Croeso Dewi Sant

Although I slept quite well, I obviously needed more, so after breakfast, when I'd completed Morning Prayer and some Spanish exercises, I found myself nodding off, and slept soundly for over an hour. All I have to do is relax a while and I fall asleep, but if I have things to do, I can stay continuously active and not feel tired at all. I don't understand it. 

For tomorrow's video reflection, I started thinking about bridges with the re-opening of the Blackweir Bridge topical at the moment. Writing a script came easily, and with a surprise. I googled 'bridges in the Bible' and the search result didn't produce the name of any bridge. The fords of the Jordan and its tributary the Jabbok are mentioned, and the standing stones at the Jordan crossing, but no bridge, despite the fact that Greeks and Romans had already engineered lasting stone bridges around the empire centuries before the time of Christ. Yet, the idea of bridging the gulf between separated entities is there in scripture in the concept of reconciliation. The verb 'to bridge' rather than the noun 'bridge' is what you find. Bridge building is a commonly used metaphor. I didn't have time to dig deeper and find a reason, I first had to think of a way to illustrate the sound recording I made.

When I went for a walk in the afternoon, I went down to Blackweir Bridge and video'd a thirty second introduction to the reflection with the bridge in the background. My Google Photos accounts have scores of bridge photos taken on my travels. The Photos app uses shape recognition technology to guess which ones show a bridge. This gave me a huge variety of pictures to work with for a slide show to go with the audio and the video, and I'm pleased to say that with a little patience, it worked, as planned.

Fran and Mark came around to deliver the completed St David icon she's painted. It's hanging on the dining room wall, and looks magnificent. It' like having a special house guest. The four of us went for a walk in Thompson;s Park so we could chat socially distanced. I took my Sony DSLR with the 50mm lens, which I rarely use, preferring big long lens. The 50mm lens has limited scope compared to others I have, but I thought it was about time I learned how to work with and benefit from those limitations, or find out if there are any benefits. This is very much a matter of trial and error on my part!

I finished the task after supper and watched part of a Welsh language song writing competition with Clare on S4C, before watching this week's 'New Amsterdam' episode on More 4 catch-up. The episode highlighted inadequate health care resources in prison and the terrible impact this has on inmates' mental and physical condition. Tough watching.