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Monday 13th 62F/17C [6.30] 23C/F in the room. 17C/ 63F in the greenhouse. Some sunshine promised but thundery showers are likely. Leading to 16mm or 3/4" of rain.
Up at 5.50 after a quiet night with some sleeplessness and weird dreams. I tried the single bed sheet and quickly went back to the lightweight, down duvet. Still feeling a bit rough. My temperature is 35.6C. I don't think I was exposed to excess heat. I must get away from the screen. Before it triggers dizziness.
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Sunday 12th
Up at 8.10 after a quiet night. Heat pump working and holding it to a comfortable 22C indoors overnight.
10.30 Went back to bed for about an hour. Still feeling dizzy. The weird thing is the dizziness is worse with my eyes closed. No visual disturbance or spinning with my eyes open. No morning coffee or a roll. I sat for ages in the computer chair staring out of the window. It seemed to help to avoid looking at closer objects.
12.00 Woke feeling wobbly. So I sat outside for a while. I was getting strange effects with my eyes closed. Until my vision went fuzzy when my eyes were open. I felt hot and cold simultaneously. I retreated indoors and sat in an armchair. Constant feeling of mild nauseousness. Kept a bucket handy nearby. I have been sipping tap water to avoid dehydration.
13.45 Woke with pins and needles in my arms. Presumably from resting on the wooden arms of the chair. Feeling fuzzy but a bit better. It is 23C in the room after turning off the heat pump. I can use the computer again without causing dizziness. Are the new progressive "screen" glasses responsible?
14.00 I am going to try a cup of tea. Nothing to eat. Now I am struggling to focus on the computer screen again. Trying my 2-year-old screen glasses. Better. The tea did not taste as expected. Yuk! Is it the water?
No dinner. I had a sub-micro apple juice and a 3nm Corny bar. Still feeling rough. Chest still clogged. Get very dizzy when I cough.
In the meantime I managed to get dual screens working of the Mini-PC. Now I can have the security cameras on the second screen without needing a second PC running. Save the planet.
There is talk of thunderstorms overnight. Mostly elsewhere. North and east. It might miss us altogether.
I dragged a recycling bin along at 20.00. The cat was in the drive but it ran away.
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Up at 6am after a quiet night. Though I was awake for an hour 2-3am. Feeling too hot. The neighbours cat was setting off the security lights. It practically lives here day and night. Always hunting.
7.50 Back from trenching across the drive. I am a silly Billy. I should have used the big hammer drill with a chisel bit. I was using a heavy mattock. Like a pick but with a wide blade for trenching. Which was very slow going on such heavily compacted gravel. I found a good length of quality [non-kink] hose to use as conduit. For the new camera's POE network cable. Which will cross the drive and then just be lost in the base of the overgrown hedge. The camera only runs on low voltage. So no special safety rules are required. As it certainly would with mains 250C AC. The trench is almost complete.
The 12mm garden hose won't work with network cables. The plugs are too big to enter. Grr. That means I have to find an alternative. Flexible installation hose is cheap and readily available. I don't need the highest UV resistance spec for a low voltage cable. This means I have to drive into town. Which I want to do anyway. My new glasses need adjustment and I'd like to buy a cheap garden roller. The optician doesn't open until 10am. I can go there last.
Whoops! The 16mm flexible installation hose is only 10mm bore. I have been looking at 20mm garden hose and larger diameter flexible installation hose. The cheapest option is the all too common. Dark green, garden hose but in 20mm. Very prone to flattening and kinking. Manageable for this exercise as it only needs to be laid out once and forgotten. Warm, sunny weather offers ideal conditions.
The town was packed. With the long high street closed for market stalls. I parked in the back yards. While I had my new glasses straightened. Then off to the industrial estate on the edge of town. Where the big shed outlets hang out. Again they were packed. With long queues at the checkouts. The car parks were packed too.
It was too hot to work outside in direct sunlight. So I spent the afternoon on YouTube.
Dinner was a fry-up. Chicken, mushrooms, tomatoes and an egg.
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22C/71F in the room. 15C/59F in the fully open greenhouse. Pond 69F/20.6C. Fish lively. The indoor plants seem to be thriving. Particularly those near the south facing, greenhouse windows. With lots of new leaves. The shade net on the greenhouse must act like dappled shade.
