expensive, than normal houses, it is not as if they can't afford it. Particularly when they rented out for considerable sums.
There are 200,000 summer houses for a population of less than 6 million. Only 40,000 of which are rented out at up to £1000 equivalent per week in high season. Normally, only the Danes may own a summer house. This is to avoid foreigners swamping the best coasts with luxury homes. The highest demand is for summer houses with beach views.
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A walk to the lanes in steamy, misty conditions. Half way there and I was treated to a ten minute aerial display by a pair of medium sized, birds of prey. I took hundreds of pictures but none were sharp enough for a crop enlargement. I was carrying my G9 with 50-200mm Leica lens as usual. I had engaged 2x Digital zoom because of the distance to the birds. This was a mistake. Every picture became grainy.
What I presumed to be the female settled on a squashed patch of the crop. The far more active, acrobatic male provided a rodent snack. Only later did I notice the presence of a small deer very nearby.
Denmark has been building lots of small, rural, cloudburst ponds for quite some time. They make excellent wildlife ponds. With coots, ducks and moorhens setting up home. Planted trees, shrubs and plants soon complete the scene.
Not much hope for the cities in the UK. Even the school sports grounds have been sold off to modern, slum developers in the flood plains.
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Just a short walk to take some more pictures. Then spent the morning working on a project in the garden.
An afternoon shopping ride for only 7 miles. Headwind going. Effortless on the way back despite being loaded.
Can an online "influencer" be prosecuted for sharing lies about the Jinping Plague vaccine in direct exchange for cash? Why not?
What about attempted genocide? Mass attempted manslaughter? Slander against the vaccine producers?
These evil fuckwits should be infected and left to rot. The morals of a sewer rat! As are their online hosts for not taking these turds off the air permanently.
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-57928647
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66F and still overcast at 9.15. Just a walk to the lanes. The traffic was non-existent for the first ten minutes. Back over the low hill on the harvested field to take more snaps.
The warblers are still going strong. The milder weather must be good for them. I don't remember a year where they went on singing for so long. Nor in such variety. Four days of rain forecast from tomorrow.
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Friday 23rd 58F, heavy overcast but calm. An hour and three quarters walk today. Only 293 pictures.
The constant demand for greater efficiency in Danish farming has some slightly amusing, side effects. The machinery is getting bigger and bigger. So big, in fact, that normal roads can no longer manage their girth.
While on yesterday's ride I could hear a whine coming from behind me. I glanced round to see a giant, tracked combine harvester following me down the lane. A car ahead dived into a field entrance. Where I joined it. Just in time for the colossal machine to pass unhindered. Two touring cyclists up ahead took to the fields just to let it pass.
The width of the front rotor on these machines is already greater than many, main roads. So they are drawn lengthways on specialist trailers. A glance at the local, harvested fields might suggest the width of the rotor from the lanes of hay. Left there for huge, specialist balers to tidy up after the grain harvest. The truth is that the hay lines are only half of the width of the rotor. The hay is expelled directly from the machine. So the rotor covers both empty tracks on either side of the hay lines. The bales are becoming so large and so heavy, that specialist machines are needed to load them onto trailers.
The steady increase in size of the farming machinery must soon require tree felling or hedge clearance on either side of the rural lanes. Even the spraying machines are now based on the largest combine harvester bodies. Often with tracks. With the front, steering wheels, if any taller than a man. There are lots of four track machines now.
These low ground pressure measures are an attempt to protect the agricultural soil from compaction. The machines are GPS guided to minimise their contact with the ground. So only the "spray tracks" are ever touched by the wheels. Or the more recent tendency to caterpillar tracks. Over time these machinery tracks sink well below the rest of the field.
The speed of harvesting means that the entire crop can be removed at the best time for quality. Only two or three days pass from a standing crop to bare stubble. This, in a field several thousands of meters on a side.
The giant machines are unfazed by steep inclines. Where a normal tractor would suffer from wheelspin the harvesters can slog up slopes which would be difficult to climb on foot. Tractors themselves grow ever larger. Often fitted with multiple caterpillar tracks these days. Their implements grow larger too. So that hydraulics are needed to unfold them to their full and quite unbelievable size.
