31.12.2021 A very silly 48F in December!?!

 ~~

Friday 31st 48F! Incredibly heavy overcast for 9am, windy, pouring with rain and foolishly warm. All day rain forecast. Might peter out by this evening for the fireworks. We went from -9C and snow to +9 C in only a couple of days. It finally stopped raining mid-afternoon. The workshop's outside thermometer showed 50F! The north facing one on the house only 48F. 

New warmth records are being set all over the place. Alaska 24th December 67F/20C! The record, for all winter months destroyed! 100F/38C in Arctic Russia in June.

Today's Jinping Plague news:  Remember: "Chinese genocide is a matter of internal affairs." All proceeds to the Chinese communist protection racket.

Xi'an: Cries for help and food in quarantined Chinese city - BBC News

________________________________

My poor, old car [from 1996] is misbehaving. Juddering and missing power on acceleration. It wouldn't start in the supermarket car park today. That was a first. Worn plugs? They looked old and grubby but not oiled. I have ordered a new set of plugs and a replacement rotor. A new distributor cap costs as much as the car is worth!

~~

 

30.12.2021 A barmy 41F!

 ~~

Thursday 30th 41F, leaden overcast. An unusually warm patch is rising over Europe from the south. 

There was little sense of winter cold this morning. No sign of any snow left after overnight rain and rising temperatures. Far fewer birds about today.

 

~~

29.12.2021 A balmy 35F.

  ~~

Wednesday 29th 34F, heavy overcast and misty but calm. It remained just above freezing overnight. The snow lingers on. With icy patches where vehicles had run over it. 

It started raining as I left the gate. Only briefly, thank goodness. I could soon lower my hood. Onward, with the company of many small birds in the hedgerows. I crossed a field by the spray tracks to escape the rush hour traffic.

Back along the main road in lighter traffic. Where a huge swarm of small birds moved nervously between the hedges and fields. The few I could catch in my binoculars were Chaffinches and Bramblings. The lack of wind made it a more pleasant walk today. 

~~

28.12.2021 Black ice!

 ~~

Tuesday 28th 32F, cold, windy and a leaden overcast. Back to the grey. About 50mm [2"] of snow still lying where it fell. The forecast is a for a slow warming over the next couple of days. Then a few degrees warmer on Thursday-Friday. Not much sign of the sun. It is going to feel cold on my walk.

Wrapped up in two heavy jumpers under my winter jacket I barely made it out of the door. The steps were covered in invisible, black ice. As was the entire length of the drive. Rough gravel had largely lost its powers of adhesion under my winter boots. I retreated to the snow banks on either side until I reached the safety of the road. All of which seemed to have been salted. Even the minor lanes. The traffic was very light.

As I approached the only roadside hedge in the lane it exploded with birds. Over a hundred Fieldfares, Redwings and smaller birds shot out to find refuge on the bowel-shaped field beyond. Small dark figures dotted the snow over a large area. All aligned with the easterly wind. 

As I plodded onward the birds gradually returned to their hedge. Presumably this popular field was lacking in nourishment this morning. Or it was inaccessible under the snow. True to form, the birds exploded from the hedge yet again. On my return leg only ten minutes later. A large, dark, bird of prey slunk off from its perch in a garden tree. The neighbour's dog barked unseen.

WW3 broke out at about 9.15. As the hunters, near and far, fired off their cannon. It continued sporadically until I had salted the steps. Before bringing in more fuel for the wood stove. Then escaped indoors from the cold wind. Though I had been far more comfortable than I had feared. Even opening up my jacket to cool off on the way back. 

~~

27.12.2021 The coppery light of sunrise.

 ~~

Monday 27th, 21F [-6C] Hard frost, snow still lying. Sky mostly clear. Sun forecast for this morning. Cloud in the afternoon.

At first a coppery light bathed the roadside hedgerows. Turning to deep gold and then burnished gold. I took to the coarsely granular snow of the verge on the approach of every vehicle. Better that, than have them veer away suddenly on potentially icy roads. Frozen slush lingered on at the junction. As I turned into the lanes. Fortunately my clumping, winter boots maintained traction on this occasion.

Some twenty five, flighty Redwings crisscrossed the road ahead of me. As they retreated under protest. Blackbirds played their familiar role as drama queens. With their overblown warnings of impending doom. Rather than yet another sighting. Of the same old, harmless and solitary, septuagenarian pedestrian. Of today and yesterday and all the days before that. 

