28th January 2015 Arse over tit!

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Wednesday 28th 38F, +3C, heavy overcast, wet and windy. Yeuch! My slipper fell off at the top of the stairs and I went arse-over-tit across the landing. Apart from a graze to my forearm I have very painful shoulder muscles. Probably a good day for a rest. Must get some new slippers!

Thursday 29th 33F, +1C, overcast, gales, snowing. My right shoulder muscles are still painful from the foolish, involuntary, indoor acrobatics. Forearm graze no longer debilitating. Weather unconducive to tricycling. Expected to get worse. [The weather. Not me.] It snowed or sleeted and I ached continuously so I took another rest day.

Friday 30th 33F, +1C, still, blue skies but cloudy. Light overnight snowfall. Walked to the woods along the spray tracks and back again. A flotilla of large, all-white, male ducks, with black heads, was cruising the small lake in the marsh. A fidgety heron circled and glided repeatedly between short perches. My damaged shoulder muscles were much less painful while walking but started hurting again as soon as I stopped. Pensioners and somersaults obviously don't mix well. It's probably an age thing. I shall be going out on the trike after lunch. It stayed heavily overcast but dry with almost no wind. All the windmills were standing still. Detoured on the way home to get some more miles in despite being short of breath. 19 miles.

Saturday 31st 30-34F, -1+1C, still,  bright  but rather cloudy. White frost with the ground very hard. Enjoyed a walk up to the woods and back another way. My aches and pains seem to have subsided as a result. I was hit on the forehead by a stone thrown up by a speeding 4WD. Fortunately I had my fleece hat on at the time. I saw three deer out on a vast field. The rewards for taking a short cut obviously outweigh the greater chance of being seen. I had heard gunfire in the woods off in their direction. So that may explain their highly visible foray. A Jay and eight, gently honking Whooper swans passed over. Several more Jays disappeared into the conifers as I arrived. With the frozen leaf litter crunching noisily under my boots.

I extended my ride to include a couple of shops in opposite directions. Mostly sunny with light winds. Windmills at a standstill until later. I used the aero bars quite a bit to keep up my speed. It was quite easy to cruise at 20 mph on the flat. With 24 mph on gentle descents and 31.5 mph on one steeper hill. Though I really need to tilt my saddle nose downwards slightly to reduce discomfort. My Aesse jacket and Dintex gloves were wet inside with sweat but remained warm and comfortable. I passed a bird of prey which was too tired or hungry to move away from the verge. Then I stopped at a crossing to let a girl cross with her dog. The dog was so mesmerized that he sat down in the middle of the crossing and stared at me. We both laughed at its very odd behaviour. That's the end of January with far too many rest days.  26 miles.

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26th January 2015 These [MTB] boots are made for walking...

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Monday 26th 35F, 2C, heavy overcast, windy, raining. The sky looks like ground rice with a dollop of blackcurrant jam well mixed in! While the forecast is for rain for most of the day it should be lightest between 11.00 am and 2.00 pm.  So fingers crossed.

I should mention that the Northwave MTB boots are proving ideal for avoiding my usual winter feet problems. [Horribly itchy chilblains and painful, cracked heels. Neither of which responded to any of the creams I have tried.]  I need not have chosen quite such a large size but they still work well with only one pair of fairly thick, loop pile socks. These socks come from a farmer's supplies shop. The early pairs were much better made. With no obvious seams anywhere. Then they offered a discount for buying three pairs but a hard seam was very obvious across the "toecap." In practice the seams have not caused any problems. Though this may be an advantage of having oversize boots the toe seams have not been a problem in my walking boots either.

The MTB boots have proven to be completely waterproof even when heavily sprayed by the front tyre in a shallow flood. Yet never "sweat" despite being so well sealed. Nor do I feel any of the draughts typical of well ventilated, Northwave MTB shoes. One slight problem is the way the Velcro strap fastening grabs the loop pile socks is I don't fold the cuffs back when putting the boots on.  These boots were far more expensive than my excellent, Northwave, ratchet-fastened MTB shoes. [Though much cheaper online I couldn't check new shoe sizing online.] I now choose Northwave for their broader last after suffering very sore toes with Specialized and Shimano's much narrower MTB shoes.

