30th July 2019 Still waiting for rain.

*

Tuesday 30th 67-77F, bright but rather cloudy. Thunder and cloudbursts promised, again. A clockwise walk around the block in light traffic. About 3 miles in warm 70F conditions. The verges are becoming quite luxuriant.

Another person has been injured by an electric scooter. One of those idiotic cycle lanes where buses stop to allow passengers to alight. Straight into the teeth of passing cyclists. The law says that cyclists must slow right down or stop and wait for the bus passengers to clear the cycle lane. This El-scooterist may have been ignorant of the law.  Or just plain ignorant. There's a lot of it about.

The law also says that cars must stop at crossings. This assumes that all car drivers will obey the law. The law does not allow for ignorant car drivers. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Common sense is often enough. This assumes that every ignorant twit has at least some common sense. This is patently not true. The world only keeps turning by averaging out the "entitled" ignoramuses by sheer force of numbers. That still doesn't stop most prisons from being heavily oversubscribed. This, despite the excess of ambulance chasers in the world.

An afternoon ride to the shops. Only 7 miles. Rather warm. It was very odd: The Trykit felt distinctly skittish. I stopped and checked all the bare brazing joints. Counted the wheels to be sure they were all still there. All seemed normal enough. I have had [what I presumed to be] school kids loosen the front Q/R a couple of times as they competed for the qualification heats at the Idiocy Olympics. They used to mass around the supermarket bike racks after school sometimes. But they are on their summer holidays at the moment. So none are about. I presume the perps are all competing for individual medals abroad. The trike seemed to settle down after it had passed the formal inspection. Weird.

19.30 and it is getting very dark. It can't just be the dust from the harvesters. Can it? The forecast is for thunder and downpours but it hasn't happened yet.

Wednesday 31st 65-67F, bright but rather cloudy. They have had heavy rain elsewhere but we are still waiting. The Head Gardener's rain collection containers were barely damp this morning. Yet another day with warnings of heavy rain hanging over us. Famous last words. I had just reached my exit when it started raining. I should have known better. The whole western sky was navy blue and black.

Fortunately I reached home again without too much drama except for a couple of deranged lunatics [blind] cornering at 60mph. The clipped beech hedge meets the road just there. So there is literally nowhere for me to retreat further from the traffic. Being deluded retards they always use a "racing line" which clips the inside of every inside corner. Thereby denying themselves the ability to extend their braking distance to the maximum.

Of course the hedge is completely impenetrable to their X-ray vision. Particularly at ten mph above the national speed limit. So they would never see the several cars leaving the houses situated just around the corner as they leave on their own, morning run. Before they are hit broadside on.

But what are the lives of a few children on their way to school? When the driver's need to have fun on the way to work excludes all else. After all, they have their air bags to protect them. So further brain damage is very unlikely in a side impact with another vehicle.

Besides, they have insurance against that sort of thing. It's not as if the insurance company gives a shit if drivers are lower achieving sociopaths. They are entitled to drive any way they like. And do. The anonymity of vehicle ownership allows even the dumbest of drivers to go unnoticed amongst the generally appalling average. Who is going to report their neighbour if they drive like a drunk?

It rained until 11am. Followed by showers. We missed all the cloudbursts which caused flooded roads across Denmark.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

*

29th July 2019 You don't want to do it like that!

*

Monday 29th 67-84F, bright, white, northern sky with thunder storms and cloudbursts available for viewing this afternoon. Both Norway and Sweden have enjoyed record high temperatures in the Europe-wide heat wave. Cambridge Botanical Gardens has had its 38.7C/ 101F record confirmed after Met Office checks on its equipment.

Meanwhile, back at the hovel, it had reached a decidedly sweaty, 76F by the time I returned from my walk. It feels very hot and humid outside even in the shade.

The plants on the verge were providing nectar to countless insects. I was going to cross the prairie up to the woods but the stink from the black sludge was just too much. My nose was stinging before I reached the entrance to the field. Temperatures reached 84F in the afternoon. Well over either forecast!

