Hairdo

I sent a WhatsApp bon voyage message to Andrew after waking up this morning, as today he's starting the long journey to Malawi and the eye clinic he's helping to establish there. After breakfast, Clare's study group met at our  house, and I confined myself to the bedroom, writing a sermon for next Sunday. By the time I came downstairs again after they'd left, lunch was already cooked and on the table. We had a large fillet of Red Fish, which neither of us recall eating before, succulent and tasty, a bit like cod.

After lunch I went for a brisk walk around Llandaff Fields for an hour while Clare siesta'd, then we drove over to Rumney for a hairdressing session with Chris at his salon. While Clare was in the chair, I went for a walk around the lake at Parc Tredelerch as I did last time but today with my Sony HX90. It was misty and overcast, already seeming to be quite dark an hour before sunset. I snapped a big old heron on watch at the edge of a bank of reeds, some swans, coots and tufted ducks in the middle of the lake, plus a large number of assorted gulls resting on the water. Another brisk but rewarding walk before having my long but ragged hair trimmed to perfection. 

Although traffic was heavy on the return trip, it ran slowly without holdups, so we arrived home for an early supper, as Clare was then going out to her weekly meditation group. I couldn't bear to watch Wales versus England football at the World Cup, as their wins against England have been few and far between over the years, and as anticipated they were thrashed. There was nothing else of much interest on telly. Instead, I archived archived videos I've made from my computer to a backup hard drive.

Then I watched a full length movie reprise of the spy thriller 'Spooks' from  2015 on iPlayer entitled 'The Greater Good'. Fast paced and full of violence, it was in contrast to the Le Carre book I finished this afternoon, called 'Running Agents in the Field' which proceeded in a leisurely anecdotal way over the few days in which it was set, with only the odd threat or promise of violence and some brilliant intriguing dialogue masking the real intent of the agents throughout, albeit a little harder to follow.

Hidden gem

Another damp day, overcast with occasional showers. Rhiannon had an early train this morning, so Clare went with her on the bus to see her off at the station while I was still asleep. After breakfast I read a couple of chapters of 'Invierno en Madrid'. I'm nearly at the end of this 600 page novel now. It's taken me several years in fits and starts. Meanwhile, Clare cooked a curry for lunch.

Straight after, we drove to Rumney for a hairdressing session with Chris. While he was working on Clare's hair I went for a walk down to Parc Tredelerch (the Welsh name for the Parish of Rumney). It's ten minutes walk away from his salon, the other side of the main railway line. It's an area of partially drained marsh land on the eastern bank of the river Rhymney, which flows down the valley of the same name past a town on the edge of the Brecon Beacons out into the Severn Estuary. 

The park contains Lamby lake which takes twenty minutes to walk around. It's the remnant of an ox-bow lake, cut off from the course of the river a long time ago, and now separated from it by  three metre dyke. It's teeming with fish, home to thousands of birds and surrounded by marsh grass, shrubs and trees. Until twenty years ago the area was a site where waste material could be officially dumped, then it was cleared and landscaped to make a park. I was sorry I didn't take a camera with me. Next time I will. It's amazing I knew nothing of this secluded nature reserve on the fringe of a large suburban housing estate until Chris suggested I walk there.

When we got back I went out for another bereavement visit as things are still unsettled about the funeral I'm doing this Thursday. Unfortunately nobody was at home, so I had to send a text message urging the next of kin to contact me. I rang John, one of the funeral arrangers at Pidgeons, and we discussed what needed to be done, and later exchanged emails, so that at least we know what's going to happen.

An early supper, then a walk to St Catherine's for a Fountain Choir rehearsal. The music is challenging, but even more so is reading and absorbing the Latin text. All good fun, and back in time for the final episode of the darkly comic nasty crime thriller 'Inside Man'. As it was about a well meaning Vicar who loses the plot and ends up responsible for a couple of deaths, even though he doesn't kill the victims, I found it uncomfortable watching.