I wear MTB shoes for their ease of walking while still providing SPD clamping for pedaling efficiency. "Road" shoes would be completely impractical for my normal daily use. Hopefully both sets of Northwave should last well if reserved for their appropriate seasons. Certainly far longer than entry-level shoes from the big names.

Just imagine how much I'm saving on overshoes too. Which were always a poor second and incredibly short lived compared to "proper" winter boots. Overshoes may protect the uppers but still allowed water spray in through the clamping plates in the soles. The pathetic "cloth" toe and heel restraints of some overshoes lasted only a week. Before they were literally falling to pieces simply from daily supermarket shopping levels of abrasion!

The weather is just too wet and windy to go out without good reason. Yet another rest day. Tomorrow looks quite promising in the DMI forecast. [Moon-grazing asteroids permitting!]

Tuesday 27th 34F, +1C, light westerly, almost clear sky, bright sunshine. The early black ice patches have hopefully gone by now. I walked to the top of a local hill. In order to admire the scenery and reacquaint myself with the orientation of distant towers and masts. It has been misty for so long that it was a pleasant surprise to be able to see clearly for miles. It certainly wasn't that razor sharpness one sometimes gets after rain. Though I could see the details on a tower about 7 miles away. A handy reference point for one of my regular destinations it is quite a bit further by road. The low, undulating, Danish landscape provides frequent glimpses of such landmarks. Making a map almost superfluous regardless of finding a new road or lane to explore. Not that there are many left which I haven't ridden by now.

These days I have to go much further abroad to find fresh fodder for my camera. At the last count I had over 40,000 pictures on my computer. Only a tiny fraction of which were taken by anyone else. This huge number doesn't even include those I lost to two earlier hard drive crashes. The problem with having so many images is that sorting them would take longer than I probably have time left on this earth. Storing them online would run into considerable expense. So I have several hard drives and change to a new one when the last is almost full.

I have multiple images of many older buildings, farmhouses and cottages. Which might be a useful reference in some far-flung future. Yet it is simply impossible to make any sense of their exact location with present technology. This, despite my remembering where most of them are from long familiarity. I can imagine virtual archaeologists tunneling through the endless layers of the internet in some dark future. Perhaps using tame AI apps and search algorithms which have yet to be conceived.

To rapidly sort through the fading ghosts of countless images from our "golden age" of innocence. Taken long before catastrophic global warming, mass migration, global terrorism, resource depletion, famine and then finally, WW3. As the last pockets of still-mobile human survivors fought against the rise of the machines.

Tricycling, just for the fun of it, will seem so incredibly archaic and unlikely. Particularly when seen from a distant, future world. Where technology has weakened the human race to reclining blobs on full bio support, VR couches. Or human brains are literally housed in robots for basic mobility. And real, physical activity, by muscle power alone, has not been possible for many generations. They will never know the exquisite pain of struggling uphill with the wind and rain in their face. The sense of elation and achievement as the they crest the summit. To plummet, eyes streaming, into the valley far below. Spoilt rotten, by centuries of technological wonders and crippling physical aids, they will wonder what all the fuss was about.


Fantastical, snow-plastered trees shine against the dark uniformity of  serried ranks of conifers.

A good day for a ride. I reversed my usual route to Assens. The wind was not very strong but allowed me to cruise at 20mph for several miles. Even hitting 24 mph several times tanks to the aero bars. The middle leg was along the shore and it was now much stronger. With white horses and waves breaking on the narrow sands. I came back heavily laden with a light cross tailwind but couldn't really take advantage of it. It was mostly bright sunshine for 24 miles.

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22nd January 2015 Who ordered more snow?!!?

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Thursday 22nd 30F, -1C, almost still. I went for a short walk while white mist rolled down from the hills and hid the clouds. Visibility is down to about 100 yards but there is occasional pale sunshine.

