9th September 2016 The Grim Reaper's little helpers:

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Friday 9th 61-76F, 16-24C, light breeze and heavy overcast. The neighbour filled our house with diesel tractor fumes yesterday. He was sitting in his tractor with the engine running but blamed the distant farmers. When we complained he lit a stinking fire and filled the house and garden with toxic fumes from demolition timber. Every morning I sit here and cough repeatedly and blow my running nose while I write my blog. Only a walk carries me far enough away that I can clear my lungs.

In breaking news. A copycat throwback was arrested after a witness saw a youth throwing a spray can at traffic from a bridge on the motorway. Three youths were parked on the bridge and the witness recorded their number plate and reported it to the police. The youth was remanded into custody for  a fortnight.

The heavy triangular concrete blocks used by terrorist[s] in the motorway murder of a German women have been shown in a video by police. They hope that showing the blocks will jog somebody's memory at the busy building site area or overlooking it.

The image is a still from the Danish Radio news website video showing the Police Commissioner struggling to lift one heavy block onto another.

The murdering terrorist is alleged to have stolen these specialized triangular blocks weighing 30kg, 66lbs each from a shopping center building site 11.8 km away. That is over 7 miles to carry two murder weapons by the shortest route and suggests premeditation. As does the very early hour and the choice of a little-used bridge to carry out the acts of terrorism while carefully avoiding [living] witnesses or leaving evidence. The only spontaneity involved was whether the terrorist[s] grinned at the carnage they caused.

VIDEO Here are the concrete blocks that killed a woman on the motorway. [Examples.] Danish Radio.

VIDEO Her er betonklodsen der dræbte kvinde på motorvej | Fyn | DR

While on the subject of unnecessary road deaths and keeping it on topic:

A driver, with eight 8 previous counts of using a mobile phone while driving, killed a cyclist while sending SMS messages. The killer [finally] received 9 years in jail. Let's see now: Out after 9 months for good behaviour and verbally expressing remorse for his actions. [i.e. Being caught eight times.]

Sadly the innocent cyclist did not enjoy 9 more years of freedom to use the road system without the judicial system being completely against his survival. Eight 8 previous counts of using a mobile telephone while driving?  What does that say about the leniency of the courts? What does it say about how little magistrates know about attention spans of the throwbacks who appear before them? I bet they'd be absolutely livid if the killer had the temerity to use their phone in court! But not out the roads where lives, rather than mere human pride, matters more? What does it say about the driver's mental state to continue driving and texting after eight counts? Driving [badly] is a basic human right? While Survival Cycling is an unregulated, dangerous sport and enjoyed entirely at the discretion of the courts? Why are cyclists treated with the same [lack of] respect as black people under apartheid? 

 'Texting driver had nine seconds to see my brother' - BBC News

More driving at the very limit of 6 million years of [backwards] evolution:  

 Footage shows car using path to undertake cyclists - BBC News

Why was a car responsible for driving on the path? It was the DRIVER who chose to break the law. The car was completely innocent. Has the driver been prosecuted? Such behaviour suggests the driver is unfit to enjoy the basic human right to drive [badly.] 

8.30am: The sun has finally broken through. Time to stop coughing, wiping my eyes and nose and to have a walk. I strode off across the stubble fields to see what a huge tipper lorry was doing. He seemed to be dumping the anaerobic, sticky mud from the bottom of a sewage treatment works.

Later, I was skirting the woods, when I heard loud, metallic rattling like a tracked vehicle. This needed further investigation so I walked back down to the entrance and on through the forest listening attentively. There was nothing to be heard so I set off across another stubble field in the opposite direction. Where three large deer were grazing as I walked into the breeze. I could have approached much closer had a tractor not raced past on the lane and woken them from their dream time.  I returned via the marsh track but climbed the steeply sloping field to take a more direct route home and to avoid disturbing the ducks.

Late afternoon ride for seven miles. Three full, stacked bags. There has to be a better way.

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7th September 2016 A seaside outing.

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Wednesday 7th 63-68?F, 17-20C, almost dead calm, heavy overcast with some sun promised for later. Lighter winds offer the chance of a longer ride but where should I go? I haven't had a ride with the trike stripped of its rack and multiple bags for longer than I can remember. I rode north just before ten armed with one rack but only 1.5 shopping bags. It stayed grey for most of the day with variable winds.

I became lost, yet again, just outside Bogense, on the way home. Without any sign of the sun in the grey gloom I could not be sure of my true direction. So I did a five mile pointless loop before returning back to my foolish exit. The wind was fairly light but noticeable for its greater resistance as I headed back south. I carefully avoided main roads, as best I could, but still had to take to the verge several times  to let large vehicles pass.

Token image of Bogense harbour showing hideous waterfront buildings. I tried my best to exclude them from the background but would have needed a drone or a life jacket.

A specialized muck spreader, tanker and plough buries the animal waste to avoid odour. It works too! The tyres were equally massive and the whole machine had the family characteristics of a combine harvester.