Up at at 7am after a very quiet night and failed lift-off at 6am. I thought I might not sleep after yesterday's frequent naps due to dizziness. My right ear keeps popping. No hint of dizziness so far.
The security camera software is becoming more sensitive to detected movement. With a signal balloon appearing in the corner of the monitoring screen. It is now indicating larger vehicles [buses and container lorries] passing on the road. Which is 200-300m away. With two fields, several overgrown hedges and trees intervening!
This allows me to easily monitor the robot mower and my surroundings. While simultaneously using the other screen for normal duties. All a far cry from the early 1980s days. Of a Sinclair ZX81 with its rubber keyboard and a tiny, portable, B&W, CRT TV. A plug-in RAM extension block of 16k. A tiny thermal printer using special, silver paper in rolls. The Internet and now familiar mouse still somewhere. Far off in the dazzling, hi-tech future.
13.30 24C/75F. I spent the morning connecting and setting up another security camera. It has become very warm to be walking back and forth and endlessly climbing tall stepladders. It was difficult to decide on a pointing angle and installed height for the new camera. Though I am very pleased with the new viewpoint. Which solves several problems of former blind spots. I ought to have some lunch! It will give me an excuse for a rest.
16.00 Sweating profusely after lifting the pole upright from the trailer in hot sunshine. Using several stepladders to get high enough to lift from the top. Gravity and leverage can be your friends. At times like these.
18.20 75F/24C. I have been digging a trench across the drive for the new camera cable. The drive is so compacted that it is very hard and hot work. Even in the shade. I didn't want overhead cables. It would have been ugly and short lived. I had better have a rest and make some dinner.
I couldn't be bothered with a full cooked meal. Fried chicken slices on fresh, bread rolls.
9.30 I went out and did some more digging. A bit breathless.
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Thursday 9th 58F/14C [9.00] Overcast. It should be full sun again. It could reach 25C.
Up at 7am after an unusually quiet night.
I had another dizzy episode. The word started spinning while I ate breakfast. I had to lie down for an hour. Stopped spinning but I feel sick. My usual coffee tasted foul. Trying a cup of tea.
Since I don't feel I can go out I have been running the robot mower. While it is certainly improving The West Lawn. Despite the bumps and hollows of the molehills. The robot's design philosophy has found its match. When the single front castor falls into a hollow the rear wheels become skid steer. They try to revolve in opposite directions. Which would usually work on a smooth surface. On such a lumpy surface as mine it ends up making matters worse.
The problem seems to be that it won't attempt to mow bare earth. Not even a small patch. The AI vision sees an obstacle. Which causes the software to demand an about turn. So there is a lot of the "rotation on the spot" tactic. Which can leave it trapped if it sees more bare earth. Or a single tuft of grass. If it would continue over these flattened molehills. Then it could run far more smoothly and successfully.
If I brought in some topsoil. To fill in all the small hollows. Then the robot mower would not even try to mow these areas. Not in its normal [default] mowing mode. Not even if I raked and flattened the new soil to perfection.
There are options in the menus. To tell the robot to mow a complete area. Ignoring all obstacles below a certain height. I could try this while carefully monitoring its progress. This option did not prove to be as useful as I hoped. Instead of long runs it is is showing exactly the same hesitancy to cross bare soil. Even a patch as small as my palm and there are so many of them.
Another option would be to purchase a cheap garden roller. 50cm wide x 30cm diameter. 37 liters. Filled with sand or water. ~40 or 60kg. Wet sand would be a little heavier.
17.00 74F/23C. Another cup of tea and a marmo roll. The mower has been busy all day. With occasional returns to base to recharge. I have monitored it on the security cameras. It has triggered lots of recordings as an intruder. It is still set at maximum cutting height of 75mm.
Dinner will have to be toast. Probably mackerel in tomato sauce.Which I haven't had for a while. And so it was. The supermarket's own brand is getting worse with each new can I open. Nowhere near a tin full of fish. Lots of visible fish bones. The tomato "sauce" is now so watered down it is clear! I didn't take any pictures.
