It was nice to awaken, a bit later than usual to bright sunshine. Eating a three course meal in the evening didn't lead to a good night's sleep. Between us we cooked pancakes for breakfast, and I felt pretty lethargic all morning. As today is the feast of St John of the Cross, I lingered over a book of extracts from his teaching which I've had for years and only dipped into. I didn't go out for a walk until gone midday. Clare went out and returned much earlier than me. She'd just completed cooking lunch when I got back.
Mid-afternoon, feeling a bit more energetic, I went out and walked until sunset. I took the west side path up the river bank through the woods, for the first time in several months. It can be treacherous when the ground is saturated. It's not completely dried out yet, but is firm underfoot due to a deposit of alluvial sand from storm Bert which saw the river burst its banks on both sides. Bushes got flattened and the traces of dark red sand show how flood water ran along the path eroding it in weak spots, flowing through the fence in the adjacent field where often horses from the stables graze. The legacy of storm Darragh the following week was broken branches, some of them quite big, and several trees a metre in diameter, uprooted or snapped mid-trunk, weakened by the impact of long spells of Spring drought or disease. It illustrates how climate change is starting to revise our landscape.
I got back just after sunset, and decided to watch the last three episodes of 'Lykkeland' taking us up to the late eighties and the development of remote technology for operating underwater vehicles and drilling rig machinery, leading to contentious reductions in the number of oil platform workers. It was also the period when environmental sustainability became an issue calling into question the long term future of oil as the main source of wealth for the Norwegian economy, and how some of the wealth created currently could be harvested and put to use in state finances. All three series together have proved to be a most interesting essay in contemporary economic history, and the Scandinavian take on business enterprise.
Enough telly for now, time to return to Spanish novel reading
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