I watched as a tractor with a verge mower arm sticking out became larger and larger in my rear view mirror on a very long straight. Luckily a gravel forecourt presented itself just before he <cough> "mowed me down." He veered around me with his overhanging mace still closely menacing. Having gained a mile on me, along with all those who overtook me, I caught them all at a set of lights at red for major roadworks. As the tractor took off I paced him to avoid balking the traffic. Luckily I still had just enough breath and speed to reach the end of the narrow roadworks before he began to pull away.

Sunshine, at last, just as I reached within ten miles of home. Though it was never less than warm all day. I seemed to have managed the food intake and drinks quite well this time. I shall be sipping water for most of the evening. Only 58 miles. For 3rd equal, longest mileage this year.

Thursday 8th 57F, 24C, light breeze and a clear sky with the sun yet to rise. Legs a little tired after yesterday's 6 hour ride. A walk should help. Leaving half an hour earlier than usual provided new insights. I chatted with the pheasant feeder about a large stag with huge antlers which had seen in the evening. Though the tracks were very wet I managed to avoid setting too high a tide mark. Shafts of sunlight stood out starkly against the darker forest. Though it was hard to capture without some editing to bring out the contrast.

A wibbly-wobbly cycle path beside a straight road. The traffic was completely ignoring the 50kph [30mph] signs and then jamming on the brakes just as they reached the constantly flashing, speed indicator board at the infant school, 

A farmer was burning off a large stack of hay or silage. Presumably from last year's crop. The smoke drifted for miles without lifting as my eyes and nose watered steadily. Visibility was still reduced two miles downwind and my clothes stank of it. It is no wonder the Danes and Vikings went on global raids. They were just trying to get away from their neighbour's bløødy smoke!

A buzzard took umbrage at my arrival and circled back to the woods. With its plaintive mewing carrying on the still air. Then a huge tractor roared up the hill to sew the field which I had just left. The farmers had obviously been hacking back the forest edges to gain another couple of meters. This has left a just manageable path on the new boundary but it was a shame to see large branches just hacked off mature oaks. No doubt the EU dictators would be proud.

Three large herons were sitting at the bottom of the track down from the woods. I only managed to get within one hundred yards of them before they took off. Just beyond them were half a dozen pheasants. As I walked back along the road I was almost run over from behind by a double-decker coach on a school outing! The driver had swung very wide to overtake a scooter into the teeth of oncoming traffic and missed me by only two feet. The oncoming cars had to slow to a walking pace to let him pass! Then I was asked by a driver for directions to a large local farm. I was shocked to discover that I could actually guide him straight there [in Danish] without my causing my usual confusion. Another rest day working in the garden.

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6th September 2016 Copycat terrorist throwbacks oop north.

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Tuesday 6th 56F, 13C, breezy and bright with a fine day forecast.Time for a walk to undo yesterday's exertions. Another loop out on the stubble fields. It can't last much longer before it is all raked or ploughed. The superbly overgrown verges have been levelled by a tractor with a cylinder mower on a hydraulic arm. The wildlife must think they are under attack from all sides now that their cover is gone. A grumpy cat flattened itself on a box as I passed. Just as another ginger cat walked over a pitched house roof via the builder's scaffolding.

Yesterday there was a pitched battle overhead as many hundreds of crows, or rooks, or even jackdaws had a major scrap with an equal number of circling gulls on a thermal. It was too late by the time I had collected my camera from indoors most of the huge flocks had dispersed in opposite directions.

I don't ever remember seeing the two kinds of birds competing with each other over air space. Nor even on the ground. Perhaps both had gathered large numbers of young from successful breeding in the much milder climate over the last few years? There is a large rookery nearby which must conflict with the huge flock of gulls which gather at feeding time at the nearby mink farm. It is also slightly odd to have large numbers of rooks or crows moving together. This is usually a sight reserved for the evenings as they return to their roosts.

Yet another case of terrorists throwing stones at traffic from a motorway bridge. This time the throwback were in north Jylland and aiming at an emergency ambulance carrying a heart attack victim. A second incident involved a woman in a car who luckily escaped with only damage to the vehicle. The police are appealing for witnesses after several young people were spotted on the same bridge. Attempts to trace the terrorists via a sniffer dog and the fallen missiles failed.

 The timeless peace of the rural village. A stone age site probably existed on the small hump where the later 12th century church now stands in place of a much earlier wooden one.

As I said before: It's such a shame there wasn't an upmarket jeweller's on the bridge or the case would be solved several times over by now and the medals passed around. While the terrorists would be enjoying all the hospitality and paid holidays Denmark can offer.

It seems the Danish lorry driver's association is now suggesting security cameras on bridges crossing the motorways. Tragically the politicooze would have to find the money from the multi-party promises to reduce taxation for multi-billionaires at the expense of the poor. The latest long term political plans are guaranteed to increase inequality yet further.

Only 7 miles, with no overhead bridges. Catching up on the shopping meant squashed tomatoes. I really must come up with a better system than 3 stacked bags behind the saddle!

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