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Thursday 22nd 57F, calm and cooler with a heavy overcast. We never did see any sun yesterday. Despite sunny periods being offered by both competitors.
A walk up to the woods. Returning by the direct route between crops and hedges. Not a good idea! Lots of brambles and thorny branches. A bird of prey soared over the fields looking for breakfast. Mutual admiration was absent. It didn't like the look of me.
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Record rainfall around the world. Worse, is that it is very near to home now. Not happening to "somewhere foreign."
As the world descends into climate chaos the Russian gas pipeline 2 has been given the go-ahead. So now Pootin the Truly Bløødy Awful can leverage Europe at his every whim.
Cold snap? Here comes Pootin. Lack of sunshine for the European solar farms? Pootin. The wind stops blowing? Pootin. What is Europe doing with Russian gas anyway as they pretend to downsize CO2? Guaranteed gas supplies for decades to come? Seriously?
I was reading an article yesterday about the true fragility of China's economy and its depleted armed forces. Those not robust enough to withstand criticism, dissent, or even political opposition, are pirouetting on very thin ice.
Satisfied that he has fully covered his tracks, Sly Plague" Jinping has denied access to the WHO team. Which wanted to further investigate the escape of the Covid Virus from the Wuhan, bat virus warfare, research lab. One of the original WHO team lied through his teeth about Wuhan never having bats. Nor that he had a relationship going back 15 years with the lab research leader. Wuhan lab staff were hospitalized with Covid months before the Chinese cover up.
"Tyranny for Dummies" is seriously outdated. There was no Internet when its countless pages were written in human blood on human skin. Tyranny is only ever about obsessive greed by a corrupt, sadistic sociopath. Never, anything else. If it looks like a multi-billionaire, genocidal tyrant. Smells like a multi-billionaire, genocidal tyrant and behaves like a multi-billionaire, genocidal tyrant. Then Sly "Plague" Jinping is a multi-billionaire, genocidal tyrant.
An afternoon shopping ride for 14 miles. Mostly in a crosswind. Going well. I was the only one in the village wearing a mask. Several birds of prey were hunting over the roadside fields.
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An hour and half walk to the far woods taking 443 pictures in all. The countryside was as lovely as ever but the light was a bit flat. I saw two Roe deer. One of them road kill.
I have been using smaller apertures to bring in the lush foregrounds. It can only be a matter of time before the verges are slashed.
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Seven billion continue to practice for their Personal Lifetime Darwin Awards.
The truth remains the world's rarest commodity.
The joke of the millennium? Teaching AI morals based on religious belief. Woohoo!
NK slaves face mass starvation [again] as the fat cannibal complains about SK slang. Seriously?
China, not the US, is responsible for global warming and the US heatwaves, decades long droughts and uncontrollable wildfires. [Kerry.] Dugh?
Rust Belt Russia builds new jet fighter to boost lifetime dictator's limp ego. What else has he done for Russia? Reduced the cost of Vodka? Dogh.
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With no shortcuts back across the prairie I was gone for nearly two hours. I saw several pheasants and some distant Roe deer.
The weeds and grasses were magnificent again. I have developed a new appreciation for their beauty and variety. A tanned, racing cyclist went past on an early morning, training ride.
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Another tour of the harvested field. Capturing the views which are normally denied to me by the crops. A breeze provided a fresher feel.
Warblers are still very active. Singing in many trees and hedgerows.
Time to get on with the projects where the heat made the great outdoors too uncomfortable.
It seems that areas of England have an extreme heat warning. Thanks goodness it isn't anything to so with that silly global warming rumour. Any more than the catastrophic flooding in Europe. Or the heatwave in Canada and the USA.
If it really were true. Then those useless politicooze would have to admit they have no control over anything at all. They couldn't stop the pandemic. Can't stop crime or drugs. Can't stop road deaths. Can't stop record breaking weather. What can they do? Self praise? Is that any recommendation?
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I ventured onto the newly harvested field to take more photographs. It is fun to have so many, fresh viewpoints for my camera. The rows of straw providing many interesting contours over the humped landscape.
