27.05.2024 Groveling the gravel.

 ~o~

  Wednesday 27th 41F/5C. It could reach 13C/55F around lunch time. Cloudy this morning with sunshine later. Up at 5am after lying there with my memories churning over. 

 7.30 Time for a walk. The green dome should be picked up this evening.

 8.15 It was cold on my hands but not quite bad enough to hide them in my pockets. Probably thanks to a lack of wind. I took to a field to circumnavigate it via the spray tracks. The ground was mostly firm and dry. Or I would not have bothered. Weak sunshine so far. The sky looked dark to the west. I saw my first Bullfinches of the year. A pair crossed from one side of the road to the other. 

 I am trying to decide what to do today. 100km in the last four days went well enough. 390km this month. Average speed 23kph/14mph. This figure includes when I am tootling along without the need to be anywhere. From memory, my average speed used to be around 28kph on a ride. That was when I first started riding the Moustache about a year ago. Long before the recent breathlessness presented itself.

 Luckily I seem to be able to automatically avoid breathlessness on the e-bike. Simply by adjusting my effort, mode and chosen gear. Though I normally ride in Sport mode in fairly high gears within 80-90rpm cadence. Sport mode offers 240% motor assistance. With Turbo [340%] increasingly used on climbs. 

 While even simple tasks, off the bike, make me unpleasantly breathless. I can still cycle comfortably within my present threshold over extended periods. Had I continued on the manual trike I would probably have given up cycling over two years ago. 

 10.30 I have managed to cover quite an area of hardcore with the sand/gravel mix. Just by using gravity and raking it down the heap. Then raking it out and about. The pole is 4m long and used as a quick measuring rod. Also to check the level using a builders bubble level laid on top of the pole.

 My wife used the same raking technique to fill wheelbarrows. When a local contractor broke an agreement. To send a machine to move the gravel for us. This time the heap is close to the sunken area. 

 So a 77 year old, with a possible heart condition, can still manage the job. Given enough time. The landscape gardener never got back to me. So I'll just have to press on myself. Then the cost will be what I paid for the lorry load of gravel.   

 The board and pole are both level. The light coloured gravel [middle right] is the parking space level.

 11.30 55F/13C. Another hour of raking gravel and I need a rest and a drink of water. The heap looks no different from the other side. While the gravel is almost level over the area I had roughly defined with hardcore. My images do no justice to the area covered. Nor the depth. 

 13.30 It is a beautiful, sunny day. Birds are singing all around me. The southerly wind is blocked by the house. I have seen ladybirds and butterflies for the first time this year. The greenhouse thermometer was showing 111F/44C! So I have opened the internal windows. 64F/18C and rising, indoors.

 14.30 56F/13C. Another hour. It has become overcast. I am making good progress on the gravel. Though I am getting tired, breathless and sweaty now. Pulse 90bpm. I need another rest to recover. 

 15.45 Still at it. I am breathless and knackered. I will have to give up for today. 

 18.15 I have been doing a little more shoveling and raking. I am expecting the arrival of the dome removers between 6-7pm. It is a long drive. So difficult to predict an ETA. There has been no further contact in 3 days. 

 19.10 I am finally free of the green dome. The new owner will use it as a sheep shelter. Perfect! 👍

  Dinner was mackerel on toast with halved tomatoes.

  ~o~