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Up at 6am after a very quiet night. Though with weird dreams.
A pretty tabby cat just walked past the window. I tapped on the glass and it froze. The black and white cat is coming along now. I wonder if their paths will cross? It's fun to watch them in the cameras. It's safe to say that not much else happens around here. đŸ™„
I shall be visiting my English friend. Better a day late than never. I hope the village bakery still has cakes. This is important information.
I have discovered that top soil is readily available from numerous "Big Bag" suppliers. All of whom claim miraculous quality control. Though with stones of up to 10 or even 20mm remaining. Ideal, one might think, for leveling a lawn! Or not.
The black and white cat was vocal this morning. It even approached me to be stroked. Which is very unusual indeed. The new tabby must have upset its plans. It wasn't the usual tabby. So the local pecking order may be due for some adjustment.
16.00 I went to town to collect my new computer screen glasses. The progressive lenses will take some getting used to. They are not designed for driving. Though I wore them anyway. Perched on the end of my nose as usual. Clear vision of the road over the top. Sharp focus on the dashboard.
The moment I arrived home I blocked the drive with the bins and sent the robot out to mow. Unexpectedly it immediately set off across the parking space to attack The West Lawn. I was expecting it to mow the drive first. Later it started on the drive and only then did it return to The West lawn.
Dinner was a goodly wodge of salad. I don't anything was missing.
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Up at 7.15am after being awake from 2.30-5am. I got up at 3.30 and stayed up until 5am. No obvious cause.
After hours of watching YouTube videos I started feeling dizzy. So I walked along the drive to fetch the recycling bin. It was only 200m but it's all exercise.
I stomped on the fresh molehills on the West Lawn while I was out there. The hedges and trees are full of birds. Singing, raising the alarm and calling. Lots of warblers amongst them.
15.30 Daily Icura App exercises completed. App misbehaving. Told I had completed today's exercises. When I hadn't started. Same as yesterday. I had to do a Forced Stop and Reopen. Still problems but I managed the exercises and approved them. It didn't want to let me judge the difficulty. Nor release me by closing the App afterwards. Round and round.
Dinner was sausage on fresh, wholegrain, bread rolls. A smidgen of brown sauce livened it up. Cutting the sausages open, lengthways, while still very hot from the frying pan, was interesting.
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Woke at 6 but got up at 7am. This is becoming a habit. Strange feeling. As if dizziness is waiting to pounce. My right ear continues to be deaf but makes deep noises. Like an intruder in the attic! Or more like water sloshing about in there somewhere.
The security cameras have had a software update. The system now identifies cats with a paw symbol. Useful, I suppose, if you have never seen a cat before. It might even save one having to Google for it.
I'd be happier if it recognized the robot mower. While I can see it perfectly well on the screen. Trundling cheerfully up and down. The system doesn't register one as worthy of recording for posterity. It registers movements of the ponies in the field. You'd think it would see a robot mower as a small vehicle, but no. I wonder what else it is blind to?
Another 30C heatwave is promised for the near future.
Most of the day was spent on YouTube. As I watched the rain on the security cameras. It was heavy enough to make it appear misty at times.
Dinner was a fry-up of sausage, egg on toast, beans and tomatoes.
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Up at 5.50 for about two minutes. Then it was 7.20.
No immediate plans for today. I sent the robot up the drive. To get some exercise. Only to note that it had rained hard around 4am. Which I only discovered thanks to the security cameras.
Which had been triggered by the neighbour's cat. Which spends more time hunting in my garden and along the drive than it does at home. Which is useful in an odd sort of way. Because it proves the smart sensing of the cameras is working.
It really was cruel and unkind treatment! I had difficulty walking in sandals. On what can only loosely described as grass. With active molehills merely kicked aside or stamped down.
The robot got stuck only once. In a deep hole in the south. And, marked it as a danger point. To be avoided in future. Otherwise it showed remarkable capabilities to extract itself from every tall tuft of grass and hole between molehills. It would try reversing, rocking and then turning to break free. No trouble for it to climb banks. lumps and bumps.