No doubt the fossilized bicycle will be receiving our undivided attention later. In fact, it took another couple of hours to extract it without further damage using camel hair watercolour artists' brushes. A spot of WD40 and it'll be shining and ready for eBay by the end of the week: As an "Extremely Rare, Roadworthy, Antique, Barn Find." 

It shows a number of highly desirable, vintage features; Large section chain and seat stays with flattened ends. Horizontal saddle pin for reach adjustment. Broad gauge chainwheel. No obvious brakes. Coaster [back pedal brakes in the rear hub] were the norm back then. Size is 42cm BB center to the top of the seat lug. I'm throwing in the rusted saddle springs and bleached plastic saddle cover. Rear mudguard only. That will need a bottle of touch up paint.  Buyer collects, cash only with a starting bid of [what shall we say £500] "Buy it Now" at £750? I'm pricing it to sell. 😇

It was sweltering working in full sun at 80F. You can never have enough exercise at our age. The more you do, the more you can do, more effortlessly and without injury. "Use it or lose it."

The journey back to full activity after a break becomes harder the longer the lay-off. Better, surely, to keep at it to avoid aching backs and strained muscles? I can often feel some pain as I head off on my morning walk but it soon passes.

I didn't use to walk much at all when I was cycling every day. I now think that was a serious mistake. Walking has therapeutic qualities both physical and mental. It is far more relaxing than thrashing along on a tricycle. I still haven't learned to slow down. If I'm not breathless then I'm obviously not trying hard enough.

I climb out of the saddle as often as possible to share the load with different muscle groups and give others a rest. Finding the correct gear to provide just enough resistance is always a problem. Too little and I'm pedaling too fast and all my weight is thrown onto my arms. I am usually turning 95+rpm while seated. Which is far too high for standing on the pedals. Inevitably that means a change up of two to three gears or [usually] somewhere in the middle.

Once standing, I really don't want to be changing gear on high chain tension. I run 2x11 Campag with an 11-34 cassette and Chorus levers. Which ought to provide all the gears you could possibly hope for, but doesn't.

Find too high a gear and one's momentum is immediately lost. Which means dropping a gear to get the resistance down and the pedal revs back up again. Except that it has all become an ungainly mess by now. Any advantage gained from standing is soon lost. Sitting down again means the gear is now far too high to twiddle slowly over the crest. More gear changing and more breathlessness.

A trike behaves very differently from a lightweight bike on a climb. It can't be rocked from side to side to gain extra leverage. Now add a 70kg Abus Mini-U lock, six liters of milk, a bag of spuds and other assorted shopping. It becomes a very fine balance between maintaining inertia and just keeping going on some ascents.

The one great advantage of trike is that you can't fall over sideways as your speed drops below 6mph. If you can keep on pedaling and give thanks for having 2WD, you can crawl [slowly] to the top of Everest.

Just pray you don't need to do a 180° on a steep hill on a trike. Turning sideways to the slope means a very long, free-fall all the way back downhill! Ouch! You can't just lay a trike over and fall uphill like a bike. Nor lean far enough uphill to keep your balance. Because the top tube simply won't let you crank your leg that far to push your body weight in the right direction.

You'd better hope you were wearing thick, hide gloves. But why would you on a trike ride?  That would be silly. Like not having a low enough gear on a trike to survive any climb. What about keeping the nose uphill and dismounting?  Plates + asphalt + slope + only having front brakes. The unloaded front wheel will instantly slide backwards as fast as your slippery SPDs can carry you.

Try putting your feet down and lift the whole trike around you? Nice theory!  Again, it can't be done if you are carrying anything, at all. The trike is simply too heavy and awkward to lift in one go.  Remember you are wearing silly cycling shoes with even sillier, projecting plates/cleats underneath. Which have a combined coefficient of friction on asphalt which is so low most shipbuilders would be envious.