Providing he avoids crashes, Jonas Vingegaard will be placed second in the T-de-France in Paris tomorrow. It is many years since a Dane placed so high in the classic race. If Mark Cavendish wins the expected final sprint tomorrow he will set a new record for stage wins. Beating Merckx unbroken record of 34 stage wins with his own 35th.
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Saturday 17th 66F at 8am and climbing rapidly. 80F at 13.00. Clear blue sky and bright sunshine again. The warblers love it and are singing in the garden. Expected to top out at an unpleasant 28C again.
It was 84F inside and out in the late yesterday afternoon. Still 84F indoors at bedtime. We left desk fan, blowing down the length of the bedroom overnight. It helped a little.
The same problem exists with almost every house in Europe. A massive, heat absorbent roof surface. Reaches scorching heat in summer sunshine and then radiates it indoors for hours after sunset. Shame it doesn't work in winter! We sent men to the Moon decades ago but still can't [properly] insulate homes against heat and cold. I'm going for an early walk before it gets too uncomfortable being out in the sunshine.
A delightfully cool, north-westerly breeze made today's walk a pleasure. I took to the newly harvested field for some fresh viewpoints. A distant bird of prey spotted me only seconds after I saw him and it quickly turned tail. There were warblers, blackbirds and chaffinches singing in the trees. Bright blue chicory nodded in the sunshine. Jostling for position on the luxurious verges.
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A half hour walk up and down the road for a bit of variety. A well tanned, lady cyclist rode past. Lots of swallows and sparrows again. Presumably this year's crop. Already very warm with an expected 29-30C [85-86F] later this afternoon. Another warm day tomorrow and then it drops to more comfortable temperatures.
It reached 85F inside and out in the afternoon. A dragonfly was clinging to the washing line. It refused to move as I tried various lenses. The best was the 100-400mm. The "high wire" is a plastic coated washing line.
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Thursday 15th 72F, bright but milky sky. Expected to reach a rather cloudy, 28C again today. About 80F in old money. It is already 81F indoors. I had better have an early walk before it gets too hot.
A gentle northerly breeze made my walk more comfortable today. A distant, large bird of prey turned away on stiff wings. Moments later a Shelduck shot across the road.
Mere hot air about reducing CO2 in Denmark. The local government councils want to spend 2 billion [2,000,000,000 Kroner on cycle paths. The "practice what we preach" national government has offered 150 million Kroner. Or roughly 1/13 of the requested funds. Keep on building those motorways!
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Wednesday 14th 76F at 9.30. A distinctly unpleasant 82F later. It's my second, Jinping Plague, jab day. Bright sunshine with thin, misty cloud.
Already too hot for comfort. A sweaty walk to the lanes. Surrounded by rapidly ripening but beautifully varied crops.
I saw my third Tesla this year! Only another 999,997 to go. To reach the government's expectations for 1m EVs on Danish roads by 2430-ish.
A heron went over. I was too late and too slow to capture it with my camera. Luckily the fields were standing still long enough for a few [poor] snaps taken into the sunshine.
The second Jinping Plague jab went without incident. There were fewer people there than last time. The only thing I remember about the last jab was feeling unusually cold after a couple of weeks. I was wearing a fleece jacket when it was over 70F. The heat feels worse than ever so far. I am not a hot weather person.
The EU 1984 Directorate is to spend taxpayer's money on luxury, 5 star hotel, hot air talks. Nothing is being done. No month, year, or season now passes without new weather records being smashed.
Not to worry! There is loads of time for the rich to keep getting richer. Taxation has become a direct handout by governments. Taken from the poor and handed straight to the tax-free rich. We have no choice. They choose not to pay taxes. "And it's the poor wot gets the blame! Tra-la-la!" What about VAT level, purchase taxes on share buying and sales?
Here's an idea: Every single imported item has to have a whole footprint, carbon tax. Including all transport costs and the carbon footprint of local power generation at the exporter's factory As well as a full slavery report certificate carried out by independent, international, slavery observers with offices in every country of the world. Including tea, coffee and cocoa producers. If it's not REAL Fair Trade then its not fair trade at all. If its not organically produced then that has to be paid for too, in import taxes.