The bright, vapour trails of at least twenty Jinping Plague shuttles decorated the eastern sky. As I shielded my eyes unsuccessfully against the glaring sun. Turquoise splodges lingered on in my vision for my pedantic foolishness. Who else, but myself, cares exactly how many trails despoil the view?

A Red kite came over and flinched awkwardly at my unexpected presence. Plodding across his vast, snow covered, but otherwise empty, breakfast table cloth. It wheeled away towards the north in defiantly slow circles. As I watched through my binoculars. The biting wind at the saddle sought every gap in my defenses. The GripGrab gloves too poor for comfort. Not quite bad enough for aching fingers. Best to avoid photography though. Recovering the lost warmth is a painful process! 

Another walk completed against stiff competition. I could have stayed home in the less than luke warmth of my attic, dormer window. Typed more nonsense into my clumsy and uncaring keyboard. There are fools enough polishing their online paranoia. Without my adding my thick dollop of textual indignation. They will not be swayed by my weak words. Not when they can strive to outdo like-minded others. With their pathetic, self-reinforcing, positive-feedback, complete and utter drivel. 

They see themselves as revolutionaries for freedom of speech. Freedom of choice. Yet, imagine if their completely wacko tripe gained hold. They would be queuing to hang all the non-believers. Nothing has really changed since the caves first became male-dominated latrines. With an entry fee to the power drunken, muscle for brains, vicious sociopath hogging the fire. 

Talking of dark thoughts: The sun has already been obscured by cloud. It is only 10.30. I shall expect adequate compensation from the seaweed fondlers masquerading as forecasters! They should have stuck to reading the bløødy entrails!  

~~ 

26.12.2021 Give me sunshine!

 ~~

Sunday 26th 19F, -7C. Another, sunny day is forecast. And so it was. Wall to wall sunshine.

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool. Than to speak and remove all doubt."

Various attributions.

 

 

~~

25.12.221 Christmas has gone viral again.

 ~~

Saturday 25th 16F, -9C, tobacco filter on a clear sky. All day sunshine expected. Sunrise at 08.45. Still half an hour away. Snow still here. Still clinging to everything. 

The small birds were moving about in the hedges again. Restless gulls out on the fields. The same bird of prey retreated. Bright sunshine from a cloudless sky.

Another year. Same virus. Still no real control. Omicron supposedly mild. Infections spreading like wildfire. We will let down our guard again. Riots against lock downs. People are still dying. A bad mutation would have terrifying consequences. It still could.

~~

24.12.2021 White Christmas Eve.

 ~~

Friday 24th 32F, snow cover of about an inch or two. [25-50mm] Heavy overcast but with a promise of sunshine this afternoon. No more snow forecast, for the moment, but a hard frost [-8C] tonight.

It was a leaden overhead in a monochrome world for my walk. Mixed flocks of small birds moved about in the hedgerows.  A few Redwings, gulls and blackbirds shared the scene. With jackdaws, rooks and crows foraging on the ground. 

A rich brown, bird of prey perched and cried loudly on a distant hedge. It looked strangely lopsided. As if its far wing was caught in the prickly tree. I stared through my binoculars but couldn't be certain of what I saw. Luckily it had moved away on my return. Which saved me crossing the field to see if it needed help. Though even that risked injury if it panicked. I have seen this same bird several times this week. Usually on the wing and retreating. About the size of a Harrier. Noticeably flat wings during frequent gliding episodes.

There was a light flurry of snow just now at 10.30.

 ~~

23.12.2021 Tiananmen Massacre memorial removed by "Plague" Jinping's thugs.

 ~~

Thursday 23rd 32F. Pitch black. I'll let you know when it is light enough to see anything. The forecast is a risk of all day wintry showers. Perhaps leading to a white Christmas.

Like fool I believed the forecast. Which said nothing would fall until later. It began snowing at half way on my fourteen mile ride to the shops and back. I was only wearing a pair of cheap, supermarket LongJohns under my shorts. The snow was soon pitching on my knees. When I undressed at home the fronts of my legs were stinging like mad and crimson red!  I had a shower but it didn't help much.

________________________ 

The "Pillar of Shame" sculpture has been removed from Hong Kong University. The Tiananmen Massacre memorial ought to be returned to Denmark and its creator, Jens Galschiøt.

