I woke up early, posted the YouTube link for today's Morning Prayer to the Parish WhatsApp thread, then dozed, listening to the news, missing Thought for the Day and then catching up on it minutes later on BBC sounds, and finally getting up refreshed at half past eight.
Clare entrusted pancake making to me today. She thought it was Saturday and prepared for it fully before realising her wrists her too much to cope. It's often the case earlier in the day. No idea why. Anyway, for me with no experience of working with vegan pancake batter it was a matter of trial an error, but it worked out fairly well. The last time I remember cooking pancakes was at a St German's social social event before covid.
I drank a couple of mugs of weak coffee while I cooked. More than I usually would. I was surprised it made a difference. I have to drink a litre of water before I eat breakfast these days. Still it takes me half the morning to feel fully awake. Not exactly drowsy but less alert that I expect to be. I don't think it was a caffeine overdose, It's something to do with my gall bladder not working as efficiently to regulate my digestive juices as it needs to. Porridge and a few slices of toast require my stomach to work as hard as it would with a heavy meal, though I don't feel bloated or dyspeptic. Black coffee's bitterness seems to help the digestive process. If the coffee is too strong, I get dyspeptic pains. At the right dilution It's beneficial. Tomorrow I'll brew a pot of decaffeinated coffee to see if this has the same effect.
After breakfast the guest on this week's Desert Island disks was South Walian front-line journalist Jeremy Bowen talking about his life and work, a man who has spent his life and often risked it to be a first hand witness to terrible events, leading to him testifying at War Crimes Tribunals in the Hague and reporting on military disasters which generals in charge got wrong due to bad information and lack of a front-line witness of their own. I found it moving to hear him speak about himself and the redemptive effect of coming finally to family life in his forties.
I drove to Llandough Village to make a bereavement visit at eleven. There's a steep lane down the hill on which St Dochdwy's Parish Church stands, enfolded in ancient woodland. To think that in the sixth century there would have been a monastic Llan in the area surrounding the church, embedded in forest with a spring of water running through it. I seem to recall that at least part of the churchyard wall still reflects the original circular shape of the settlement. Near the bottom of the land is a house and a row of bungalows with lovely gardens front and back you wouldn't know were there, this little side valley is so secluded. A haven for bird life too.
When I returned, I started work making next week's Prayer video, then cooked lunch and finished the job after we'd eaten. We went for a walk in Bute Park towards tea-time. I took some photos of a pair of cormorants and a young heron just below Blackweir Bridge. The cormorants were fishing for eels, and although I could see this at a distance of fifty yards it was too difficult to photograph. There were a pair of wagtails paying about over the water and returning to a rock in the middle. I took photos and didn't really expect much of them, but a few were better than expected and showed they were yellow wagtails, not the pied ones of which there are lots further away from the river.
We ended up walking to the Royal Welsh College in time for a drink and the start of Amser Jazz, live and in person for once. Two acts were on the programme. The first was Elijah Jeffrey, Jazz singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, a college student nearing the end of his course performing his own songs on piano or guitar accompanied by Huw Llewellyn playing muted trumpet in the wistful style of Miles Davis. Beautifully minimalist Jazz. Very effective. Elijah's first EP is launched in two weeks time. Then Safiya Joscelyne and her quartet, paid tribute to the singer Eva Cassidy with their own take on a selection of Cassidy's album 'Nightbird', lovely interpretation of several classic romantic Jazz songs. What a treat!
We bumped into our friend Fr Hywel Davies between sets, and sat at table with him. He'd come down from Cwmbach near Aberdare, obliged to drive down to Mountain Ash to get the train, as the line betond Mountain Ash to Aberdare is closed for line electrification work at the moment. It may be pretty inconvenient for Valleys people, but at least work is finally proceeding on the grand plan to upgrade the South Wales railways worthy of re-branding as a Metro network. It's the first modern development in a century, despite the closure of many less used lines back in the 1960s.
Sections of rail infrastructure lost irretrievably due to the Beeching cuts would be invaluable today. De-industrialisation of the Valleys led to many more people having to commute from the Valleys to coastal towns and cities for work. Roads, despite upgrading are congested and the remining rail network struggles to cope it the volume of users. Hopefully, improved Metro infrastructure will make possible an increase in rail traffic, and ease pressure and pollution on the roads.
It looks as if my speculation yesterday about the destruction of the Kahkova dam in Ukraine was close to the truth. An intercepted Russia security message about the activity of a sabotage unit indicates that an explosion on the dam wasn't intended to cause so much damage, but to send a message to Ukraine. In Norway, a seismological monitoring station recorded the impact of the blast 400 miles away, estimated that about a ton of explosive had been used enough to break the dam, not just render the road across it unusable. Aerial photos show no indications that it had been bombed or shelled, as the Russians allege. Does the Kremlin regime realise the extent of the scrutiny its every action is subject to?
There was nothing I wanted to watch on telly tonight, so I spent the evening uploading and editing the photos I'd taken and writing. Then just as I was about to turn in for the night, the breaking news that Boris Johnston suddenly announced his resignation as an MP, before the Covid enquiry, and the Parliamentary report on the so called Partygate scandal. And today Donald Trump is indicted on serious criminal charges which is bound to have an impact on the next presidential campaign. How long before the Russian people wake up and realise the extent to which they have been deceived by Putin and his gang? The world doesn't need such egocentric leaders.
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