After the weekend storms

Clare went to town for a swim early this morning again. She had to walk back as bus services from outside the gym in Greyfriars Road had been suspended. I went out after breakfast to inspect the river. The water is still flowing over the top of the fish ladder, but along the footpath by the bridge was a tide mark of sand and pieces of broken branches showing how much water level dropped in the past fifteen hours. Work on clearing river banks and river bed last year has certainly paid off.

On the return walk past the newly refurbished playground on Llandaff Fields it was good to see how busy it was with children enjoying the newly installed apparatus on their half term school holiday, despite the blustery cold weather. Then I noticed the sound of a chainsaw buzzing somewhere in the distance. When I walked down towards Cafe Castan, I found the road into the car park was blocked by huge branches torn from two of the roadside trees. The area was cordoned off and a team of tree surgeons was busy at work. One very tall tree had lost a major tall branch, which fell on to another tree and torn branches from it. In spite of the cold wind, I hung around for ten minutes and got some interesting photos of work in progress.

A tree surgeon was interviewed earlier on the Radio Four's Today programme and spoke about how safe tree removal called for people experienced in tackling dangerously unstable heavy pieces of timber. This made it particularly interesting to observe how the man with the chainsaw went about dislodging the huge fallen branch  from its precarious position. I caught it as it was dropping, just before it hit the ground.

Back home then, to do my weekly share of the cleaning and cook mussels with rice and veg for lunch. I needed to go to the shops in Canton in the afternoon, so completed my daily round of walking in the street for a change.

In the evening I did some more negative scanning. This time the photos were of a big family gathering for Eddy's 60th birthday in 2000. Eddy and Ann were only recently grandparents at that time, we had to wait another two years before Rhiannon was born, and this week we go up to Kenilworth to celebrate her eighteenth. Last week I found and digitized Owain's 18th and 21 birthday photos. So much to enjoy looking back on over the years.

I finished in time for another season 18 episode of NCIS tonight, another made in covid times, notably with references to being double jabbed, and some contemptuous references to conspiracy theorists. Well 'on message' as they say. Bed early tonight, for an early start tomorrow with a nine o'clock appointment in the eye clinic of St Joseph's hospital in Malpas, with eye surgeon Andrew.