 Pillar of Shame: Hong Kong's Tiananmen Square statue removed - BBC News

Then the artist ought to mass produce these sculptures at public expense. Then plonk one in a prominent spot in every airport right across the world. 

Multi-billionaire, Mafia Boss, Sly "Plague" Jinping may be able to wield his little bit of corrupt power locally. However, it is his customers, who pay for his armaments build up. Not to mention the wages of his torturers of slave minorities.

Would you buy a German, mobile phone manufactured at the height of Hitler's Nazi Germany? What if it had a huge swastika instead of an apple? It is long overdue that a large symbol, much like the Nazi swastika, was applied to every Chinese product. Just to prod our global consciences. 

Reading the micro print that something is partly made in PRC doesn't seem to be enough for most of us. Let us raise a bloody finger to the deranged, genocidal, lifetime dictator! Preferably before WE pay for his war against US. Like all dictators, he is entirely responsible for his own citizens' deaths and suffering. Not the pretend enemies Which every bloody dictator is is so fond of blaming. For their own arms build up and aggression towards minor nations.

 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre - Wikipedia

Coming soon, to a square near you?

~~

 

22.12.2021 The Arstralian Government is a sordid stain on the arse of the world.

 ~~

Wednesday 22nd Grey and cold. 

Grocery shopping in the afternoon. The supermarkets were packed. 

 ________________________

The Arstralian Government: Genocidal, corrupt, misogynistic, propagandist, racist, liars, sociopaths, slavers, climate denialists, destroyers of the land and our world. The DNA from all those transported crooks runs as deep as a dunny!

YouTube: Honest government ads:

 https://www.youtube.com/user/thejuicemedia/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=0

 

~~

21.12.2021 Dawn on the winter solstice.

 ~~

Tuesday 21st 24F, calm, hard white frost. Potential for brightness but with some high cloud. 

The sun rose about 9am [CET] as I walked down the drive. The almost full moon hung brightly, higher in the west. Thin, high clouds provided decoration. With golden, vapour trail highlights from the Jinping Virus shuttles.

A flock of about 200 gulls drifted back and forth over the prairie. Alighting briefly, but nervously, on the frosty ground. They had moved on again by the time I returned. The wind turbines were unusually still. One can often be forgiven for thinking the towers contain huge batteries. To maintain motion even when there isn't a breath of detectable air movement. 

It clouded over later as the temperature crawled up to 34F.

~~

20.12.2021 Sunny dystopia.

 ~~

Monday 20th 26F, white frost, clear and calm. 

I have to go to the city on official, Brexit business. I pray I can find parking. On Google Earth the whole city center looks like it has been carpet bombed by the developers. I think it is called "desertification" due to all the sand and gravel. They permanently closed a major, multi-lane thoroughfare. Which completely changed the layout for through traffic. Which was often trying to get to edge of town mega-stores.

I was reading an article about combinations of air pollutants in cities. For some reason all the toxins are well known individually.  However, nobody seems to have added two and three together. To make seventy seven on the chronic injury scale. Fortunately it is usually the "lower orders" who are directly subjected to traffic fumes and noise. So that's alright then.

Safely home again after my outing to the city. I found a three hour, free parking spot in a business park area. Lots of traffic about amid brilliant sunshine.