If it came from a Chinese Communist [1984] Party, slave driver, using a local, coal fired power station at their factory, then that counts towards the total carbon footprint. Plus the added cost of real wages, per unit, instead of forced slavery. What is the point of the EU 1984 Directorate forcing its poorer citizens into ever deeper, energy poverty? If the Chinese are given an open-ended, exemption certificate for every type of global abuse?
How about taxing all profits by big tech in every country where they operate? Non tax payment, by big tech, is a direct subsidy to the global monopoly. And, a direct tax on every other business which must pay their national taxes. As well as trying to compete unfairly. With the taxpayer subsidised, US, global monopoly.
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A slightly later, warm walk to the lanes. Birdsong everywhere. Even a Chiffchaff. A blackbird in a roadside tree was particularly mellifluous. Fortunately the traffic was light. So he could be heard clearly.
I spotted some white mallow on the verge. Rather striking against the darker nettles. A possible import with the soil. When the council built up the verge on a sharp corner.
There was a deep ditch there before that. Cars would fall into it when they overshot. They never did finish the landscaping job and that was several years ago now. Not that it matters. It makes a beautiful foreground to the mixed tree planting now that the verge is well overgrown.
One of my neighbours was backing out onto a blind corner just as I approached. When a big motorbike came along at speed. Fortunately the rider manage to wriggle though the narrow gap unscathed. Truly remarkable reflexes! There are several houses with exits just after this same, lethal corner! The traffic just gets faster and faster over time.
I hate walking around the inside of this bend. My hearing isn't good enough now to hear vehicles approaching from beyond the blind bend. There is nowhere to escape from the asphalt due to a high hedge right on the edge of the road! Lots of drivers throw away any hope of seeing more than a fraction of their true braking distance. By driving with their wheels right on the inside of the corner.
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Then I wasted the entire morning setting up the replacement PC. As the previous HDD was dead I had NO passwords. NO Wireless. NO emails. NO confirmation of ID. NO pictures. NO downloads. NO documents. NO user accounts. No forum auto-logins. NO favourites. NO bookmarks. Nothing! Just empty toolbars. Tiny fonts and symbols!
W10 S wouldn't even allow my choice of browser or mail service. Bing is truly, bløødy awful! What nutter came up with that garbage and remained at large? Talk about the hard sell! The whole browser page was a complete nightmare! I had to get rid of it to avoid recurring nightmares.
I spent ages removing automatic crap from the screen. The screen wasn't even properly filled and W10 ignored all instructions to expand out to the edges. More time wasted searching for a cure! All of which were ignored until it finally relented without reason.
The upside is a quiet PC with a much smaller footprint and weight. At last I have enough USB3 ports and onboard SSD. Though they were cheapskates and fitted a 500GB instead of a pennies more expensive, 1-2TB.
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08.20[CET] and it is already 68F. Bright sunshine had the birds singing. Dozens of swallows swooping and diving for the sheer fun of it.
The countryside is looking beautiful.
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Saturday 10th, 60F, heavy overcast, calm and wet. An unconfirmed, new record was set yesterday by a cloudburst over Kerteminde. It dropped 169mm. Over 6" as a storm stalled over the town. There were floods over much of Denmark. As the thunderstorm warnings are repeated day after day.
A normal shopping ride on the trike. A 7 mile round trip with strict instructions not to get lost. First heavy cycle shopping in 18 months or more. I wore a mask in the supermarket. The only one in the village. With one jab so far and new variants cropping up all the time, I'm not taking any chances. The roads were littered with dead and dying slugs again. I passed a jet black polecat/ferret/weasel/mink with a white front. It was sitting bolt upright on the road in the woods and staring at the verge. Completely ignored me as I passed within inches on my trike.
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Friday 9th 70F, warm and bright with thin, high cloud.
A sweaty walk this morning! Lots of warblers singing. Bright at first but becoming very cloudy.