Once satisfied with its mapping it announced a return to base and set off. Returning safely to recharge. If I was sensible I would have prepared the West Lawn with the big mower. Just to tidy up the tufts. Which the robot sometimes recognizes as an obstruction. Which is quite useful as it tends to set the mowing boundaries. Without having to offer any guidance to the robot. So I doesn't try to push through to the real undergrowth beyond.
As soon as I sat down indoors, to upload the images, I became dizzy and had to lie down!
14.00 Late lunch over. Feeling better now.
The app shows the area which has already been mowed by becoming light green. I'll be shocked if the first "proper" cut shows an improvement in the appearance. It really is working well. Back and forth N-S-N-S.
It was very unkind not to have mown the area first. I had better go out and give it a quick blast with the big Makita. And did. I couldn't run it at anything but the highest cutting height. It just bogged down on the molehills. It's hot in the sunshine now. What I thought were bags of compost were actually Perlite and tree bark. So I now need to get some compost. To fill in all the hollows.
15.50 That was odd. The mower claimed it was still mowing the West Lawn. Yet had gone back for a recharge. Showing one bright green bar and a second one flashing. The lawn is much improved by today's activities. It doesn't bear close inspection but has clearly been mowed.
I dragged the recycling bin along the drive and moved the bins away from the end of the drive. They make handy warning beacons against collisions with the robot mower. They can't stay there when the bin lorry arrives tomorrow morning. It needs all the space available to reverse.
Dinner was boiled eggs on toast. A bit dry. The eggs would have been better on a fresh bread roll.
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Up at 5.50 after a fairly quiet night.
7.40 58F/14C. It really isn't warm outside. There is only a light breeze but it makes it chilly.
12.15 Returning from a 30km ride to photograph progress on the new cycle path. By riding along the lanes until I found the next crossing.
I took 24 pictures. Which emphasizes the sheer number of road crossings. Ten in total today. This does not include all the earlier crossings nearer Assens and Ebberup.
Unfortunately the blog does not lend itself to many images on one page. So I'll have to post more of them over the next couple of days.
I ensured I took a pair of pictures. Looking east and west in opposite directions from the same crossing. The rails have not been lifted from the asphalt yet. The entire length of the rail track was once the preserve of pedal trolley hire.
Some lengths were more easily navigable on foot and were popular with dog walkers. Though the often rotting sleepers were an impediment to comfortable walking or cycling. I know because I tried.
17.30 It started raining. Though only briefly. I shut the greenhouse skylights.
Dinner was fish fingers with pasta, peas and tinned tomatoes.
I washed up while it cooked.
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Friday 3rd 56F/13C [6.50] Heavily overcast with westerly gales gusting to 18m/s. 40mph. A cloudy morning with showers possible. Which should clear to sunshine. 21C/69F in the room. 14C/57F in the greenhouse.
Up at 6.15 after a fairly quiet night.
I see new molehills on the West Lawn! That's not helpful! I went out and kicked the raised soil into the surrounding hollows.
The strong wind is disappointing. I was hoping for a modest ride today.
I drove into the village to pick up some grocery items I overlooked yesterday. The car was being buffeted by the gusty wind.
I spent some time in the afternoon staring at the sun through my special solar telescope. Built up from separate components but of a more manageable size. Compared to the large telescopes I used in my home built observatory.
Dinner was cheese on toast with halved cherry tomatoes.
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Up at 6am after a fairly quiet night.
I have an appointment for an assessment chat with a physiotherapist in Assens. This is after numerous cancellations due to my own ill health. I attended the free exercise sessions the first time I had a heart operation. The staff were delightful, young people. Very attentive, empathetic and well trained.
Unfortunately there is a limit on the number of exercise sessions per heart patient. So after that I went onto fairly inexpensive sessions for elderly heart patients at a sports center. Which was a much larger group performing in a vast gymnasium. Which I didn't really mind.
It was the coffee and group chats afterwards. I simply could not hear the conversations against the high background, noise levels in a highly reverberant acoustic. Low ceilings, huge overhead beams, long tables. People would ask me direct questions and I could not hear a single word they said! Which made me feel like a fool. So I stopped going.
13.00 Back from town. I chatted for an hour with the delightful young physiotherapist. I now have an exercise App on my phone and will probably start group physio sessions in August. Then I moved onto a Zeiss optician for a free eye test. He was incredibly thorough.