~~

19.12.2021 Cold and windy with later sunshine.

 ~~~

Sunday 19th 45F, mild but windy and heavily overcast. The forecast was for all day sunshine. It arrived much later.

I kept my hood up against the wind. It felt much cooler than the temperature might have suggested. A bird of prey retreated. Then came back after I had turned for home. This bird was quite large, brown all over, medium long tail and rather pointed wings. Wing tip 'fingers' curved noticeably upwards. The usual gulls and crows foraging. 

Denmark is largely closed down again due to the Omicron virus variant.

 

~~

18.12.2021 Omicron cases soaring!

 ~~

Saturday 18th 43F, mild and calm but with a heavy overcast again. Just another damp, grey day. I was so bored with the weather that I walked both ways along the road. Just for a change of dull, grey scenery.

Rising Omicron variant infections mean that Denmark has reintroduced more Covid restrictions for public spaces. As have many other countries. Some news reports suggest that potential variants of Omicron could be a more serious danger. Unfortunately this falls at a time when restriction fatigue is increasing. I never stopped wearing a mask in public places. So won't notice any difference. 

I have to go grocery shopping. So will take every reasonable precaution. It became too difficult to use the supermarket's personal shopper, delivery service. Because most of the volunteer shoppers returned to work. I am now visiting more rural supermarkets in the car. The foot traffic is lower than in the local supermarkets.

~~

17.12.2021 Lost in the mist.

 ~~

Friday 17th 41F, heavy overcast again with thick mist. 200 yard invisibility at first. Clearing to hundreds of yards at the end of my walk. Though the forest at 1000 yards remained completely out of sight. Only a few small birds pottered about in the hedges.

 

~~ 

16.12.2021 Radial geese?

 ~~

Thursday 16th 41F. Sky clear apart from parallel stripes east to west. Sunshine is threatened.

A low bar concealed the sun during my walk. Backlit vapour trails decorated the clearer skies. The mist was thinner today. Allowing more distant views. The nearest wind turbines had been largely hidden until today.

Gaudy Bullfinches moved away repeatedly down the roadside hedges. Their bright white patches are similar to Chaffinches but more noticeable. Crows floated about aimlessly. A solitary bird of prey retreated. Then a line of geese kept to a wide radius around me. Before continuing on their original route.

It was a sunny day. Though with the sun obscured by thin, high cloud for some of the time. Somebody brought out a tobacco filter for the sunset.

~~

15.12.2021 To aspirate? Or not to aspirate? 😂

 ~~

Wednesday 15th 46F, milder, but windy, with a leaden overcast. Just my usual walk. A bird of prey on a field decided it didn't like the look of me and flew away. The cat in the bird feeder had been replaced by a dozen, grateful sparrows.

Brexit continues to screw up normal people's lives. A parcel with prepaid Danish VAT has been sitting, without moving, in a Danish post office, customs office for 5 days. I sat, waiting on the Danish post office, customer service telephone, listening to the same jingle, for 30 minutes without being connected to a bod. It gets worse! Despite prepaying the Danish VAT to the British dealer I have been charged VAT again and had to pay the 160DKK [£18.30] standard, handling charge. 

Postnord has now sent a letter instead of an SMS or email. So another day has passed with the parcel sitting in the sorting office without tracking updates. I have now paid online. They said 2-3 days for delivery. Wednesday + 3 = Saturday. Weekend = NO deliveries. So that will be 10 whole days for a Christmas food parcel to be sitting in a cosy sorting office in Denmark.

_____________________________________

Denmark is struggling to find enough medical staff to provide the promised 3rd vaccination. There is an ongoing industrial dispute between the nurses and health service over low pay and poor working conditions. Further exacerbated by the Jinping plague crisis. 

Managers are are pulling active staff off the wards to work on vaccinating the Danes. Now they are even seeking non-medical volunteers to give the jabs. They will be given a short lesson in vaccination before being let loose on the public. 😱 I presume they will be taught how to aspirate properly? 😂 

_________________________________________

It is reported that VW is sending out unfinished ID3 electric cars [BEVs] with multiple faults. Some owners claim their brand new cars have been in the garage for repairs for months in total. After only a half year of ownership. The cars would not start. Or would not go into drive. Mostly due to endless software problems.

The story in the Danish papers is that VW needs to sell a shed load of BEVs. To avoid huge CO2 climate impact payments [fines] from their continuing sale of ICE cars. So, being VW, they chose to shove a load of unfinished electric cars out of the factory gate to skew their green car sales figures and avoid these payments[ climate impact fines] to the EU. Amounting to about £15,000 per vehicle. Potentially billions in Euros in total! Most ICE vehicle manufacturers make very little profit as it is.

VW is still recovering [?] lost public trust from their deliberately crooked software for official testing of diesel emissions. There has been some shuffling of top personnel at VW. Too much too late for VW to survive the EV revolution? Probably, based on this latest story.

~~

14.12.2021 Sunshine?

 ~~

Tuesday 14th 41F, dark clouds with early rain. Calm and dry at 08.30. Bright sunshine after 12.00 but still through thin cloud. Only a short walk in thick, 200m, patchy mist.

