12.10.2025 Belated activities.

 ~o~

 Sunday 12th 54F/12.2C [7.25] A grey morning is promised. Followed by a sunny afternoon. The wind slowly reducing by tea time tonight.

 Up at 6.15 after another difficult night. Weird dreams and lying awake. Interrupted by visits to the fire bucket. Talking of which: It is 69F/20.6C in the room this morning. The soapstone cladding on the stove was still slightly warm when I got up. The still unheated kitchen was at the familiar 64F/17.8C. There wasn't enough sunshine to raise the temperature of the lean-to greenhouse yesterday.

 9.10 Back from my walk. Veiled sunshine and pretty, high clouds. As the low overcast cleared. Like mist lifting off the landscape. There were several pheasants in the drive again. Near the road this time. So I advanced only slowly. To avoid them being run over. The final slacker had to take off in the path of a speeding car. Though it made it safely into the opposite field.

 I had taken my wide angle zoom lens today. Instead of the default telephoto zoom. This gave me far more opportunities for photographs. Where I am usually unable to get enough distance. To capture the immediate neighbourhood. I took 90+ pictures today.   

 It was windy enough to make me wish I had pockets free. I just persisted instead. Becoming more comfortable on the return with a tailwind. I was wearing my new [recycled] jacket. It was warm, windproof and better fitting than any of my other jackets. The others tend towards voluminous.

 12.00 Back indoors for a rest and to cool down. I have been fitting aluminium flashing to the upstairs, bedroom window reveal. I never completed the job after fitting the new window. Not the window itself. The window area is inset relative to the upper gable end. The immediate surrounds needed a new application of tar paper. Before being covered with exterior plywood. 

 13.00 That's next. After lunch now. The sun has just come out. 

 15.15 60F/15.6C. A pleasant afternoon. The weather paper [vindpap] is done. Meanwhile a thorough search proved fruitless. In finding suitable plywood from the observatory demolition. None was salvageable. A trip into town tomorrow is indicated. To fetch a fresh board. Which will be about the correct size when sawn down the middle. 

 The whole gable end needs recovering in the same, exterior, cladding plywood. That's a lot of work for an old fart at such a height. While I am sure I am capable of doing it. I'd have to be sure the nice neighbour's can check I survived. Which won't be possible if they are at work. 

 As the gable is triangular I'd have to do some careful measuring. To organize the rectangular panels accurately. With minimum wastage. It is important that the grooves run neatly from top to bottom. Any lateral offset stands out like a sore thumb.  

 I ca hardly believe I installed the window back in 2022. It has been three years! No wonder the old tar paper was looking rough. 

 Sunday dinner was mince, mushrooms, peas and ... Bisto gravy. There was so much gravy it was more like a stew. I adapted. And used a spoon.

 

  

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11.10.2025 Mince blobs.

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  Saturday 11th 52F/11C [9.00] Overcast and windy again. Expected to continue until tomorrow.

 Up at 8.00! After a fairly quiet night. More weird dreams. The last one I remember I was at a film star's mansion. Where I was trying on different hats. Each of them stranger than the last.

 Plans for another, more local, cycle ride might be best carried over to the Morris. The wind is worse than yesterday's. I am going for a walk first. To feel how bad it is. The forecast is for 13m/s or 28mph gusts from the NW. Only reducing very slowly over 24 hours. I was certainly aware of the wind on yesterday's ride but it didn't feel too bad. The e-bike has more than enough reserve, pedal assistance to cope. 

 Though a gusty side wind can be hazardous in traffic. With drooling morons/psychopathic drivers brushing closely past. There is always the risk of being blown into their path. Many of them haven't the intelligence to ease off, however briefly. As they approach a solitary cyclist with a solitary oncoming vehicle ahead. Most will continue through the gap. Made worse by the oncoming driver not altering their path by one centimeter. Because neither has the wits nor wherewithal. To read the road, text and chew gum simultaneously. 

