17.06.2022 You call that mince?

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 Friday 17th 52F, misty, bright start but cloud expected later. Up at 4.30. Tormented by my circular thoughts. 

 69kg. I am monitoring my weight [in my underwear, no shoes] on an antique set of scales. I know I have lost 2 stone but they use the metric system over here. I had no reference in kg to share with a doctor. If it should be needed. An online calculator shows I have lost somewhere around 16kg.

 05.30. It has clouded over. It is still a long wait for breakfast. If I have it too early I shall run out of steam too soon. It is far too tempting to have meals earlier and earlier. Just to punctuate the long, empty hours. I am becoming more apathetic and depressed and badly need a new project. However trivial. Provided it keeps me occupied. I didn't even wash up yesterday.

 The chainsaw will cost 1250DKK to repair. £143GBP equivalent. I told them to go ahead. I can't process the middle sized branches without it. Still no sign of the tree feller. To cut the 75cm/30" Ø chestnut stump off level. It sounds low priority but I don't want the present ugly remains left standing. It would require a ladder to trim the inevitable regrowth.

 I sawed off all the branches years ago. It responded by throwing huge, new branches, straight up. I hate that tree! It completely dominated the entire garden. Causing my wife countless hours of completely unnecessary, hard labour. Precious time wasted. Just collecting and bagging fallen chestnut leaves. Working away in the dark under that damned tree. Instead of out in the light doing her real gardening.

 All in the vain hope that the micro-moth larvae would not turn the leaves an ugly brown. Not again this year and the next. We had rows because I could see it had no effect and [usually] refused to help. Though not always. Besides, I cold not stand under the tree because of the drooping branches. Which I was not allowed to cut off! Clouds of moths constantly hung around the tree when it was in leaf. 

 There were piles of black bin bags everywhere for years. Only after her death could I remove them to the compost heap and out of sight. The composted leaves still left in the closed bags. Even using the sack truck I could only move two heavy bags at a time. 

 06.30. 55F. The sunshine is back. Breakfast over. Time for an early walk. 

 I left at about 6.40 and took an hour to walk around the rural block. About 3 miles and 88 photos in all. Distant mist added its own decoration to the gorgeous views. Warm sunshine throughout. 

 08.00 Time for morning coffee. Only after I have washed up! No milk saucepan nor crockery!

10.00 68F, Sunny and breezy with a white, hazy sky. Just returning from the observatory. I will probably go shopping on the trike. A ride through the forest will add distance but hills too.

 12.00 Returning from a ride to the shops. I went through the forest going both ways. For a total of thirteen, hilly miles. About double the distance of the direct, main road route. Going well but I forgot to buy eggs.

 The bright overcast favoured shadow free views of my wife's flowers.Click for an enlargement. Scroll for more. Back click to return to normal. 

 My images are always resized down to 1000 pixels. So aren't as sharp as the originals. People [with slow internet connections] complain at the time it takes to download a blog post with large or lots of images. 

 So I settled on 1000 pixels years ago and ALWAYS add rsz to the image name or number. This avoids overwriting a full size image with a much smaller one. 

 Sometimes I use 1200 pixels for 16:9 images where I want to retain more quality.

 The forecast is now showing rain for this afternoon. Shame, as I was going for another ride to buy some eggs. Had a nap instead.

 I am doing my homework for making mince and boiled potatoes. For cooking dinner tonight. Do I really need onions?  We [I] shall see. I never thought to buy any. 

 16.20 The rain has arrived. Just a brief shower. Which inspired me to have a shower. 

Dinner was not awful but more boring. I browned the whole pack of mince in two goes. Then tried to eat it all with the boiled potatoes. 

 I added Maldon salt and black pepper. A few drops of brown sauce.Which lifted it a bit but not enough. Tedious chewing is the right word. 

 So, now I need to learn how to make Bisto gravy and how to cook an onion. Mince needs gravy. It just doesn't work dry.

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