6.04.2026 Gales continue!

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  Monday 6th 40F/4.4C [7.35] Bright but quite cloudy. Expected to gust to 16m/s only slowly reducing.

 Up at 7.15after a mixed night. 

 A complex new railway bridge. The main road to Odense goes straight under. I am standing on the original road surface. The new railway goes over the new bridge at an acute angle. The car on the right is on a temporary detour loop. Skirting around the building site. 

 That whole area on the right will have to be raised with sand and soil. To match the top of the bridge. As will the area on the left of the bridge. The motorway is behind the dark, sound blocking panels on the right. Once the work is completed the motorway and new railway will be parallel to each other.  

9.25 Heavy overcast. Going for a walk.

 9.50 Back again. Blowing an absolute gale. My eyes and nose were streaming. The road was covered in hundreds of twigs and branches. Blown out of the hedgerows. After the tractor hedge slashers had dropped everything on the verge months ago.  

 I have to attend to the clear polycarbonate sheet in the corner of the greenhouse. Despite the bolts and all the spring clips I fitted last time it blew out. The panel had been sucked out yet again. Just a matter of rescuing the spring clips from the undergrowth and refitting them. The bolts had held the corner edge. The far side of the panel is held only by clips. There is nowhere to fit bolts through the aluminium frame on that side. 

 12.00 I have been wandering about outside. Seeing what needs doing. Lots! Still blowing an eye watering gale. 

 A contractor has turned up with a tractor. Equipped with a flat girder frame mounted in front. Where a bucket would normally go. He is making very quick work of scraping the drive flat. Using the existing material rather than importing new? We'll see what happens next. Rain may undo everything he achieves. Unless he uses a roller or plate vibrator to compact the rough surface. And/or brings in gravel. To dress the top surface.

 17.30 The wind must have reduced. I can't hear it any more. Though the trees are still moving. Thanks to hours of sunshine the greenhouse lifted the indoor temperatue to 72F/22C. I have just closed the doors and windows. The stove has not been lit so far.

 Dinner was cheese on toast with halved cherry tomatoes. 

 

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5.04.2026 Storm "Dave!"

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 Sunday 5th 51F/11C [7.10] A cloudy morning with rain clearing to sunshine after lunch. Peaking at 9C at 8am then falling steadily all day. Very windy from the west! Gusting to over 21m/s at noon. 48mph. Storm Dave is passing north of Denmark. With the worst gales in the far north of Jylland [Jutland] Gusting to 35m/s. Well over 70mph!

 Up at 6.45 after an unusually quiet night. It was still quite dark but I decided to get up anyway.

 10.00 I have just walked along the drive in wild conditions. The wind is incredibly noisy. The forecast has changed and it is peaking already at around 20m/s. Slowly reducing throughout the day. As is the temperature. 

 The temporarily propped roof timbers of Scrapman's ruin on the road is shaking and rocking. So it could collapse onto the road. The same posse of cycling bandits I followed yesterday went past. Traveling at speed with the fierce tail wind. Single file, just for a change. 

 I spent the rest of the day on YT. No need to go out with the shops closed. Too dangerous to cycle.

 Dinner was a salmon pasty and chips. 

  

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4.04.2026 14km and a wrong detour!

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 Saturday 4th 41F/5C [7.15] Heavily overcast but expected to clear to sunshine. A windy day. Slowly reducing from 15m/s gusts. Only to climb to 19m/s gusts tomorrow. As storm "Dave" crosses north of Denmark. Peaking at 8C/46F by late afternoon. I had better stay off the e-bike. 64F/18C in the room. 48F/9C in the greenhouse.

 A picture I took yesterday of a sand pit or quarry in what was a forest. Just imagine the vast volume of sand which has been removed. Note the tiny machines in the distance. These are not toys but large scale loaders and excavators. This gives a better sense of scale.

 Up at 6.30 after a very sleepless night. My wife died at home four years ago yesterday.

 I should stock up on groceries today for Easter Monday holiday. Which will also save me going out in the wind and rain tomorrow. 

 8.40 Some brightness in the east. Blue holes appearing. Time for a walk.  

 9.15. Back again. Fleeting glimpses of sunshine as the sky raced overhead. A strong, eye watering wind. Roaring in my hearing aids. Pushing twigs out of the hedges and onto the asphalt. A large, solitary deer ran away uphill. Across the prairie towards the forest on the summit. I saw only two coal tits foraging in the hedgerow today.  A male pheasant hung about near the chicken run. Quite a lot of traffic on the road.

 10.40 Just recharging my phone before I go shopping in the Morris. 

 12.00 Back from the shops. I caught up with a gaggle of six clubmen out training. One of whom insisted on riding just inside the centre white line. There was a constant stream of oncoming traffic. So it took about a kilometer to get past him. His authority for balking the traffic was wearing all black and wearing the regulation sunglasses in an overcast. 

 Three carrier bags full of groceries. There was one shower. Queues the length of the supermarkets with only two tills open. Every other customer buying lottery tickets. Which means the checkout operator leaving the till. To mess about with another machine. Then come back with assorted cards and bits of paper to ring it up on the till. Then hand it all over. Minutes wasted every time.

 13.40 I am going to ride into the village to do more shopping. 

 14.45 51F/10.6C. 14km. Returning from a ride to the village shops. I detoured through the golf course on the way home. Very windy! Took the wrong route! Had to backtrack. 

 Dinner was chicken, mushrooms and cauliflower.  

 

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