9.9.2024 Expansion.

 ~o~

  Monday 9th 60F/16C 7.00] Heavy overcast. Rain is forecast. Possible thundery cloudbursts. Temperatures dropped to a more normal autumnal. Lucky I mowed the grass beforehand.

 Up at 6.am after a restless night. Physio in town at 9am in the new venue. Removals permitting.  

Bramble patch from upstairs.
The pond is all but invisible at front left.

 I haven't mentioned how much some, once familiar, towns and cities have changed. Vast new buildings are going up everywhere. Both in city centers and on sprawling industrial estates. Denmark must be doing very well. Villages are expanding with many new estates on greenfield sites. 

 Meanwhile, village supermarkets and shops are often struggling. The big chains are closing uneconomical outlets. Depriving locals of shopping facilities and postal services. Which can severely alter the balance of shopping high streets. While others are expanding. Or changing hands. Most noticeable is the shrinking of the cycling retail sector. Village bike shops cannot compete with online prices. So yet another local service disappears. 

 Repairs are vital to keeping the countless bicycles running. In the absence of a local workshop then many are forced into their cars. For their daily commute or journey to school. Buses seem to be completely out of touch with the need for easy and affordable rural travel. With huge vehicles often empty. Or carrying only one or two passengers. 

 Even if they halved the size of the bus it would still need a driver and maintenance workshop. The need for rural transport for the elderly is hardly met by occasional buses. With subsidized taxis, or minibuses largely taking over responsibility for healthcare transport.

 10.00 The physio exercises went well. After the exercise cycling I moved onto the various machines. Three repetitions of 15 exercises on each is the norm and recorded on a personal record sheet.

  13.15 After that I drove to visit my English friend. The roads were badly puddled from heavy rain. Though there was little or no rain while I was traveling. I shopped on the way home to restock the larder.  

 18.00 63F/17C. Heavy overcast. I have just exhausted myself attacking the bramble patch and assorted overgrown hedges. The heavy duty, DeWalt strimmer is crap. It's only purpose is trimming medium length grass. It bogs down in thick, long grass and has no effect on anything thicker than a medium nettle stem. The heavy, DeWalt hedge clipper is more useful at attacking brambles and thick stemmed weeds. 

 I made a dent about a meter deep in the bramble patch in half an hour of really struggling. Then the recycling bin had to be brought back from the corner as well. So I am dripping with sweat and knackered now. I dare not work any longer than about quarter of an hour on the brambles. It is such hard work it makes me feel unwell. They are far taller than me and many stems as thick as my thumb!

 Dinner was fried chicken, mushrooms and eggs. The egg was already broken in the shell. One shell already broken in the box.

  ~o~

8.09.2024 Home exercising.

 ~o~

  Sunday 8th 65F/18C [8.15] Promising to be the last summer's day. Much cooler, rain and wind from tomorrow.

 Up at 6.15 after a fairly quiet night.

 8.15 Going for a walk.

 9.00 70F/21C. Returning from my walk. Too warm in a t-shirt. Clouds of tiny flies out again. There lots more yesterday on my ride down to the coast. A tractor was ripping last years spray tracks. Few gulls today compared to the hundreds of thousands I have seen over the past couple of weeks. Another two storey tractor went past. With a great stretch of polished blades hanging off the back. The attempts at field drainage seem to be over for the moment. The low ground becomes a natural pond every year. They have left bare gravel and a big, plastic pipe visible. Not the usual hide and seek. 

 No idea what to do today. I ought to cut the grass before the rain arrives. Depending on the amount of dew and how soon it evaporates. The sun doesn't reach the western lawn until later. 

 11.30 75F/24C. Cloud obscured sun but hot and sticky. I am dripping! The grass is dry and all but finished at a lower setting. 5 or 6/10. The batteries went flat before I could tidy some final pockets. I have been collecting the grass and filling the trailer. The indoor recycling bins have been emptied into the outdoor wheely bins. Now I have to wash up to be able to eat or drink. A short rest first.

 15.30 79F/26C. Hot and humid. I have finished mowing the grass. The relevant recycling, wheely bin has had its run walk to the far end of the drive. I should go shopping but lack momentum. I could empty the trailer at the garden waste, recycling yard. Preferably before the grass starts to break down and go mouldy. Or it rains and makes a total mess in the trailer. Whichever comes first.

 Dinner was mackerel in tomato sauce on toast with halved cherry tomatoes.

 

  ~o~

7.09.2024 All our yesterdays.

 ~o~

 Saturday 7th 63F/17C. Another summer day is promised.  

 Up at 6.10 after a quiet night. 

9.15 67F/19C. Returning from a sweaty walk to the lanes. I had completely misjudged the rapidly rising temperature and quickly removed my jacket. Highlights were field drainage using a digger. A roaring tractor out of sight over the hill and my builder neighbour's trailer. Reappearing in his parking space after an absence of some months. All of which add up to near rural excitement. So that I can hardly contain myself.

 What to do with today? Warm, mostly sunny, 26C/79F and lighter, easterly winds. The record breaking [what else?] summer weather is threatening to break soon. So I ought to maximize the dwindling potential days left for a ride. Even if it isn't to the ends of the earth.
 

I'll ride down to the unspoilt southern shore. Very hilly, but that doesn't matter on my e-bike. I'll take my spare battery for extended range. Just in case I get all silly and detour. I'll wear my trekking sandals. The new pedals offer a much larger platform.

 

 13.30 77F/25C. Returning from a ride down to the lighthouse on the tip of Helnæs peninsula. 63km/39miles. I was getting tired and very saddle sore towards the end. Not friction. I was aching badly where my sit bones rest on the hard, leather saddle. 

 I ate three sub-micro Corny bars and drank three organic, sub-micro cartons of apple juice. The 1st battery was still hanging on at 25% as I reached home. It was at 92% charge when I left. 

 Almost exactly 1% charge per kilometer. Mostly in Sport mode at an average speed of 23km/hr in 2h42m [while moving] in a mostly, north/south/north direction. All the while suffering from a sense of melancholic nostalgia.

 Helnæs was where we lived for our first few weeks in Denmark. That was twenty eight years ago. Having sold up the house we built and landscaped with our own hands in North Wales. With the plan to live with my wife's mother over here. In her sprawling farmhouse on 7000 m^2 of land. No, not the pretty one shown in the image above. It was never meant to be but there was no going back. So we bought Chez Hovel in a hurry and so started another, much longer term rebuild. This one was never quite finished. 

 Dinner was the last tin of Heinz Scotch Broth. Bought from the UK in desperation in case it rekindled my late wife's appetite. It was in vain. Eaten today with a buttered bread roll. Only because I was too lazy to make anything else.

 The Google software won't let me place the images correctly.

 

  ~o~