A bright and sunny day, but not very warm. Pancakes for breakfast, then work on next Thursday's Morning Prayer, and on a sermon for tomorrow. We had lunch in the garden as the sun warmed the place up. Inside the house seems not to warm up so quickly.
I went into town before lunch to see if a central market hardware stalls sold shaver chargers, as the place had been closing by the time I got there yesterday. I was lucky to have got my watch battery fixed in the time available. There's always been an a strange assortment of traders up on the balcony selling electrical components, second hand records, and ironmongery, pets and pet food. Admittedly I've not been upstairs since before covid, but I was shocked to find that many of these had disappeared and have been replaced by various fancy eateries.
It no longer looks as seedy as it used to, a lot smarter in fact, and very much in keeping with a trend observed in other central markets in UK and Europe to showcase cooked food made from products traded downstairs. It was something talked about twenty years ago when I was Vicar of the City Parish Church across the street from the Market. It's a huge improvement to a classic Victorian city building.
There's a couple of hardware retailers left on the ground floor now, and when I enquired, I was offered not an old type charger, but its replacement in the form of a USB cable with a shaver socket end to it, which can used with a USB charging plug, of which I have plenty. A far better solution altogether, and the cable only cost me four pounds and fifty. And, it works!
After Clare's siesta, we drove out to Pugh's Garden centre in Morganstown, for some compost, a growbag, plus some sprouting beans to grown in it, some organic fertilizer and a tray of bedding plants. With both of us needing to mind our backs, we sought assistance from one of the female staff members for help to load the car. She was young and strong enough to do this with ease, as we used to be at her age I guess. We had not thought through the logistics of getting the heavy bags into the garden through the house. I got them out of the car, but dared not risk carrying them, so Clare found an old curtain to lay them on, and we began dragging them along the pavement. A man from a neighbouring street saw us struggling and kindly offered to carry them through for us, so the job was soon done without incident. What a blessing!
When I walked down Llandaff Road on my way to the shops, I found there was a notice on the gate of the corner house on the crossroads with Romilly Road, which has lost some of its big trees since I was away. It told me that the house was called 'The Cedars' which I didn't know before. It seems the trees cut down were nearing the end of their lives, more prone to disease and storm damage as a result of climate change. The notice announced a programme of re-planting with more resilient trees destined for a long life, which is a positive measure. It also said the property is to be restored as a domestic dwelling, and hopefully this means it won't be demolished an replaced by a block of low-rise apartments. We shall see.
After supper and printing out tomorrow's sermon, another evening of catch up binge watching of another series of Danish crimmie 'Those who kill'. It's a bit slow, but an interesting story of hidden child abuse and neglect, with the trauma it causes leading murderous acts of rage on the part of the victim years after he'd been groomed and abused. Thoughtfully done.
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