The sun was doing its best to blind everybody at times but mostly remained a dim white disk against a uniform white sky. Soon my clothes, gloves, handlebar tape and even the brake levers became covered in white frost. The mist was hovering at about 150 meters, at best, for approaching headlight visibility. On one stretch of double white lines my mist-filled lane was suddenly full of fast-approaching car! As a drunken, retarded psychopath on prescription drugs overtook another car driving [only] at the speed limit. The drug addled, lunatic, drunk driver proved to have only  a passing resemblance to a woman. Vesen, Martian or Venusian? Take your pick.

Later a driving school car pulled out ahead of me displaying no lights. It eventually disappeared slowly into the mist. Still without a single light showing. I quickly lost count of the number of cars with missing headlights, driving on parking lights or failing to show a high intensity, rear fog light. This is in a country where headlights are required even during daylight hours. Just to show willing I had my own lights flashing and even managed to find spare batteries for the daft "Smart" rear lights at a LBS. Which use the rarer than flying unicorn droppings, stumpy ½ AA size. Am I having fun yet? 26 miles.

Friday 23rd 30F, -1C, still, overcast. Sunshine was forecast but no sign of it yet. It is becoming increasingly misty again. Enjoyed an hour and half walk across the fields to admire the frosted woods, fields and hedges. The puddles were hard frozen today. Making walking on the spray tracks quite easy. I saw two male Bullfinches foraging together plus a few birds of prey. The roads are still improving so I shall go for a ride after coffee.

No sign of the sun as I rode to Assens. Still and misty. I saw and heard a couple of Greater spotted woodpeckers. A woman rode away from me, sitting bolt upright, just freewheeling in her baggy clothing, on a roadster, on a short, steep descent. No electric hub and I had just caught her after chasing her for a mile up a long drag. I was about to overtake her and was already traveling faster than she was. Even pedaling hard I couldn't stay with her until we hit the other side and it rose steeply again. I know my tyres are at 90psi because I checked them just before leaving.  The difference can't be wind resistance because I was keeping low. My three skinny 25mm tyres must have about the same rolling resistance as her two fat tyres. I doubt there was much difference in combined weight between us.

So where is all the friction hiding on my trike? I was already wondering why my front brake was covered in crumbly mud. Further examination showed that the Crud mudguard was packed with hard mud and rubbing continuously on the tyre. Not enough clearance! It's no wonder she freewheeled away from me! The front wheel would not turn freely when I lifted it and tried to give it a spin. 20 miles. Mostly, it felt like riding uphill despite seeing 24 mph a couple of times.

Saturday 24th 28F, -2C, snowing! It is forecast to snow all morning. At the present rate it will be worth about an inch per hour. Walked for an hour in wind driven snow with extra drifting. My hoped for ride after lunch has been officially cancelled by the Head Gardener. There's about 3" of lying snow but the road hasn't been cleared except by the traffic. I'd be quite happy to ride on it but there is always the problem of somebody else doing something completely daft while trying to avoid me. Probably not worth the risk. I cleared a hundred yards of drive to avoid feeling guilty at the complete lack of exercise.

Sunday 25th 28-36F, -2+2C, dead still, patchy, ground hugging mist forming and disappearing again. I set off along the spray tracks in 3" of snow with hundreds of animal footprints for company. A blindingly bright sun rose behind the woods at 8.30 precisely as I stood in the middle of a large field. I was snapping away, trying to capture the best moment. While distant church bells rang clear in the cold, still air.

Later I stopped to talk quietly to a black squirrel with a snow white chest. It seemed very curious as it flicked its tail and somersaulted up and down a birch only 10 feet from the track. Just as I reached for my camera it went off through a thicket of immature trees. Several birds of prey were perched darkly in the woods. Flocks of Fieldfares and Yellowhammers moved away from me along the roadside hedges as I headed home. The roads may have been salted but it has left lots of frozen slush and ice. Every time a vehicle came towards me I took to the verge to let them pass without having to spray me with slush by detouring off the narrow, bare tracks of tarmac. I shall have to go shopping after coffee and rolls whatever the conditions.

The roads were rather wet with borders of hard packed snow, ice and frozen slush. It was mostly sunny with a light crosswind judging from the angle of the windmills. Nobody made a real nuisance of themselves. With most drivers hanging back to use the whole road width when it was clear ahead. I returned heavily laden. Saw a posse of mountain bikers and a solitary clubman out training. Only 14 miles.

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