It wasn't easy to stay warm in the night with the temperature dropping to minus two. Early on I woke up in the middle of a lovely dream in which Clare urged me to join her in the garden and look up at the stars in a clear night sky. Thin high cloud this morning, the sun shines through it, but the temperature hovers around freezing. Still no snow.
On my way home from town in the dark yesterday, I was aware there were fewer bikes on the path beside the river. It made me realise that the demise of the city's Next Bike scheme due to significant abuse and vandalism means fewer moments of being dazzled by LED bike lamps. A scheme for electric scooter hire is being mooted, I learned. These too, have dazzling LED lights, as do cars. This is raising some concern about eye health, and there are calls for the high standard of luminosity to be reduced.
The replacement of sodium lamps by LED in public lighting does, in my view, improve night visibility on the streets, but the impact on nocturnal animals is going to be detrimental. It only diminishes light pollution if the design of lamp housings reduces upward light overspill. Bright light from so many vehicles, bikes and scooters also adds to the impact, robbing urban areas of completely starlit skies. What a loss this is to humankind, our primal source of awe and wonder.
After breakfast I walked to St Catherine's to celebrate the Eucharist with ten others today. Marlene, one of our numbers is ninety next week, and we have enough regular who'll soon be the same age. Amazing women, shining light of faith and love in their eyes.
Afterwards I collected the veggie bag from Chapter, and was surprised to see only half the usual number of deliveries in the chest containing veggie bags. I'm always among the first to collect. That's a surprising downturn to a popular service. Is this seasonal selection not attractive, or are people economising on their expenditure. I hope not. These organic veggies last longer anyway and save money.
Clare made lunch early. She cooked a pork steak for me with brown onion gravy which made it delicious with spuds parsnips and cabbage. She went out to an afternoon appointment with the research team at the School of Optometry testing new equipment and procedures leaving me with both batches of grocery shopping to do.
I'm Still puzzling over the problematic Powerpoint file display on my PC. I ran the file sent out on WhatsApp and found that it worked perfectly on a phone. It's a relief to know I've not been sending out gobbledygook files for others to read.
With my mind set at rest, I collected Clare's Beanfreaks order, then did the Co-op grocery shopping, all before sundown. A lot of pavement pounding. No walking in the park today.
After supper, I watched this week's episode of 'Silent Witness' on catchup. Then, I braved a chilly shower room to wash my hair before going to bed, still pondering on the critique of a social media driven contemporary society embedded in the story-line of tonight's complex episode.
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