 After a bit of messing about online I have a fairly local appointment. For my third virus jab in early January. I was dropped off the 30 minute, log-in list. When the next, security and identity site didn't open properly. When I reopened the main vaccine website a few minutes later I was allowed to log on. Very odd, but success in the end. 

 Omicron infections are doubling every two days. That's exponential! Everybody in the country/Europe/World will soon be exposed to the infection. Still no data on Omicron deaths. WHO says not to take it for granted that Omicron will mean milder symptoms.

A couple of medical experts on YT were suggesting high doses of Vitamin D and zinc. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9h-XQm2qEY&t=1233s

Do your own homework before starting to take anything. We have been taking recommended doses of vitamins for decades. As well as having a varied diet with fruit, fiber, fish and veg. Organically produced whenever possible. We have always avoided all the "bad" foods. Usually found in snacks and takeaways.

The Arctic set a new high temperature record of 38C, 100F this year. Higher than ever recorded in Denmark. Which has a record of 36C. The high temperature lead to major losses of sea ice. Meanwhile, Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is looking ever more fragile. Its break-up would remove a major hurdle for the vast masses of ice built up behind it. Unlike sea ice, inland ice adds directly to sea level rise.

 

~~

13.12.2021 Cat burglar II

 ~~

 Monday 13th 44F, milder, but still a very heavy overcast. Some mist too.

 The visibility was about 200 meters as I walked briskly there and back. One van had no lights on at all!

 The cat in/on the bird feeder was back. Snuggled right inside this time. I bet the sparrows are miffed!

 I just checked the official [Danish] vaccine website as the Omicron variant sweeps across Denmark/The entire World. The figures for new infections are staggering. I was 128,000th and change, in the online queue. With over an hour expected waiting time to be able to log on.

 The government advice is to request a third vaccine ASAP. The race for survival seems to be against inadequate, internet services. Not getting the vaccine. With many pharmacists and GP surgeries now being allowed to offer the jab. Which they didn't before Omicron. 

Unless the advice is changed [4½ months before third jab] I am unlikely to be called until next year. I put off having the vaccine due to the distance to the few [big city] vaccine centers. Where there was reported to be long queues. Eventually they opened a vaccine center "only" 10 miles away. Where there was lots of room in a very pleasant building. With only very short queues and effortless parking right outside.

 

~~

12.12.2021 One rule for the clown. Another for the 100,000 fined.

 ~~

Sunday 12th 37F, very heavy overcast with rain. I went for a walk anyway. Though I added my waterproof trousers. Just for a change. The usual, Sunday traffic. Nothing for minutes at a time. Then a convoy. A few crows were guarding their territory. Flocks of sparrows moved about.

Boris The Clown's Christmas Circus Parties will not be investigated by the UK police. They are far too busy handing out fines to the 100,000 plebs to be bothered with the privileged and entitled few.

 The US mourns the deaths of 100 victims of the recent bad weather. The president calls it "a tragedy." Meanwhile the numbers of road deaths rose 18% to 20,000 in the first 6 months alone of 2021. Societal blinkers? Or just what the corrupt advertising/news media bother to cover [up?]

This in the country which is dragging its feet over Tesla's self driving app. Not to mention the corrupt media hyping every single accident involving a Tesla. You must have heard of Tesla? Biden hasn't. He was bought by GM and the UAE election funding. Biden stands in front of a microphone and lies to the entire world. Much like Chump. Like all good puppets Biden is actually quite convincing. For a lying dummy with a tame speech writer. Nobody believed Chump except Neo-Nazis.

Germany is repeatedly proving its corruption and hypocrisy over climate issues. Tesla is being blocked from opening its completed EV and battery factory because of water usage. Which just happens to be a tiny fraction of that used by the taxpayer subsidized, German, open cast, brown coal mines. 

Lignite is the least efficient fuel. So, the mines are enjoying increasing subsidies for the unbelievably vast quantities of water they use. Luckily, for all of us, Germany is phasing out coal mining. Probably by 2238 going on present plans. Ironically [?] Green Germany is complaining about a Polish coal mine on its borders. You couldn't make it up!

Meanwhile Tesla threatens the livelihood of the massively fined and subsidized crooks at VW. Who want to continue making ICE vehicle until the end of the Earth as we know it. Any coincidence with Tesla being blocked? Ask a cynic. 

~~ 

11.12.2021 Dry but dark grey.

 ~~

Saturday 11th 35F, almost calm but overcast with all morning rain. Supposed to clear to grey later this afternoon. 

It was dry but grey for my walk. The kestrel was back. Hovering over a prairie in search of breakfast. A harrier held down a slender twig on a mid-field tree. While a hooded crow clung to a solitary spire rising like a mast from a tall conifer.

There was some brief, golden sunshine in the middle of the afternoon. In sharpness to the leaden sky to the north. Quink "Blue-Black" it was!

 ~~

10.12.2021 Evil party clown entertains triple party-party-party.

 ~~

Friday 12th 36F, another grey day in prospect. No ill effects from yesterday's ride. My knee is still hurting on the stairs.  Just another walk under the same, leaden skies. With distant mist but no wind today. A few gulls drifted about for visual interest. My calves stiffened up at half way but I plodded on. I was soon too warm thanks to the lack of wind.

