Quarantine day three

How cheering to wake up to a day of brilliant sunshine, mild weather and no wind! As I was closing the bedroom curtains last night , the moon shone brightly in between clouds, ascending just above the terrace rooftop south of our back garden.

I went to bed half an hour earlier than usual, and benefited from this, strangely, with a night of relaxed sleep with just two disruptions. I published the YouTube link to my upload of Morning Prayer and biblical reflection on WhatsApp for the first time before Radio Four's 'Thought for the Day'. Tonight, early bed and up at six to be sure I reach Llandough Outpatients for the op by seven thirty. I do so hope that this will enable me to return to complete physical normality.

Over the past couple of years, I've remained active and fairly fit despite infection, but having a wound at the base of my central nervous system, often irritatingly uncomfortable, thought never painful enough to require analgesics, has been a strange experience. I compare it to grit in the eye or a stone in the shoe, something that incessantly undermines bodily harmony ans hinders focus. I've not been able to sit and relax comfortably without consequence. If I've taken photographs obsessively these part two years, it must be because this is a head and upper body activity for which I need to stand.

I've stopped playing guitar which I've done for the past sixty three years. A guitar is, after so long, like an extension of my body. Sitting to concentrate on playing has proved as hard an effort as coping with rheumatic fingers and wrists. Fighting against the reaction of the nervous system to make the effort to play has felt counter productive. Better to rest, avoid any negative over-stimulation and wait to survive the affliction, in the hope of one day returning to enjoy playing. It's been much harder since Clare has started to learn jazz piano, as I'd relish the pleasure of playing with her. 

Most of my walking today was outdoors, enjoying the sun. I begin to feel normal, relaxed, and not feeling confined by the restriction of a few days self-isolation. My sister June has had a plague of flying ants and ordinary ones on her Wandsworth Common balcony. She was worrying about how to get rid of them, and then the local bird population turned up, crows, magpies, then blue tits and coal tits. It's been a while since we've seen tits in our garden. Or ant plagues for that matter.

In the local news today, a further closure of Blackweir Bridge while work is done dredging out hundreds of tons of stones from the river bed, presumably to improve flash flood drainage and let broken trees that fall in the water float downstream and not block the channel. I hope this doesn't have too much impact on the ecosystems of the riverbed that help sustain fish, and insects on which the birds feed. This past week or so I've seen swallows and swifts feeding on the wing over the river, a lovely sight as summer arrives.   

Thanks to another delivery of fresh salmon, sea bass for the freezer, plus laver bread, supper tonight was my favourite Welsh sea food. Then a couple of hours writing, and off to early bed.

Blackweir bridge open again!

Woke up just as Thought for the Day was starting, then uploaded my reflection to the Parish WhatsApp thread, with ease. After breakfast a quick trip to Tesco's on an errand for Clare, then time before and after lunch working on tomorrow's reflection, done in the same way. This also took me a long time, so it was almost four when I set out for my walk. Thankfully sunset now is almost at six o'clock, so I'm not having to finish my day's walk in the dark.

I was delighted to find that Blackweir Bridge has reopened today. I thought it was meant to be tomorrow, but Wednesday makes sense, for a University maintained bridge, given that the afternoon is reserved for sporting activities and Pontcanna Fields are well used to that end. Not that many teams can play officially at the moment, but individuals on training regimes can benefit from running circuits I guess. I was out rather late, so didn't see if anyone was actually out training earlier in the day.

Rules for bridge use are spelled out in bi-lingual notices - single file, well spaced, walking not lingering on the bridge. There were only a handful on the bridge when I walked to and fro, movement of the bridge deck was noticeable. The more people crossing the less vibration seems noticeable. It'll be good to walk in the Bute Park woodland again on a regular basis, more conveniently that it has been over the past year.

I had lovely messages from Rosi and Sarah in Ibiza, recalling my arrival there this Wednesday a year ago. I'm so glad they have a pastor wanting to serve them, and hope the formalities and eventual move don't take too long. Brexit and covid restrictions mean there are going to be hurdles to surmount unfortunately. The long wait to fill ministerial vacancies continues all over the euro-diocese, as it does in UK.

Having prepared tomorrow's funeral service this evening, I continued to work on the other two for next week, especially the bi-lingual one. I'll need to practice reading this one through a great deal until it feels right. I'd find it easier to do this in French or Spanish, sad to say about my native language. My first girl friend was a native Welsh speaker. I learned a few things from her, but we never got around to conversing in Welsh. More's the pity. I feel ashamed of myself.