Electric bicycles are causing mayhem across Europe. There is already an aftermarket service for tuning parts to make El-cycles go even faster. A 74 year-old lady has been seriously injured after being struck by an El-cycle on a curved, two-way cycle path. I saw an advert in the Danish small ads for an electric cycle which "can easily exceed 60kph [40mph] for over 100km!" The legal limit is only 45kph for sports electric cycles. That's upper 20s mph. With 50kph [31mph] the national speed limit for built up areas. All figures are pedestrians permitting of course.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

*

27th July 2019 Duck!

*

Saturday 27th 70-79F, bright and rather breezy with a milky sky to the north. Small blobs of cloud to the south. The latest heatwave is supposed to be a couple of degrees lower today. The TdeF was cut short by mudslides after heavy hail storms in the mountains.

My walk to the lanes was more plodding than brisk. There were pleasant moments when the wind picked up enough to cool me off. The roads were strewn with oil seed rape seeds. Presumably from a leaky, farmer's trailer. The tiny, black, ball bearings turning yellow when mistreated by cruel tyres.

I saw a runner disappearing along the lane in the time it took me to reach the junction. Which is really quite unusual. 73F at 9.30. The black sludge spread on the fields was really ponging today. It made me sneeze several times.

We were very lucky yesterday. An asteroid, with the energy of 30 Hiroshima bombs, whizzed passed the Earth within 1/5 of the distance of the moon. The asteroid was only spotted with a couple of days to spare. Thankfully, we were saved by El Chumpo's Great Border Wall. So that's alright then.

A later morning ride to more distant shops but without success. I had to shop more locally, on the way home, to restock the depleted larder. Rather windy at times from changing directions. The trees in the forest were roaring wildly as I passed through, pedalling for life and limb. Only 14 miles.

Sunday 28th 67-70F, overcast and windy. Possible thunderstorms and cloudbursts are promised. The heat is moving away into the Arctic which is already burning from wildfires. Icelandic scientists have raised a gravestone to a vanished glacier. A jumbled sky and towering cumulus gradually darkened on my walk. Electric blue chicory decorated the chest-high grasses of the verges. Competing with bright poppies and sultry thistles taller than any man.

I wrestled briefly with the massive and prickly stems of a wild rose bush. Which had hurdled itself willfully out from the hedgerow. As is their silly habit. To take up a good couple of yards of bare asphalt in a show of foolhardy rebellion. Countless red stems followed the rose's example and put out feelers onto the traffic lane. It has been a very good year for creeping plants.

Brief glimpses of a watery sun soon gave way to more threatening cloud from the east. Solitary gulls meandered listlessly across the landscape. Listening for rumours of the breakfast gong amongst their widely scattered brethren. A melancholy wind rose and fell in the thirsty trees.

THG is busy putting out her collection buckets to gather in every last drop to be had. To revive her all too numerous pots and sprawling but highly beneficial flower beds. Her reputation precedes her in local butterfly and bee circles. With no reservations required. Nor even a tip for the tireless and endlessly patient Maître d'. I have even heard that Hover flies, all in their best, stripey jumpers, worship THG as a deity. I know I do.

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the garden: It's Strictly Twilight Zone! THG hit a solid object while cultivating. [As she does.] Resulting in a full-on archeological dig to try to release a smallish [boys?] bicycle buried on its side in the garden. Another day of intensive digging should finally free it. I can confirm it is not a dinosaur. Nor even a valuable veteran. Though I do fear it will not be in saleable condition once extracted.

Quite why anybody should go to such trouble as to bury a bicycle is a mystery which will probably never be answered. The previous owner of our rural hovel having passed away to make room for our purchase. His international reputation for shoddy building work might have given a clue as to which direction he was headed.

One must pray the immature rider is not still entombed nearby. We dug up a dead cow and a dog at our last place. But that was Wales and the sort of thing you must expect. We are still fully prepared for the worst. Having the coroner on speed dial might have been sensible. If only we knew how to work these silly little telephones everybody seems to look down their noses at these days.
 

Click on any image for an enlargement.

*