St Joseph's day today. The cold wind is still with us, and the sky heavy with cloud, but no rain. I went for an hour's walk, returned and cooked lunch for us, then went out and walked for another hour before tea. I feel the benefit of not taking the extra doxazosin. My head is clearer and significantly, much reduced joint pain and no pain the the soles of the feet. Slowly I feel, something toxic is leaving my system. The cure is worse than the ailment it seems. I'll wait until tomorrow to see what impact the change has on my blood pressure. If it's worryingly high, I'll re-start on a low dosage and see what difference it makes, but now that I'm beginning to understand the side effects better, don't like the prospect of having to cope with those painful symptoms again.
Confirmation arrived in the day's mail of the funeral I have the week after next, Holy Week. I called the lady I met yesterday to discuss the funeral service and make a suggestion that I think is appropriate to a service for a priest - place his bible and stole of office on the coffin during the service. I'm sure the crem stall will be OK with this request. Later, I had a phone call about another funeral, also in Holy Week, on Maundy Thursday. It's at a time when parish clergy would expect to be gathering with the Bishop for the annual Chrism Mass. This year it'll be live streamed on Zoom I imagine, but most priests would regard the on-line attendance as obligatory under the circumstances.
This evening we watched another WOW film festival free web-streamed movie. This one was a German documentary called 'The Secret Life of Trees', showcasing an understanding of the natural life of forests which are not subjected to human 'management' and industrial logging advocated by German ecological advocate Peter Wohlleben. He speaks about the importance, not of us planting trees to help combat climate change but of re-wilding, letting a forest regenerate itself over centuries - its own natural pace.
He argues that a virgin forest is one huge organism, not a collection of individual trees, because of the way root systems are interconnected, share nutrients and defend themselves against threats. Commercial plantations, use heavy equipment which compacts soil, reduces the amount of water it can hold, leading to whole stands of trees dying of thirst, up to 57% of plantations are lost like this. The book of the same title has been published all over the world, and has attracted widespread public interest, even though its arguments seem to make logging industry people nervous with the in-built call for change of practice to accompany change of perception and understanding of nature's inherent wisdom.
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