Bridge returns to life

I slept for nearly nine hours and woke up to bright sunshine. Lately I've not been waking early, or if I do, I go back to sleep while waiting for 'Thought for the Day' on Radio 4. I make a point of listening on BBC Sounds catch-up before I get up. It's useful to be able to roll back a live broadcast, and it works well.

I learned from a local news item today that Blackweir Bridge repairs are nearly complete and it will re-open next week. I also learned that the bridge isn't part of the City Council's estate, but the University which funded construction and maintains it. It wasn't closed due to the pandemic, as I presumed, but due to minor structural damage that made it unsafe. Repairs took couple of weeks, but the best part of a year to agree to get done, though there's been no hurry to complete. The public is much better informed and prepared to be cautious crossing the bridge now, socially distanced, in single file - hopefully!

I was pleased to see a photo of Fran's icon of St David appear in this week's Parish Sway newsletter. I've written Monday's reflection on the icon and a discursive prayer which I'd like to record in St Catherine's if I get an opportunity when we go to church tomorrow to join in the pre-reopening spring-clean.

For the second day running I've taken my Sony Alpha 68 DSLR camera out walking with me. It's such a lovely camera to use, I find that I take far more photos with it when I'm out in good shooting conditions. Its weight with a long lens is the only disadvantage, three times as heavy as the Olympus. If I had a long and a broad lens for the Olympus that were together as good as my versatile Alpha mount telephoto, the Olympus would be a match in terms of photo quality, and much lighter by design. The equivalent lenses, even second hand are pretty pricey on a low budget. Clare keeps asking what I am going to do with all the pictures I take. If I could decide on interesting themes to select, I could compose photo books to use as gifts or even for sale as coffee table items. Trouble is, I'm no better with the idea of seeking a market than I am seeking an audience for my writing. Fear of failure? Fear of not being noticed? I wonder why?

Another interesting episode of 'New Amsterdam' to watch on catch-up tonight, with an interesting little vignette of what happens when a medic pursues a concern about the health of drug addicts and provision of safe managed injection places in a world where doing this is against the law. The forces of law and order are unable to punish adequately or eliminate the international chain of illegal drug suppliers. Drug addiction is a major global public health issue. Why drive users underground and into crime when with the right support they can be helped to get lives and health in order and weaned off drugs? 

This approach has been shown to work in places where licensed supervised clinics have been set up. It's hard to understand why advocates of law enforcement are reluctant to change strategy, unless they are addicted to playing 'cops and crooks' never really succeeding in winning. Addicts are in a way victims of the consumer culture the world has created, but treated as perpetrators. It doesn't have to be like this.  

Alert level good news

A pleasant mild day with sunshine and cloud decorated skies. There are oceans of yellow daffodils, not only in parks but also in roadside grass verges, plus big white crocuses and smaller blue and yellow ones making a cheering sight wherever you walk. The maintenance team working on Blackweir Bridge has now returned the metal decking panels to their proper place. I believe they were taken up to do remedial work on the deck support structure, and maybe also to apply anti-rust paint. I don't suppose it means that the bridge will re-open any time soon, but at least, when it does re-open it'll be fit for purpose again.

I had to laugh this morning when I took a scam phone call from an English RP sounding robot voice claiming to be from HMRC about irregularities in my tax account, threatening me that the police were on their way to arrest me unless I pressed button one to talk to someone about it. That's one up from the Amazon Prime account anomaly robotic calls, we usually get, at least in quality. I'm so glad that for the past fifteen years or so I have filed my annual tax return on-line, so never have to worry about a paper copy going missing and causing confusion. The scammers must know very little really about the people they randomly dial with their messages. Those who get caught out are unlikely to have taken an interest in managing their own financial affairs, and not understanding that banks don't cold call people.

The work on replacing gas pipes in the street has almost reached our door. There are two neat holes in the tarmac waiting to be filled in with all the pipework exposed to view, and then it'll be our turn. You can see how new yellow plastic gas main piping has been threaded along the old iron pipework. Holes are cut in the old pipework allowing joints to be made for smaller bore piping to be run to individual homes, all very clever. Each house in turn has its supply cut off for a few hours while the job is done and the team leader lets you know when it's your turn.  

I've been invited to contribute a set of reflections for the Parish WhatsApp prayer channel next week. How nice to be starting with St David's day, and have Fran's Dewi Sant icon to talk about! I've now got to decide what to do with the other five weekday sessions. As we're resuming church services on Sunday, I think the rest of the week's reflections may well turn out to be about the Eucharist.