I bought a 30m network cable from a big shed store. To be able to mount one of my West Lawn security cams to face the house. The present car park cam looks towards the carport. It takes in a large area but I'd like a view to monitor the house itself.
I detoured to examine progress on the new cycle path. Running from Assens, through Ebberup to Glamsbjerg. The contractors on the section from Ebberup onward have already covered a lot of ground. With the rails and sleepers lifted. Leaving a long, earthen trough in a pretty tunnel of overhanging trees. The route will be absolutely gorgeous once completed. Hopefully some time around December. There is a very special atmosphere about abandoned railways. Not the conditions today to be taking pictures.
Even at 13.45 it is still raining hard. I can see bright stripes of rainwater reflecting the grey sky. Working their way down the drive.
It eventually brightened up and the rain stopped. Though remaining very cloudy and windy. I felt tired, head-achy and fuzzy. So I went to bed for a nap.
Dinner was two chops and Heinz baked beans. Two chops were two days overdue. So I gave them a full 20 minutes. Turning frequently to maintain even heating.
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Wednesday 1st 61F/16C [7.15] Bright overcast. Dry morning but increasingly cloudy. With showers this afternoon. Possibly thundery. 73F/23C in the room. 62F/17C in the greenhouse. Pond water at 71F/22C.
Up at 5.30 after an occasionally sweaty night.
I have to be here around lunchtime for a delivery. I'd like a ride. Not far. I need to shop at another supermarket chain. There isn't a local branch.
8.45 It's getting darker. I have watered the plants. Indoors and out. Then stacked the massive paving slabs to make a step outside the new glazed door. Just to get a feel for scale, width, etc. They need to be properly leveled. Preferably without scraping my shin! Silly old whatsit!
13.30 The Abigail's British foods chap has just left in his van. Two bottles of salad cream have gone in the fridge. We always have a good chat. I'll go shopping this afternoon.
16.45 Back from the village supermarkets. I drove there.
Dinner was a salmon pasty with chips and peas.
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Up at 6.40 after a failure to lift off at 6am. In the absence of my morning walks I did 2000 steps yesterday. Just walking up and down the drive. To do "gardening" or to follow the robot mower.
No visit to my friend today. He's busy and I ought to be.. That West Lawn won't prepare itself!
9.45 69F/21C. Sunshine. I have given the West Lawn an initial blast over at maximum cutting height. The Makita mower didn't like it at all. It kept being bogged down in hollows between mole hills. Or by the mole hills themselves. I am hot and tired. Morning coffee beckons. Watching myself struggling with the mower on the security cameras. Only reinforces the battle to tame the uneven grass. Now I need to rake out the exposed earth of the molehills. There is plenty of bag compost lying around to fill in the hollows.
Of course the Makita batteries are already flat. Makita R&D never tried to cut anything but a carefully prepared bowling green. Otherwise they would never have released this piece of crap onto a gullible public.
They wouldn't want to tell the public how the grass is constantly blocked from reaching the collection bag. How difficult it is to remove the grass basket/bag [every single time] due to the the IMperfectly placed crossbar.
The image [top right] shows only about a third of the extent of the West Lawn. The posh title is fully intended to be ironic. Delusions of grandeur. White House ballroom with cheap, gold painted stickers. That sort of thing.
The image [left above] shows the hideous reality. The brambles I cleared are back. The vast wood pile of chestnut logs, to the right, is no less ugly. Bags of compost are lost in the even longer grass.
After lunch I raked the molehills out. Using the back of the rake worked best for leveling. after breaking up the hill with the normal teeth/tines/whatever.
Dinner was the worst poached eggs on the planet on toast. Both yolks broke as they hot the boiling water.
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Up at 6.50 after a fairly quiet night. Again with weird, highly realistic dreams. Still coughing.
The grass is too wet to send the robot mower out for a first spin. The grass cuttings would stick like glue to the undersides of the mower.
I had already noticed that the robot isn't recognized by the security cameras as "interesting." Yet they can see a cat in the far distance and will always record it as a possible security issue.
