24.09.2023 A ride to Helnæs peninsula. [Half island]

 ~o~

 Sunday 24th. The forecast is quite reasonable. Mild with light winds. Up at 5.45. Despite the "naughty" beer and coffee, with dinner last night, I only got up three times in the night. A reasonable trade IMO. I left both grandfather clocks running overnight. Only the 8-day, Scottish clock was striking. Loudly! Probably not a good idea in the same room.

 8.00 Having completely lost interest, I am now finding my camera bits and pieces. Of course the battery was flat. So it took more searching to find the spare sitting in the charger. I now have the Leica 50-200mm fitted to the G9 body. I'll see how I feel about lugging that lot around with me on my walks. Instead of the phone camera. Though I can leave the binoculars at home they have more power for identifying birds.

 The phone camera has been a revelation within certain limits. I was never really inspired to take pictures with it. Despite having accumulated 4000 images from new. I would often take upwards of 200 images with the G9 on a single morning walk. Though there was never the fun of sharing them with my wife after she died.  

It was our morning ritual after my morning walk. As I enjoyed morning coffee at the computer.. She would be sitting behind me on an antique, bodgers, smokers bow armchair in elm. She would be watching YouTube videos on the TV which was right alongside me. I would put up the day's images on the large [28"] computer monitor. 

 She would remark on certain pictures if she liked them. Most were probably rather similar and therefore boring. As I constantly struggled to capture what I saw in different light, weather and seasons. Within a rather limited radius in a beautiful rural  area. 

 The camera always felt as if I was being creative. The phone merely recorded scenes. I like an eye level viewfinder. Focusing screens require reading glasses and semi darkness. I can barely see anything, at all, on a screen in bright sunlight.

 This image shows the Helnæs causeway snaking between the open sea [left] and inland sea. There is almost always a large contrast in the roughness of the water. I actually remembered to raise the saddle to normal height on the dropper post. Though I don't usually like traffic or people in my images. Somebody wanted to pull into the lay-by. So I had to be quick.

 Time for a walk. It is a beautiful morning with solid sunshine. I captured over 250 images on the G9 camera. A chevron of 30, of what I took to be waders, kept circling overhead. With an occasional, plaintive whistle. None of my hasty snaps was particularly sharp. I was going with Dunlins until I did an image search. I'll keep looking. Possibly the grey plover?

 9.45. I really ought to be taking advantage of this fine weather. Where should I go? I know! A rural peninsula about 25km away on the coast. It is where I started my life in Denmark. Albeit briefly, in that huge, old farmhouse.

This gatehouse belongs to a stately home. There is another about a mile or so towards Ebberup. Presumably the big house owned a huge estate in the past and may still do. The hidden archway now leads to a track through the woods. Which cyclists may use as a minor shortcut to the Helnæs road. Across that road is a [one way] lane. Which leads past a water mill and eventually on to the "palace." Cyclists are free to travel both ways. Motor traffic only downhill from the other end of the lane.

13.30 I have just returned from a 58km ride to Helnæs peninsula and back by another way. A cold headwind going. Warmer and effortless on the return. The Bosch Nyon was in planned route mode. Which was unusually interesting because it sent me along some [very] rough tracks! I had chosen the "scenic" option before I left. 

 I knew it had a sense of humour when it sent me though a hole in the hedge exit on the main road. It lead to a village lane and I had ridden that was on my trike any times before. The next bit was a surprise though. A rough track cutting across a field. It would have been a very difficult ride on the trike despite my experience riding for miles off-road.

 Helnæs Beach.[Strand]

 After that it was just a mater of keeping my head down and pedalling furiously into the wind in Sport mode.

 Once across the breezy causeway I rode right across the peninsula. First the long drop past the campsite and down to the beach. Then out to the lighthouse by the crooked lane. [to Helnæs Fyr.] Where there were lots of people parked. It is usually rather quiet there during the week. On the way back I passed the vast solar electric farm at Ebberup. It undulates gently across several fields. With very few neighbours.

 I had lunch, a nap and then a shower before afternoon tea and a marmalade toasted roll. Just another day [alone] in paradise. 

 Dinner was sausages, mashed potatoes, peas, carrots and gravy. Washed down with a beer and coffee to follow. 

 The new carpet has changed my feelings about the lounge. It seems much more welcoming and luxurious. The venetian blinds however have made the spaces darker and more claustrophobic. Or simply enclosed. I need to fix the anchor points. So the blinds can be left raised when not needed. 

 The [home made] entrance door opens outwards. This suddenly seems unwelcoming and almost shed-like. A door which opens inwards makes room for visitors at the expense of losing some indoor hall space. A door which opens outwards obstructs free access. Good grief! Am I suddenly turning into a Feng Shui guru? 😏

 The ISS has been crossing European skies for the last couple of weeks or more. I checked the timetable after noticing the moon rising. Indicating that the sky must be clear. I stepped outside expecting it to be a struggle to see it. I looked up and there is was. Sailing brightly and majestically toward the west.

~o~