 9.40 Back from a blustery walk. It was grey enough to feel melancholy.

 10.10 The sun has come out to tease. It wasn't forecast. I am going out in the Morris. I shall try to enjoy the autumn colours. Though it takes sunshine to really bring it to life.

 12.40 Returning from a tour of most of the charity shops within a radius of about ten miles.  I added another [recycled] thick pile lined, winter, fleece jacket to my collection. Very cosy. I also did a load of grocery shopping on the way home. 

 The afternoon was wasted/spent wisely on YouTube.

 Dinner was organic pork, mince blobs, peas, mushrooms and boiled potatoes. The mince was discounted due to having today's date. I hadn't a clue what to do with it. So I made  blobs.

  

  ~o~

10.10.2025 67km

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 Friday 10th 52F/11C [7.00] A dry but rather windy day is offered. The NW wind will be gusting to 12m/s after lunch. Which suggests a morning ride. 

 Up at 6.15 after a more difficult night. I got up at 4am for a drink of water feeling unwell. The moon was very bright again. Still 67F/19.4C in the room this morning. Thanks to lighting the stove last night.

 Following my online purchase of the Ryet, printed carbon fiber saddle I am being bombarded with spam [adverts from AliExpress.] Most of them for the identical saddle and all its shady? unspecified variants. 

 After a couple of days sitting at an unnamed airport the export process has started. Delivery date remains unchanged at the 20th. Still 10 days away. The sales advert clearly said 15th-20th delivery. So it has rapidly defaulted to the maximum waiting time. 

 I just hope it is worth the wait. I have owned so many saddles over the years. That I no longer have much optimism. 99% of the saddles I have tried were designed only for their looks. Never for comfort! It doesn't matter if a saddle weighs as little as a feather if it is uncomfortable beyond a few yards/meters.  

 Fortunately the boxed [reserve] Brown Brooks is behaving itself so far. I haven't laced it yet. I'll see how it progresses first. I still haven't done a longer ride on it. An unlaced B17 is just asking for a very short life and deep curves. This assumes that a high riding mileage is involved. No longer true for me any more. So this latest B17 may hold up for a bit longer than any of my previous examples. 

 8.30-9.00. My walk. I had put it off for half an hour. Because it was so dark. Thick clouds have hardly given way to a uniform, grey overcast. The wind wasn't yet a problem. The inevitable problem? Where to go? I have no need to go anywhere in particular. Head into the wind first? Let it help me back home. 

 10.100  A smidgen of misty blue through the grey lid. I had better find some cycling shorts.  

 10.15 Nearly ready. First glimpse of sunshine.  

 10.30-15.00 A 67km ride. It was mostly grey and rather windy. I visited numerous charity shops. The battery charge dropped from 100% to 12%. Close to shutting down. I had one unpleasant moment earlier when the power assistance suddenly vanished a long way from home. This happened before. It was due to a dirty speed sensor at the back hub. I managed to reset the error by switching off and waiting before restarting. A possible casualty of the error was the loss of the GPS mapping screen. It remained blank. 

 I saw and heard several birds of prey. Two buzzards were circling and calling overhead in the forest.

 The B17 saddle proved its hardness. It just took longer. Before the discomfort became really noticeable. I wore my second best bibs. [padded cycle shorts with soft braces] A pair by Tactic. Which I bought from a local wholesaler many years ago. I see the name is still going in cycle wear. Sponge only about half as thick as the Assos. Not as stiff either. Twice as thick as my vintage DHB shorts from Wiggle. I thought I heard Wiggle had gone bust but they are still advertising online. 

 Anyway, the pain wasn't excruciating. Just increasingly unpleasant after 40km. Not friction. The Brooks leather was just too hard. While my legs still felt strong at the end of the ride. I think the wrist and thumb brace helped avoid some of the usual pain.

 Dinner was chips and a salmon pasty. I forgot to take a picture! So here's one I took earlier. Let's pretend there were no peas today. I lit the stove. 64F/17.8C has miraculously become 66F/18.9C. 

 

  ~o~