16th October 2017 The sky is falling!

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Monday 16th 56-62F, 13-17C, dark, heavy overcast and misty with a light breeze. We are promised some sunshine again. We shall see.

Left early for my walk. Managed an hour and half going the length of the distant woods and back along the road. Very mild with warm sunshine at times. Too busy for a ride.

Tuesday 17th 56F, 13C, rather cloudy and windy. A blood red, alien sun was occasionally visible behind low, smudgy cloud. I kept snapping away in the hope of capturing its colour before it became too bright. My camera wanted to brighten it far more than it appeared to the naked eye.

Can you imagine the superstitious idiocy of the past dealing with a fierce storm followed by a red sun? Thrice woe! It must be some omen for the kingdom or even the whole world.

Surely the return of some religious deity is indicated? We should all behave much less like we normally do. Particularly the corrupt and perverted clerics themselves! Though it probably went unsaid at the time.

The reason for the red sun is simply due to hurricane Ophelia's lifting of dust from the Sahara on its long journey north. There was also some soot from the forest fires in Spain and Portugal. It was incredibly dark this morning despite enjoying our normal breakfast time.

Fortunately the storm was tracked and understood well before its arrival in Ireland and Scotland. The absence of normal traffic probably kept death off the roads, rather than the reverse.

The selfish, attention-seeking plonkers who fancied a dip in the raging sea should have been charged a life-changing fortune for any rescue attempt. Or simply left to become fish food. The fallback, life insurance of a rescue for thrill seekers should always have a very high premium. No ride today.

Wednesday 18th 53-58F, 12-14C, heavy overcast, almost calm. If I'm not allowed out today we shall both go hungry! A walk under grey skies watching the birds being silly.  The main road was plastered in mud left by a crop sprayer. Spitting with rain throughout my short, 7 mile, shopping ride.

I was just reading on a news website that there is a pandemic of road deaths amongst cyclists and pedestrians, in the US, from fuckwits using their mobile phones behind the wheel. I suppose it makes a change from all the deaths caused by guns and drugs.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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Friday 13th October 2017 Double, double whoops!

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Friday 13th 46-59F, 8-15C, calm with thin cloud. A supposed bright start followed by increasing cloud. A disappointing news featured a Danish professor complaining about the vast quantities of CO2 involved in electric car, battery production in China. A 40 minute walk to the village and back dodging traffic.

Late morning ride to the more distant shops in a light, but blustery wind. No stock of the usual items. Green fur all over the premium Danish, cherry tomatoes.

Experimental shot taken during heavy rain.

I came across the car of a fat, old, retarded psychopath who had parked diagonally across the brand new, raised, cycle path/pavement and was, consequently, partially blocking the main road. All just so he could stand and gossip with a roadside home owner!

Our tricycling hero had to slow right down before I pushed back his protruding wing mirror so I could pass more freely on my trike.

Of course he went berserk. He jumped back into his shiny new car and chased me along the road while I continued riding steadily along the cycle path. Now he was blocking the moving traffic from behind him. As he maintained my own pace completely oblivious to anything else. All the while he continued shouting childish insults at me through the open, nearside window. Thank god for electric windows! Then, as soon as the kerb dropped for a business entrance, he actually tried to run me down on the cycle path!! I kid you not! I swerved away and shouted that I'd report him and his number plate to the police and then he finally stopped chasing me.

I handled it completely wrongly. I should have stopped, photographed him, his car and number plate while his car was dangerously and illegally parked diagonally across the cycle path. Then, when he retaliated to my mirror "adjustment" called the police to report his dangerous driving.

In Denmark I'd be posthumously prosecuted for even owning an action cam. Let alone using it, just before I was mown down by a raving psycho. Summary execution for any tri-cyclist daring to touch his precious mirror? Thereby reminding him of his illegal parking on a dedicated cycle path? And, he is still allowed to own a driving license? How does that work? Only 17 miles. Still not out! 

48% of Danes would like speed cameras to be sited near their homes to stop speeding. 52% want to continue driving at whatever illegal speed they like because there is no police presence, nor any speed cameras.

