Another day of bright sunshine and could, cold currents of air and sudden outbursts of torrential rain and even hail; weather that can be very destructive of crops. Clare's french beans continue to flourish indoors. She's like to put them outside to acclimatize before transplanting them, but unpredictable conditions are a bit of a deterrent at the moment, to we talk to the plants instead, as if they were pets.
I went to St Catherine's for the Eucharist after breakfast and was greeted by Fr Benedict at the church gate. Mother Emma had lost her voice, could I stand in for her? He'd prepared everything, in case I didn't turn up, to take a service of the Word and administer the reserved sacrament. All I had to do was say yes, and then find an alb that fitted in the sacristy cupboard. For once, I'd left my phone switched off after charging and missed an email, a WhatsApp message and a call from Fr Benedict, causing mild panic, although he's more than capable of doing what he was ready to do. It's really nice to have an assistant Curate who really understands what it means to be in Deacon's orders.
After the service, I started walking into town to visit the market and get the batteries changed in a couple of watches - one with a conventional face which my sister June gave me, and a classic Casio cheap digital watch I've worn for past forty years. It's curious that my late sister Pauline gave me the Casio about fifteen years ago. It was identical to the two identical ones I'd had over the twenty five years before that which became unserviceable.
My late brother in law Geoff was a life-long watch fanatic with a huge collection. He'd learned the watchmaker's art from his father. His son, my nephew Jules is also a keen collector. At some time in the past my cheap Casio digital must have attracted comment, leading to me justifying my attachment to this little un-stylish device. Pauline heard this and didn't forget.
The Casio digital was one of the early cheap electronic consumer designs that persisted for the past forty years or so. Batteries and straps have been replaced several times on each of my watches every three or four years. It's not the most streamlined shape, the design could be more stylish but its plastic and metal shell shows little sign of wear and tear. That makes it a superior example of consumer industrial design, reliable, durable, simple to operate. What does it matter if some people think it's a bit naff to wear one?
Anyway, as I set out, it started to rain heavily, so I took a 17 bus from Cowbridge Road East. It's the first time since last autumn that I've taken one. It was so good to see Cardiff Market bustling with life again, and the watch repair stall lit up and busy. There was good news and sad news. The analogue watch works fine, but my Casio doesn't work properly any longer. Last week the watch face went dead. After the watch mender worked on it, he still couldn't get it to display. As I have another with a dead battery and no strap at home, we agreed that I'd bring that one in and he'd see if he could make one working watch from two. When I got home and took the watch from pocket, the display worked. The time was almost right, though not the day or date. One of its control buttons was so recessed into the case it's no wonder it didn't work properly. Well, I may get lucky I guess, when I take both dead Casios with me on my next visit. We'll see.
Walking back through Bute Park there was a team of gardeners out tidying the flower beds, making space ready for the next round of planting. We see the results of their work daily, but don't often see the people who do the work, so I stopped and said thank you for the good cheer their work offered during lock-down. Then I had a chat with one of the litter picking team working nearby. We both wondered if it would ever be possible to educate citizens to dealing responsibly with their own rubbish and not just leaving it for others to deal with. It's the sort of moan we old geezers have among ourselves.
I collected this week's organic veggy bag from Conway Road. We were glad to find some fine radishes in this week's delivery for the first time this season, freshly pulled this morning and with their greenery still bright and fresh. Are these greens eatable she wondered, and googled for an answer. As a result she later made a jar of pesto using radish leaves, almonds, olive oil, lemon juice and pepper. An interesting taste, a little on the bitter side, so choosing what to eat with the pesto is worth considering carefully. The radishes themselves, however, go well with smoked salmon.
It's funny how long it can take you to get around to tackling small issues, which causing mild annoyance. Last year when I was pacing around the garden of the Chaplain's residence in Ibiza, I spent a lot of time listening to Jazz and Latin American music on my phone. One of several Buena Vista Social Club albums on the phone's SD card had duplicate tracks. I thought there was something I didn't understand about the MP3 player I was using, put up with it, and then forgot about it for a long while. This afternoon while I was writing, I revisited the album, got annoyed and resolved to figure out what the problem was.
No, it wasn't the MP3 player, as it turned out, but a duplicate album reluctant to show up in searches. At some stage in an effort to tidy up my music library, I must have copied the album to a new location instead of moving it. Well, now it's fixed, but what a fiddle! It took me half an hour to figure it out as I couldn't do it just on my phone. With the aid of the new USB-C link cable I bought a couple of weeks ago, linking the phone to my Chromebook to view its file system made the hidden duplicate. easier to spot. How anyone can live their on-line lives just on a phone, I'll never know.
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