The neighbour's cat caught a mouse yesterday and was chomping on it in the drive. The security cameras saw the cat and recorded its movements for later Playback. While the robot was ten times the size on the computer monitor but was only recorded for later viewing. Simply because of the presence of the cat. I use individual memory cards for Playback. Recording 24x365 involves expensive equipment and large hard drives. Is this lack of interest in mowers an AI recognition algorithm issue in the camera software?
11.00 71F/22C After a nap I carried a 2m high stepladder along the drive. To clip the overhanging branches. The robot mower was trundling up and down but we avoided each other. I have taller stepladders but I am already breathless and sweating. The view along the drive is already clearer.
11.15 The sun has broken through briefly. I have lowered the mower's grass cutting height to 50mm. [2"] I have also trimmed my beard.
12.45 Sunny and more breezy. I just deleted the original map. To let the mower discover the drive all over again. I have cleared a lot of the obstructions along the edges. Which existed before the first map was saved to the mower's memory. The mower seemed inhibited from crossing the bare gravel strips to reach these grassy verges. It also seemed to strongly favour this end of the drive. Quite timid in pushing to the far end.
I am now using my Windows PC via the Phone Link app to my Android phone. So I can use the PC screen and keyboard in the Eufy mower app. No more peering at the microscopic text on the tiny screen! I can instantly recall the Eufy app via the icon on the Taskbar at the bottom of the PC screen. All the wile monitoring the robot's movements. Live on my 28" HD monitor. Beside my main 32" 4k monitor via my 4k security cameras. Isn't technology wonderful?'
14.45 75F/24C. I have been back out trimming the verges. Having watched the robot work its way along the edges. It doesn't like overhanging plants and will treat them as valuable. So it turns away and/or goes around. All part of its programming to avoid damage to specimen plants. It's no use just letting trimmings fall. The robot will demand you tidy up!
This is interesting: Overlapping circles are appearing at top right of the security camera display monitor. It is trying to make sense of the robot! Is it worth recording as a potential hazard? Not so far. We shall see. Whoopee! The robot's movements are now registering as interesting. So they are recorded as short videos onto the camera's memory cards.
These Eufy mowers can show what the cameras are seeing. So called Live [view] on the phone or PC screen. It is fun to see where the mower is going and what it sees. Educational too. The reason for its occasional hesitancy is clearly displayed. Often just the arch of an overhanging weed. The log says the mower has had 34 trips, covered 900m^2 in 11 hours. The improvement in the drive is quite amazing.
Next I have to start the really heavy work. Getting the West Lawn into a condition where the robot mower can actually operate. The grass is foolishly high and the ground all bumps and lumps from hundreds of mole hills. I strimmed it and ran the big mower over it. "Ran" being the wrong term for a combat, tank training ground!
Dinner was sausages, a fried egg on toast, mushrooms and Heinz baked beans.
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Sunday 28th 67F/19C [6..45] Heavy overcast with the threat of thunderstorms and cloudbursts. Peaking at just over 27C/81F later this afternoon when the sunshine returns. Light, southwesterly winds. 75F/24C in the room. My ears are running. So I have switched on the heat pump to slightly cool at 22C/72F.
Up at 6am after a quiet night with weird, often repetitive, meaningless dreams.
I checked the car. The Noco Genius 5 charger has yet again resurrected a completely flat battery. It has been worth every single penny. I leave it to do its thing overnight and it has always succeeded. So far.
I have added the labels and arrow to the image for clarity. The toggle switch does not easily lend itself to flashy advertising. In the form of a light or brightly coloured extensions.
You'd think it would be automatic to remember to turn the lights off when I park, but no. Most modern IC cars in Denmark are fitted with lights which come on with the ignition. Morris missed this trick at the close of the 1960s. No foresight for the future Danish market and changes in Danish law in 1990.
I really ought to grass rake it all clean but am I too tired for the moment. The robot mower has already discovered the exciting new boundaries and is exploring. I shall have morning coffee while I have a rest. The robot mower has gone back to recharge. Saying that it has completed the mowing task. I have switched off the heat pump at a comfortable 73F indoors. Temperature is entirely subjective.