__________________________________

 

Surprise!! The Prime Party Clown of Gravely Blighted is officially confirmed a serial liar. But was still allowed to breed like a virus at Xmas. One is [perhaps] forgivable, two an accident, but three? How, on earth, did he find the time? For all those parties? Presumably all expenses paid by the taxpayer? Nothing but the best for the "entitled."

~~

9.12.2021 Mark Cavendish & family attacked at home.

 ~~

Thursday 9th 33-34F, heavy overcast, light, wintry showers. No snow visible. Distant mist yet again.

__________________________________________

 Mark Cavendish and his wife have been threatened and assaulted at home by armed burglars. Mark was recovering from injuries sustained in a race in Belgium. Two broken ribs had put him in intensive care! 

Their children were present and allegedly threatened by the same, cowardly scum. Mark has put in unbelievable effort, over decades, to achieve his legendary wins and results. His toll of injuries would put lesser men into retirement or even a wheelchair. To have that undermined by a bunch of complete wasters is sickening! No doubt their loot has already been fenced into another fix.

___________________________________________

 Just my usual 40 minute walk without photos. I wore the GripGrab 'Aviator' medieval hood for extra warmth. My fur lined "trapper" hat is very warm but lacks a peak. Which would otherwise help to keep flying snow flakes out of my eyes. I couldn't wear my usual peaked cap over the thick, fur hat. That didn't work yesterday.

  So I am trying different combinations of hats. To cover my ears and have a peak. All the while having the hood up on my winter jacket. Still far from perfect. The combination of wind and snow flakes is the problem. 

 All very trivial for a short walk within easy reach of home. The temperature is hovering constantly around freezing. So I might as well make the effort for greater comfort while it lasts. I don't have any skiing goggles and it would seem like total overkill if I had. 

 I have tried yellow, safety glasses for their wrap around protection. They are still not ideal for occasional, wind blown snow. I wear these on my trike in winter and under overcast skies. They are fine in keeping the wind out of my eyes. You can't possibly take any cyclist seriously if they wear dark sunglasses when the sky is dark! It is so incredibly amateurish as well as utterly depressing! 😎 

______________________________________

 The ride I had promised myself was finally managed today. There was nothing much falling out of the skies. So I took a chance. Rather an ambitious route for someone with very little mileage of late. 16 hilly miles with a bit of a headwind proved to be quite hard work. My left knee has been hurting when climbing the stairs for weeks. Cycling did not make it feel worse. Though I was well aware of my knee when I let my cadence drop below 90rpm. 

 I filled my 40 liter bag right up to the brim outside the supermarket. With at least 15kg of different cans. These products had been unavailable for a couple of weeks locally. On the way home the breeze was now on my back. Not that I could feel any advantage. I felt just as cold on the descents as I crept up to 25mph in places. My calves felt stiff when I climbed off at home but it soon passed. Late for lunch too!

~~

8.12.2021 Wet snow.

 ~~

Wednesday 8th 36-34F, 08.35, extremely heavy overcast with gales from SE. The storm from Ireland has reached Denmark but is much weakened. Rain or wintry showers are promised. 

I didn't leave until 8.40. Because I had waited for it to get light enough for safety on the road. My timing was poor. The snowfall had suddenly become more serious. It started wet and was falling almost horizontally as the wind roared in the roadside trees. The snow was pattering wetly on my hood at times. Then the snow became gradually thicker and drier but was still slow to pitch. Only on the return leg did it start to pack onto my clothes. I took to the verges with each passing vehicle out of a sense of self-preservation. I have no plans to become a crash test dummy to their [seemingly] drunken inattention.

I was soon white from head to toe. With the grass still lagging behind. Visibility was below 200 meters. Back home and my jacket is now draining off into the bath. 58F indoors as the trees rock back and forth intermittently. The roofs have turned white now. 

I had plans for a cycle ride today but it isn't going to happen soon. We have run out of a particular commodity. Which seems to have vanished from all the local shops. There is always another village supermarket to try. Provided they can be reached safely. A hilly, fourteen miles would have cleared the cobwebs in my lungs.

~~

7.12.2021 Scarpa Revolution boots leaking after 14 months of gentle, morning walks.

 ~~

Tuesday 7th 34F, pitch black at 07.50. A cold, grey, breezy day with light, wintry showers is promised. 

Just my routine walk under a leaden sky. No pictures at all today.  

I have had to return my Scarpa Revolution boots because they started leaking badly in the toe. Not ideal given my need for walking boots on a daily basis. Particularly in winter. Worse, the dealer tells me that Scarpa averages 6 weeks to turn around warranty claims! 

The boots were around fifteen months old and hardly stressed by my gentle morning walks. They are supposed to be 3-season, mountain, walking & scrambling boots. They are/were by far the most comfortable boots I have ever worn. Not so, when my toes felt suddenly cold within a few yards on a wet day. That would be the Gore-Tex membrane puncturing prematurely.

~~

6.12.2021 Cavemen dominate the news.