Cavendish won the final sprint again today. For his 34th T-de-F stage win, his fourth stage win in this year's race and Equalling Eddy Merckx' own record.
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Thursday 8th 62F, bright but cloudy. Expected to get cloudier all day.- With the threat of thunder this afternoon. We had a full-on tip down, or three, yesterday in the late afternoon.
A wander up and down the road as I snapped away at anything not actively running away. Mostly landscapes of endless fields stuffed with crops. There were a lot of small trees growing on the verges. I wonder how long they will last?
My 6 year-old Lenovo PC died yesterday. RIP. Has MS a master plan to rid the world of W10 clones in readiness for W11? There was an W10 update yesterday. Coincidence? I could be conspiracy theorist with the best of them. OMG! Without my PC I won't know what to think. If my typing seems better this morning then it must be my laptop. I'm using the same keyboard as usual.
I used MS Creative Media software but it wouldn't load any of the options. I didn't have a large flash drive about my person. So tried using a portable SSD instead. It spent the whole evening loading and checking W10 onto the T5. Then sneered at it as incompatible. Really? It is supposed to be repair software. Isn't it? I dismantled the hard drive but it it looked fine. Put the lid back on, plugged it in and it clicked. That was all.
I'm going to hoover all the dust out of the PC to see if that helps. Failing that it's off to the local garage and their pressure washer. I shall wear a mask of course. The only one in the village. Though I shan't be wearing my usual union jack cycling cape. Not after Denmark lost to Gravely Blighted in the WAG stakes.
Now I see The Big Chump is suing the big tech, advertising companies for calling Chumpism a sex cult. I wouldn't! 😱
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The sun lit the crops as only it can to such effect. I snapped way with my camera. Performing endless injustices to my small world's exquisite beauty.
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Only a short walk today. It was dry when I left and I was wearing an optimistic shirt instead of a sensible jacket. Then it rained. All the way home.
The image was taken yesterday of one of the many cobwebs "purses" which have popped up on the verges. They seem very prone to dewing despite a dry night. Some kind of spider trap? Funnel web? Nursery web? I'll keep an eye open for baby, spiderlings.
Mark Cavendish has won his third stage in this year's Tour-de-France. Bringing him within one win of Eddie Merckx total of 34.
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A warm walk to the lanes. There were small "purses" or bags of cobwebs in the long grass on the verges. Dozens of them. Caterpillars or spiders? Who knows?
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A warm walk to the lanes. Thin, high cloud threw light and shade across the fields full of crops. Quite surreal at times. A small bird of prey was circling near home.
An afternoon ride but only for six miles.
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A small bird of prey will be circling quickly near home tomorrow. I'm calling it a female Kestrel. Though it will make no attempt to hover.
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A short walk while the sun still shone. The cloud eventually took over and became a grey overcast.
Spent the day on projects.
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Walked to the lanes with spots of rain for company. There was a light shower on the way back. Shadow and light raced each other across the fields. The air was filled with swallows.
Genocidal, lifetime dictator, Sly "Plague" Jinping admits the Communist Party has killed hundreds of millions more Chinese in only 100 years. Than all the other enemies of China over several millennia. Then he went on to say that the Communist Party had bullied billions but they would have to put up with him anyway. Nice to see him admitting it so publicly. Keep taking the people's money!
Kim Jong-blob is blaming anybody and everybody for his personal failure to control the Jinping Plague. The reason for the bloated dictator's recent weight loss was the lack of newborn, gulag babies for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Usually served with a bucket full of Pootin's priceless personal caviare. Served on solid gold plates on Kim's own luxury yacht in his private, family marina. The Jinping Plague made the risk of catching the virus from the babies simply too risky. [He likes them rare.] It's no wonder he's cross! Emaciated? No bløødy way!
The noose tightens around Donny Da Chump's glistered empire as the taxman finally closes in. What has taken so long?
Mark Cavendish has won stage six in the T-de-F. His second this year and 32nd win overall. Bringing him within 2 stages of Eddie Merckx' record.
An afternoon ride. Thirteen miles. I wore a mask in the shops. The only one in the village. Going well.
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