Real cold weather

The temperature overnight was again just below zero. Fortunately our house is quite well insulted so with winter duvets on the bed it doesn't need heating on overnight. Annoyingly the bathroom light pull-switch broke as I was getting ready for bed, leaving the light permanently on, so I had to remove the bulb before turning in.  There's front on the lawn grass and on car windscreens in the street, but snow is unlikely at the moment.

As I was clearing up after breakfast I listened to Haydn's Oxford Symphony on Radio 3. The sound quality of the new DAB radio, installed by Clare yesterday, is really good for the kitchen acoustic. At the end of the first movement, a metallic clunking sound came from the radio. DAB radios with poorly positioned antennae and signal issues are prone to noise 'artefacts'. The Sony hi-fi DAB receiver in the dining room is on times, not fit for purpose, and can't be re-positioned. Then, the presenter Georgia Mann apologised for the background noises. The end of the music had coincided with the arrival of the bin men, she declared. Evidently working from home! 

I spent the morning producing my Sunday sermon. Then I printed Christmas Card labels and forty copies of this year's newsletter, ready for assembling with the cards I bought a month ago. 

Having cooked a tasty salmon soup, Clare went into town, and we ate it went she returned. I uploaded some photos, then went out and took more photos at the sun was setting, interested to see what I could capture in diminishing light, without a tripod, and at what point the picture become too grainy or blurred to be of interest. I can hold the camera quite steady for with long lens extended when the light isn't great, sometimes it works OK, sometimes not. Sometimes I think the camera is not so quick to processing the light input and gets confused. Good shots seem to be a matter of luck in marginal conditions. 

I uploaded and edited the best of these after supper, before watching another episode of Astrid and Rafaelle, the last in season one, probably the last for a while until season two is screened on More Four. All interesting cases, instructive to watch, as they portray a true autistic savant at work, solving crimes. Favourite quote from Astrid: "They all think I'm unique. I think they're all the same."

Minus one at bed-time tonight!

Staycation round two, day nine

I woke up half an hour before sunrise to a bright blue cloudless sky. It lifted my spirit, and moved me to take my Sony Alpha 68 to the loft and shoot a series of photos as the sun emerged from behind the roof line of the terraced houses beyond the garden. For a fleeting moment I glimpsed a flock of starlings as the made their way from the night time urban shelter towards the countryside to the west. I often hear them in the late afternoon, but seldom see dozens in the sky together. Inevitably, after an early breakfast I fell asleep again during morning prayer. Thank heavens I don't have a schedule to keep these days.

Early results in the U.S. election indicate that Joe Biden didn't get an overwhelming number of votes. It's too close to anticipate a result while votes are still being counted. How long will it take I wonder before enough are counted and legitimized to be sure who won? Again the opinion polls have been wrong, Not enough people are yet sick of political populism and a bullying head of state to declare against him. 

The country seems evenly divided, on the basis of voting turnout said to be the largest in a century. No good can come from all Trump's lies and deceits, until enough people give up on  all illusory promises that end up dividing in order to rule. The world needs consensus and united action in order to survive pandemic and climate change, and at the moment we have neither.

I had to forego exercising in the garden today despite the sunshine. Clare took advantage of the weather to fill the washing line which runs along the path, so all my walking was indoors, listening to Radio 3. When I did pop outdoors, I noticed that the hawthorn tree in next door's garden, now stripped of leaves was hosting a large family of sparrows, nearly a dozen I think, and another family visited but seemed unable to find enough room to cohabit. 

Last week, and on other occasions this autumn, a solitary sparrow perched in that tree, cheeped loudly for ages then flew off. I wonder if it was advertising the space available? Before this tree was drastically pruned about five years ago, it was often hosted a large group of sparrows. Then there were none. This year they've nested in the hedge next door on the other side, and are hanging around much more.

Having taken such a lot of photos of four different cameras since the end of summer, I thought I'd add them to my PC's hard drive archive. It took me longer than expected to file them away in the correct folders this afternoon. Then, for amusement I processed ten sunrise photos into a video clip to send to the family. It's something I rarely do, so it took a while to figure it out first.

The surgeon's administrator at the hospital rang at tea time to check me out, wanting to confirm that my covid-19 test had been booked, and asking if I was well, really wanting to check I wasn't poorly and going down with some sort of sickness - possible even in quarantine I guess, if you ate something that gave you a tummy bug. So far so good, anyway.