 ~~~

Monday 6th very, very dark [07.35] but some sunshine is forecast.  

There were brief glimpses of orange clouds amongst the excess of grey. Gulls wandered. Not much else to report.

Q: How can a caveman travel thousands of years into the future?
A: Easy: Just give them a gun.
Q. What do you call a collection of fuckwits? A: A Massie.
Q. What has the highest IQ in this image? A: The tree.

 "Meet the Fuckwits at Xmas."        

 

 

~~

5.12.2021 Cat burglar!

 ~~

Sunday 5th 36F, heavy overcast. Early rain with gales from the east reducing slowly. The rain had stopped long before I began my walk.

Gulls drifted in convoys across the road. Incongruously stark white against the mud and green prairies. The only scene which inspired me to photography lies alongside. Full zoom on my little TZ7 camera and cropped further. The spitting image of our own, tabby tomcat from years ago.

 

 

~~

4.12.2021 As if through a mist, darkly.

 ~~

Saturday 4th 38F, thick mist under a very heavy overcast. Still struggling to get light at 08.20. I left at 8.40 and gave all the traffic a wide berth. 150 yards to total invisibility. Including the rear running lights. The usual lack of rear fog lights but plenty of speeding vehicles. The usual, glaring absence of anticipation by the crash test dummies. There were only a few small patches of snow left on the verges. Half a dozen gulls wheeled in and out of the mist.

~~

3.12.2021 A bit damp underfoot.

 ~~

Friday 3rd 34-36F, overcast. Snow hanging on. Patches of wet ice on the drive and road junctions are lethal! All day rain is forecast. 

It started raining at half way on my walk. Then kept up the patter on my hood until almost home again. The restless gulls were wandering aimlessly across the prairies.

An errand in the car showed how incredibly wet everything is at the moment. Huge puddles in the fields. Standing water in every dip of the lanes. Mud splashed across the road wherever vehicles have brushed the verge. There was even a wet snow blizzard on the way home.

  

~~

2.12.2021 The raving insanity of online browsing on Today's "1984" Net.

 ~~

 Thursday 2nd 30F, -1C, about an 1" [25mm] of overnight snow, overcast with a cold NW wind. I left later than usual in my Kamik winter boots and GripGrab Spring/Autumn gloves. 

The boots were fine. The GripGrab gloves much less so. I had to put my gloved hands in my jacket pockets. Whenever I stopped to take a photo the gloves had to come off. My hands were immediately painful in the wind. 

I took the verges and moved well back as every vehicle approached. This saves them having to avoid me. While I save being splattered with slush as the vehicle leaves the clearer tracks. 

Thanks to the wind, a solitary Kestrel turned up and hovered without visible wing movements. The breakfast prey must have been absent. Because it never dived. Nor even reduced height.

Are sales website owners mentally ill? Are you? You search online, find a promising website and ...as soon as the site opens they throw up a cookie permissions box. BORING! They want your inside leg measurement and promise to constantly spy on you and your kids and grandkids 60x60x24x365x1000 years. You haven't even bought anything yet.

Having survived that hurdle we move onto the goodies. AND then, before you can read the first dollop of lying, sales patter. BANG! Another damned great box hides the screen. Some pointless bullshit about special offers on something costing pennies and totally irrelevant to your original search.

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe: You are walking down the shopping high street and see a selection of objects in a brightly lit shop window. You pause to examine the goodies and check the prices. Hmm. I might just...BANG! An opaque shutter drops like a guillotine! You can no longer see a damned thing inside the shop window. 