Today's good news is that the coronavirus alert level has been lowered from the most critical level five to level four. At level five, hospitals were at high risk of being overwhelmed by covid patients. Infection and death rates are falling steadily, but relaxation of restrictions needs to take much longer to avoid reversing the decline. About a third of the population has now been inoculated once, thanks to the coordinated teamwork efforts of medics, logistics and volunteer teams.

Works in progress

Another day at zero degrees centigrade. I tracked down my long johns and wore them for possibly the first time in the ten years since we visited Rachel when she was living in Canada. It's also cold enough to wear the balaclava hood my sister bought for me last year. It fits nicely under the hood of my ski jacket, which now shows signs of its antiquity, bought in the early nineties. I think the padding has compacted, reducing its ability to insulate. It's a long time since we lived anywhere with a cold enough winter to call for an outdoor clothing upgrade.

When Clare returned from her early walk she said that a team of people were about to start work on Blackweir Bridge. When I walked down to the Taff later in the morning, work was in progress. The deck of the bridge was being taken up and each panel of stout mesh steel, two metres long, was being secured to the handrail above. Since last week's break-in through the barriers closing off the bridge to the public during the pandemic, a decision has been made to make a short-cut impossible by removing the deck. It's a sensible move under the circumstances, although, like thousands of others, I resent having to walk around instead of crossing over. A second temporary bridge with a one way system would have been preferable and not impossible. In other situations where bridges have been washed away by floods, Army engineers have erected temporary crossings. Why not here?

The Wales and West Utilities team replacing the street's gas main hit a problem this morning which meant the gas supply had to switched off for three hours while it was fixed. The house was quite warm and only slowly cooled to the point that the temperature difference was noticeable. Before reconnecting the supply an engineer came in and tested the gas flow to the meter with a special device before rebooting the boiler. He used a smartphone app linked (I think) to the house smart meter to check the supply. Unfortunately, he couldn't initially access the app and had to get the help of a colleague outside to make it work. It all works perfectly, except when it doesn't!

In daily pandemic news reports, it was disturbing to learn that six out of ten covid victims were disabled, very much a reflection of the unjust social and economic disadvantages they endured, and reflected in their general health condition. The UK's high covid related death rate, one of the world's highest, is also an indication of economic and environmental disparities that contribute to poor health. It's not just a matter of decades of NHS  under-funding, but people being made more vulnerable by their living conditions. Is this going to change any time soon I wonder? 

A month ago I was very annoyed by the criticism levelled at the Welsh government and NHS at what was perceived by BBC news and other media to be a slower roll-out of the covid vaccination programme. It now turned out that Wales has reached the target of vaccinating for the first time 20% of the population most at risk a few days ahead of the date set. The logistics of distribution and inoculation were thoughtfully worked out at the outset, even surviving a few days of setback due to snow closing some of the vaccination centres. Tonight's news now reports a planned reduction in first time injections to allow for re-stocking so that second injections and first timers can be continued in March. But will the newshounds apologise for unwarranted criticism of First Minister Mark Drakeford? He's done us proud.

Hope the Heron

I celebrated the midweek Eucharist at St John's this morning, and after lunch and a siesta, went for a slightly longer walk than hitherto. I'm feeling better generally as the wound condition improves and am aiming to increase my daily target distance from around four to to at least five miles on a regular basis. The fitter I get, the less tired I get in the evenings, after all. The light summer nights are sheer delight now that the pall of cloud has lifted and we're seeing sunshine and blue skies along with nice white fluffy cumulus. 

I did a loop which took me from Llandaff Fields up to Western Avenue, then east to the other side of the big Tesco store, to the boundary path which goes south, parallel to the river Taff, and thence to Blackweir Bridge. I paused on the bridge thinking about taking a photo of a group of gulls feeding on the weir below, and a lady of a certain age said "Did you see the heron down there? She's come back"  

I hadn't yet noticed the heron, standing at the water's edge in the same familiar spot, fifty yards down from the fish ladder. A few days ago I saw it flying up the river, but failed to spot where it landed. It uses an assortment of spots to hunt from, where passing fish are most visible, as light changes during the day, but always up by the weir several hours before sunset. The last time I saw and snapped the heron was on April 1st. 

The lady also told me that it was a long time since she last saw it, and this sighting for her was a blessing. "I call her Hope", she said smiling. "My husband has just come home after open heart surgery. We had to wait so long for the operation that it was touch and go. I walk here every day, and decided to name her 'Hope' while we were waiting. So It's great to see her especially today, as she's been absent for so long" She'd noticed that I was wearing my cross, and asked why, so I explained. Perhaps that was why she shared her moment of joy and delight with me. I felt so privileged to be entrusted with a passing stranger's confidence, there on a bridge out in the open, just like that.