Staycation round two day five

As it has been since self-quarantine began, the day began overcast with torrential rain. Clare cooked our Saturday breakfast pancakes garnished with crab apple puree, chocolate sauce, and mashed banana. A great remedy for a dark autumnal day. At the end of the morning the cloud thinned enough for sunlight to penetrate and lighten up the garden, then the cloud cleared entirely, and unexpectedly given weather warnings for very heavy rain over the weekend. Would that the pandemic could throw us the occasional surprise! The growth of covid-19 infections shows no sign of slackening and projections for the rest of the year are gloomier and gloomier. We can expect heavier and more widespread restrictions next week.

Since I've been confined to exercising inside the house unable to use the garden due to the weather, I've shifted from listening to 'talk' Radio Four over to Radio Three, with its rich diet of classical music and other kinds of modern music. plus record reviews and conversations with musicians and scholars. It greatly lightens the daily monotony attached to pacing indoors, and often awakens memories of music listened over the past seven decades. 

I prefer silence when I write. Listening to music or conversation is too distracting. Outdoors in the street and the park I don't listen to music, but my surroundings, and only occasionally listen to radio news. Walking around the garden in Ibiza daily however, I did listen to lots of jazz and Latin music albums sent me by Kath and Owain. It was a lovely consolation, living in isolation, confined to the chaplaincy house for weeks, I felt close to them and to my roots.

Trying to sit and write for any length of time when the wound is uncomfortable or painful, also robs me of concentration. These days my legs and back are strong enough to allow me to stand instead, but short of finding a stand-up computer desk to buy I've settled for temporary, unsatisfactory solutions so far. 

This morning, however, I realised that a small bedroom chest of drawers is just the right height, and moved it into my study, into a position where light from the window is just right. It may look messy and cluttered, but I can live with that. It's my 'man-cave', and the amount of stuff in it offends Clare's sense of order. I need my works-pace to work for me and satisfy my current needs. As I write, it works well. Hopefully it's not going to be a long term solution.

I watched the final episode of 'The Same Sky' this afternoon. It had a surprising twist in the last few minutes adding to the portrayal of life's complexity in a city divided, by the partition of Germany at the end of the war and then compounded by the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. 

A recorded broadcast of Puccini's operal 'Tosca' from Covent Garden started on Radio Three at supper time, one of the operas I know best. Starring Bryn Terfel as Scarpia, Angela Gheorghiu as Tosca, and Jonas Kauffman as Calvaradossi. Such emotionally powerful music, wonderful to listen to. It brought tears to my eyes. Just as it finished the latest double episode of Danish crime drama 'DNA' started on BBC Four, which I watched on iPlayer. It's interestingly complex.

There was an interesting programme on Radio Three this afternoon about the environmental impact of music making. Someone has studied the carbon footprint of cloud music, video services and the record industry. It was quite disturbing to realise the extent to which the world going digital is contributing to climate change. Looking back on my media usage for today, I admit to feeling rather guilty. I could do without the car, go abroad without flying, but whether in lock-down or out of it, not have internet access altogether would reduce my quality of life immensely. What are we doing to ourselves?

Holy Week Wednesday

We took advantage of a free day to drive back to the National Botanic Garden for a second visit on the same ticket, as you can return any time within the same week. Saturday was quiet, today the place was busy with lots of young families enjoying leisure activities geared for the school holidays. I guess on Saturdays, parents either took their kids to the beach or went shopping. Today, it was cloudy with occasionally sunny breaks, and perhaps a little too cold for paddling and sandcastles. It was lovely to hear crowds of children having fun, enjoying the open air, exploring the play park or the hay bale maze.

We followed one of the walking trails up the east facing side of the valley, and walked for nearly two hours before returning to the site restaurant for lunch. At different stages along marked routes there are interpretation panels explaining the sustainable organic cattle farming that takes place on the Botanic Garden estate lands and what this does to restore wildlife to the region, which has been suppressed in many other places by modern farming practices. We walked a short circuit of meadow and woodland rich with flowers and birds after lunch, and sat for a while enjoying the big walled garden before we headed back to Cardiff in good time for evening commitments.

Clare came with me as far as the town centre when I drove to St German's for the evening Mass. She was on her way to a performance of Bach's St John's Passion in St David's Hall. There were ten of us for Mass this evening. Purely by chance, as I started the car, the radio was tuned to Radio 3, and the first half of the performance Clare was listening to in situ was just coming to an end. I listened to the second half when I got home, while chatting to Rachel in a belated birthday greeting call. It was good to catch up with her latest musical news. And now, another attempt at an early night, bed!