10.40 Sunshine! I have sent the mower out again from indoors. The security cameras are not being triggered by the robot for Playback. Yet it reliably picks out birds and cats. I have reset it to "All Movement." That didn't help. I may have to increase the sensitivity of detection.
11.30 I became dizzy just from looking at both computer monitors and the phone. I shall definitely be seeking a new optician to have my eyes tested.
The mower is showing increased determination to explore and mow these edges. Even if it is hesitantly at times. Once it has covered this new ground it records its coverage and adds it to the map in its memory. Patience and considerable preparation certainly pays off. Most of this work only needs to be done once. Moreover it would have been done [and repeatedly] using the normal mower and strimmer routine anyway. Just as I have done for years. Now the Eufy mower will cheerfully do everything automatically.
17.00 80F/27C. Bright sunshine. Giving the robot another run at a lower cutting height.
Dinner was salad. With tuna. Plus eggs this time. 14 minutes simmering after being lowered into boiling water. Then cooled in cold water for five minutes to aid peeling. They were perfect. Sliced like a dream. No salad cream. More is on the way.
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A sweaty 75C/24C in the room. I have switched on the heat pump. Set to 20C. It is 72F/24C in the greenhouse. Despite it being wide open all night.
Up at 6am after a fairly quiet night. I was too warm at one point but pushed the light duvet off. Only to need it as I cooled off. I'll try a sheet tonight. My forearms are still pink after yesterday's ride. I'll buy some after-sun. I am still coughing. No ill effects from yesterday's ride.
I have to go to the pharmacy. Having run out of some tablets. I hope I don't need a new prescription. The doctors surgery is closed at the weekend.
Now I need to water the outdoor plants. Done. I lowered them to the ground from their stands. I thought it might be cooler for them.
The dog's owner came along and the dog retreated. I did not not want to cause any further disturbance. So I turned back. The sward on the new paddock, between the two drives, is looking superb. All thanks to the Husqvarna robot mower.
When I came home I monitored the mower. As it mowed the grass yet again. I have gone back to the tall mast and the longer cable at the far [west] end of the greenhouse. Yesterday I was leaning a pole against the drive end of the greenhouse. To be sure of a good signal. Fortunately the mower could still function despite the much greater distance to the Wi-Fi Access Point. I am hoping to have a good signal on the West lawn.
9.30 The room has dropped to a more comfortable 71F/22C thanks to the heat pump. Currently set to Cool 20C/68F. It is becoming more breezy outside. I shall have morning coffee and then go shopping. Probably in the car. Or not.The Morris battery was flat. Some idiot had left the lights on! I went on my bike.
10.30-11.30 90F/32C.11km. Everything was going well until I started feeling dizzy at the checkout of the second supermarket. Both shops had air conditioning. So felt pleasantly cool. Going outside was like walking into an oven. I sat on a stack of compost bags in the shade for a few minutes. Wondering if I was going to be able to balance safely on my bike.
14.30 94F/34.4C! After a nap I had lunch. As I was scrolling though YouTube videos I started to get dizzy again. So I had to stop and have another lie down.
Then I remembered that I had to tip my head back. To see what was on the top shelf at the supermarket. My usual cooking oil as not on display again. This same head movement used to trigger dizziness years ago. Back when I was building my observatories.
15.00 It has suddenly become heavily overcast. There are thunder storms with lots of lightning to the west! These will probably reach us at 16.00.
Dinner was four sausage rolls. I wasn't really hungry. They were very filling! Two would have made a meal.
22.10 72F/22C. More thundery storms are likely tonight. Some very powerful gusts and heavy cloudbursts were measured over west Fyn today. Over 40mm of rain and gusts exceeding 30m/s. It is 76F/25C in the room now and it feels cold! I had to turn off the heat pump because it felt so chilly. Or rather, I did. Temperatures will fall to more normal levels during the week.
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Sharply angled railway bridge near Grønnemose. The old main road to Odense will eventually pass beneath.
A comfortable night at 68F/20C in the room thanks to the heat pump set to Cool and 20C. It was 75F/24C at bed time. I could feel a slight cold draught on my face in bed but it was not unpleasant.
All the internal doors open and several windows left on the catch for ventilation. Even the kitchen was 21C/70F this morning. It has been around 75F/24C most days. I slept well. Apart from the usual attending to the fire bucket. The heat pump has been switched off again this morning.
