When will we ever learn?

Last night we noticed for the first time it's getting dark earlier. It's not so humid today, not quite autumnal yet, but our short burst of extra summer weather seems to be over. 

The Moroccan earthquake death toll now stands at two and a half thousand, and is expected to climb higher, as remote villages in areas whose mountain roads have been damaged are inaccessible to rescue teams. Over fifty thousand died in the earthquake earlier this year which hit Turkey and Western Syria. 

Today is the 22nd anniversary of the attack on the New York World Trade Centre and the Washington Pentagon which cost three thousand lives, and up to a million across five theatres of war involving significant US and Western military involvement: in 'war or terror' actions in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Four and a half million deaths are estimated to be due to the wider impact on this war on non-combatants and as combatants over twenty years 

With these sobering thoughts in mind, it was housework as usual after breakfast on Mondays, then I set to work, issuing the sets of readings for next Sunday's Eucharist, and working on next week's Sway publication. It all went without a hitch, so I recorded and edited Morning Prayer, ready for St Matthew's day, then cooked lunch. That's what I call a productivity. The only interruption, a lunchtime Microsoft scam call.

After lunch I prepared and uploaded the morning's video to YouTube and then went for a walk in Llandaff Fields. I took a couple of decent photos of Mistle Thrush family members I see most afternoons foraging for seed in mown grass. Progressively all the grass in the Fields is being mown, not just the sports pitches, so the air is fragrant in the afternoon warmth.

After supper we watched a programme on BBC Four about way in which the Cote d'Azur in the first half of the 20th century evolved from being an exclusive tourist resort for the rich elites of Europe and America into a celebrated destination for the great modern artists of the age. Monaco where we lived for fifteen months, and La Turbie where Clare taught in the Steiner School both featured in the narrative, as well as Nice and other places we occasionally visited.

After this I continued reading 'Battle for Spain' for an hour and a half before turning in for the night.