~o~
The little oil-filled radiators are each keeping the kitchen and bathroom at 55F. Though both had to have their controls reset as it became cooler outside. All internal doors are closed. All windows are firmly closed. The room surfaces are all at ambient temperature. I'll need to restock the ring log rack form the greenhouse.
08.00. Just waiting for the stove fire to take hold before going for a walk. The overcast is breaking into pink blobs.
8.15. The stove is finally well alight.
9.15 Returned from an unusually long walk. Down to the village. Then followed the soggy track along the marsh past the lake. Only two herons visible and they were leaving. There were lots of tire tracks traversing the steeply sloping field. Presumably hunters. I was able to use these tracks to pass the flooding lower down. The beck was very full as it neared the lake.
Eventually I crossed the field to the forest and returned via the main track back the village. A shortcut across the next field, via the spray tracks brought me home. The low sun shone almost continuously. My hands were cold in the GripGrab gloves at first but I took them off on the return leg. There was no sense of a breeze but the turbines were turning briskly.
Three small birds of prey were flying together near home. I thought one was attacking another but it may have been offering food. I could only see them in silhouette against the blinding sun. So couldn't identify them. About kestrel size with one smaller. Male/female/young mix?
13.00 Just returned from a [cold] 31km ride. My Morris Minor now has a tow hook, [with working lights on a 7 pin trailer socket] a complete new exhaust and a nearside rear view mirror. It still needs the heater valve to be replaced with a better one and an official safety test. I have emphasised with the MM expert that there is no hurry. So I might get the car back by next Wednesday.
The flooding was almost all in the fields and marshes. Sometimes showing huge areas of water where there is usually none to be seen. Often close to road level but not quite. The flooding I avoided the other day had all but gone.
There was no ice anywhere but I became slightly too cold again. The fur lined, Puma boots/trainers were fine for warmth. Fortunately I carry GripGrab's excellent, split mitts and clear [safety] glass. Sunglasses make me horribly depressed when it is grey. The SE-southerly wind was far more noticeable as time passed. The sunshine eventually succumbed to encroaching cloud. My chest and hands felt increasingly cold. The mitts quickly solved the cold hands. However three layers of clothing under the Endura jacket were still not enough.
Perhaps the tiny wind flap isn't broad enough to protect the full length zip? I should try the old cycling trick of arranging a newspaper down the front inside my jacket. I used to do that in my youth. When I commuted between Bath and Bristol on an assortment of bikes and a trike in winter. Back then I had only old jumpers for riding my bikes. So I bought a cagoule and quickly discovered the meaning of condensed sweat. The mobile sauna was mine!
An unprecedented sea level rise is considered unavoidable. At present global temperatures of only 1.2C above pre-industrial levels. It is already far too late to limit global warming to 1.5C. You'll need a pair of Wellies 20m tall in the leg. That's about 65'. Twice as high as ordinary houses. Most of northern Europe will be underwater. Denmark only a vague memory.
Dinner was cheese on toast with tomatoes.
~o~
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