Just think: They could afford an eighth, coal-fired, Dreadnought class, battleship with the proceeds from the speeding fines in the very first week of camera introduction. Soon, they'd have the same firepower as the entire Russian fleet! The Prime Minister could live in the real, Louis 14th palace he so richly deserves as an all-important, world leader of only 5 million people. All provided, of course, that there are enough North Korean slaves to do all the shipbuilding work in the Polish dockyards.  Cheap, East European, forced labour? Even they can't compete with properly organized slavery. Now we must pray that Kim's slaves have all signed the Danish Official Secrets Act!  😉

Saturday 14th 58F, 15C, very dark, with a heavy, dark grey overcast with light winds and showers forecast.

Enjoyed a longer walk up through the woods in steadily increasing drizzle and SW winds. I heard shooting as I entered the woods  but it seemed far enough away not to be a nuisance.

A flock of perhaps 100, small birds were circling wildly over a roadside field. They were joined at intervals by further groups until their numbers were doubled. The erratic gyrations continued even when a kestrel passed straight through them like a fluttering  arrow. Within a minute or two the flock broke up and went their separate ways. Three larger deer bolted from a fold in a field as a small one went off in the opposite direction. There are pheasants everywhere. It's absolute chaos out there! The drizzle continued. No ride today.

Sunday 15th 57-59F, 14-15C, misty, light breeze with a heavy overcast. Very mild, with fairly constant temperatures, both day and night. We were promised some sunshine by 9am! Grr? Misty drizzle on my walk again. It finally brightened up in the afternoon but I was too busy for a ride. 

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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10th October 2017. Whoops!

Tuesday 10th, 45-51F,  7-11C, calm but, oddly, the windmills are turning. Perhaps they keep giant AA batteries in the towers for days like this?

I enjoyed a longer walk through the woods and back in a beeline across the undulating stubble fields. It was very quiet in the forest. A pair of small deer dashed off as I exited the trees. Lots of mushrooms and I think I even identified a highly toxic Green fly mushroom.

The garden is full of blackbirds at the moment. Though I had a surprise yesterday as a pheasant shot just over my head to escape from a colourful, but complaining male. Which then strutted along the ridge of my shed as I rattled lightweight tarpaulins just below to compete with his strange chatter.  There were dozens of pheasants out on the fields today.

No ride today due to rain. The Danish news is full of a story about a pair who raised over £4.6 million! via crowd sourcing. The folding, electric bicycle they "came up with" looks identical to a readily available Chinese model. One which is sold at discount supermarkets but sporting another name/logo.

The pair have subsequently dropped the "Danish design and quality" from their advertising after a national DR TV consumer exposé. Where they were unable to suggest how their bike differed from the Chinese version other than their own choice of accessories. The "Danish" machine has had very poor reviews for reliability and safety and is a "rust magnet" according to some owners. With what sounds like non-existent customer support it sounds as if we shall hear much more on this story.

Discussion of electric bikes had me checking what was available these days and at what cost. Some electric bikes cost over £5k equivalent! At this price level you can get an awful lot of high performance, multi-geared, motorbike! Methinks there is room for prices to come way down on electric cycles. As far as I am aware this is not an emerging market for the upper classes to show off their wealth. As occurred at the beginning of the 20th century with the infernal combustion engine.

A difficult subject, easily seen with the naked eye, but I failed dismally to capture the dead, hanging branch resembling a huge spider.

Wednesday 11th 53F, 12C, heavy overcast, breezy and wet again. Just a short walk under heavy, grey skies avoiding bow waves and cometary tails of spray from dehumanizing juggernauts. Wet afternoon, so I shopped in the car while I was collecting [really] heavy stuff.

Thursday 12th 52F, 11C, very heavy overcast with a cloudburst as I type this just before 0800. A day of sunshine and showers is promised with high winds gusting to 40mph later. Just a short walk between cloudbursts. Had to shelter beneath a roadside tree as a squally shower roared through. The whole day was punctuated by heavy showers. No ride today.
 

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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