Staff members rush out with tape measures and cudgels. They demand your inside leg measurement and every intimate detail about your life, your partner's life, your children's and grandchildren's lives. Otherwise you can't look into their shop window ever again!

You break free from the menacing staff members and run! As you leave the scene a vast fleet of black cars follows you down the road to the car park. They then scatter to monitor your entire family, friends, contacts and colleagues, right around the globe. For as long as they all shall live and even beyond the grave. A vast, global team of spies and snoopers follow every intimate detail of your entire life for the next 100 years. 

AND, YOU STILL HAVEN'T EVEN BOUGHT ANYTHING! Yet the avalanche of parallel cookies crushed the life out of you as a human being. Each cookie woven into an evil version of the "1984 Tapestry." Which would have sneered at. As completely impossible when the book was first published. Hitler and Stalin would have given an arm and a leg for the information the present, online dictators wield as tax-free, global despots.

All this vital information is constantly fed into government computers, via "back doors," right around the planet. You showed interest in a hoodie as a present for a grandchild. Are you a terrorist or a spy? You watched a YT video of the demolition of a local chimney or tower block: Are you a terrorist planning on making a bomb? You read an article on the BBC about Russia. Are you a terrorist or a spy looking for potential targets?

Can you even imagine a REAL SHOP behaving this way? Even in a vile communist dictatorship like "Plague" Jinping's terrifying dystopia? Thought not. Ask yourself why the billionaire despots don't ask if you would like to add their cookies. Instead of having to opt out on every damned website you ever visit. Over and over and over again. Try a cookie killer program. See the hundreds of thousands of cookies which magically appear on your computer every day you are just wandering about online.

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1st December 2021. Increasing obsolescence of old people!

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Wednesday 1st December 36F, still very dark at 08.45. All day rain is forecast. With storm force winds later. Gusting to over 50mph tonight. Further north, heavy snow is forecast. Dividing the country into two.  Strong, northerly winds are unusual. The trees have lost all their leaves. Which, hopefully reduces the risk of them being toppled. 

There are some high trees [20m or 60'] on our northern boundary. I hope they don't drop any branches on the shed! They have always been well beyond reach for lopping. The soft, marshy ground outside the boundary isn't cultivated by the farmer. They get bogged down! A change of ownership of the surrounding land means no hedge [or tree] trimming has occurred for years. The branches are much too large for amateur lopping. The cost of hiring a professional tree surgeon completely prohibitive.

The Omicron variant is still spreading but with very mixed reports of the dangers. Or whether the existing vaccines are still effective. It seems unlikely that the virus will quickly mutate itself into being harmless. It also has a huge reservoir of potential hosts for further mutation. 

There is talk of Danish GPs [local doctors] being used to vaccinate batches of people at their surgeries. This might bring the jab to a whole range of people without easy transport to the cities. Where the majority of vaccinations and testing has been carried out so far. Often leading to long queues.

Denmark has huge numbers of rural villages, homes and farms. With relatively few, large cities which are themselves, widely separated. Bus fares are horribly expensive and few want to risk the journey since the pandemic started. 

Many elderly are blocked from bus use because they don't have a smart phone and payment app. Cash has been largely phased out. This is an increasing problem in Danish society. Denying service to many potential customers. Many products and services are now app controlled. I myself have only a very simple mobile phone for emergency use. 

The lack of a smart phone is becoming increasingly limiting in everyday living. The entry level to smart phones with contact-less payment is horrendous! Then there is the upkeep and constant replacement as manufacturers deliberately make their products obsolete. By failing to update the OS, firmware or software beyond a certain point. 

I couldn't even use a relatively new tablet to download the app for my new printer. Required after the last one was made obsolete when the driver no longer worked with the latest flavour of Windups. Much like the tablet. Where the manufacturer doesn't upgrade Android much beyond the sales date. You can fettle a 100-year-old, car if you have the skill. Few can fettle a 3-year-old old phone!

No printer means you can't print the return label for online goods.  No matter how rarely I need to print these days it is still vital that I can do so occasionally. Rural hamlets don't have print shops ready to run off a single A4! I must count myself lucky that I remain fairly tech competent thanks to daily blogging and browsing. There must be huge numbers of the elderly. Who are completely unaware of. Let alone able to handle the latest technology. 

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