I am coughing more. With an unpleasant taste in my mouth. So I have restarted the penicillin tablets. Having checked with the doctor while I was there yesterday.
I really want to go for a ride today. I'll head north and check the progress on the massive earthworks for the new railway. It is some time since I visited the many sites where there are road crossings. With lots of newly cast bridges and cuttings. I shan't go too far though.
The old main road approach to the skewed bridge.
Success! I reset the Wi-Fi Access Point and robot mower. With fresh passwords. Existing maps deleted. Whereupon I was rewarded with mapping with mowing. Previously, Eufy owners would have to wait for the time consuming mapping before starting to mow. One still has to monitor the mower. In case it gets bogged down in a hole or can't avoid an obstruction.
So far it has mapped and mowed 12m^2 in 10 minutes and automatically returned to the base station for charging. It has the growing map area showing on my phone screen. With the mower shown as a moving rectangle. I have parked two recycling bins across the far end of the drive to avoid random visitors running over the mower. The central grass strip has been cleared of debris.
I have now activated live video. From the mower's onboard cameras. It is expanding the initial map. Which only reached the greenhouse. Remote control with an on screen joystick! I sent the mower to the far end. It refused to mow. Saying that it was off the lawn. I need to do some homework on map expansion.
The new railway track, near Ejby already has ballast over a long, rural stretch. The motorway runs over the further bridge. Its sheer width is lost here.
The phone even shows the charge on the mower batteries. And a paler stripe on the lawn map where it has already mowed and the percentage completed. All thanks to AI vision. The downside is if it recognizes tall grass as an obstruction. I ought to have run the ordinary mower along to get rid of the tall dandelions. Which had grown up since I first played with the robot mower.
9.45 Getting the e-bike ready for a ride. I'll have morning coffee before I leave. Make sure I am topped up. I am already on my third glass of water. I'll wear the obscenely expensive Assos bibs out of respect for my lack of recent mileage.
10.30 77F/25C. Full sunshine. Off we go!
13.10 87F/31C. Back from a 51km ride. Hot and tired. Arms and legs aching from early on. I have lost some fitness. I drank two micro cartons of organic apple juice. The Bosch Nyon computer head lost an information screen. My favourite. With Cadence [pedal rpm] and speed in large digits. I have forgotten how to set these screens. So I'll have to do some online homework.
14.30 84F/29C. It's like an oven out there! I have now mowed the drive with the battery, push-along mower. Six lengths! To give the robot a chance. I am watching progress on the phone and on the security cameras. Will the robot voluntarily explore the drive now it is mowed short?
It is certainly pushing the boundaries but is rather hesitant. It is currently widening the map to take in the verges. Which I have just shortened. It is a shame the phoned doesn't do auto-rotate for landscape viewing. It was making excellent progress along the drive. Then decided to return to the charging station. I have sent it out again. All control is remotely from indoors. Via Wi-Fi on the Eufy app on the phone.
17.15 I had a nap and then let the robot run up the drive again. It is still pushing the far end. Then turning back to tidy up areas it has missed earlier. This is all part of its programming. It's been good fun now that it is behaving properly. My own fault I think for confusing passwords.
I have seen the big Husqvarna robotic mower from time to time. Working on the neighbours' extensive grounds at the rear of Chez Hovel. The quality of the sward was amazing when I passed on my bike this morning. I haven't walked along there to look since I had my fall.
So their robot has obviously been busy in my absence. Repetition of mowing is the magic ingredient. It suppresses the weeds and leads to tighter growth of the grass. Without having to run a large tractor and mowers over it. While avoiding the inevitable damage from the great weight and tire treads.
Dinner sardines on toast.
15.30 Black sky with fierce, gusting winds! A storm front? I have shut the greenhouse doors and skylights. It is almost dark indoors.
15.46 First flash of lightning. 15.48 First thunder. 15.50 Heavy rain. 15.53 Torrential rain! We are unlucky. Right in the path of the storm.
16.00 Constant lightning and frequent thunder. This will last for half an hour according to the DMI. Grr! All the outdoor plants have blown over.
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