Negative Anomaly

Clare went off to her study group after breakfast and I worked on some ideas for a series of Passiontide meditations on Jesus' last journey to Jerusalem prior to the events celebrated in the celebration of the Holy Week Triduum. Then I collected Clare's prescription and did some shopping, with a trip to R J Berry the butcher, to thank him for our exceptional Christmas turkey. I came away with some super sausages and chicken thighs for the freezer, two of which I cooked for lunch as I didn't fancy chickpeas today.

Afterwards, I sat down to do my daily Duo Lingo Spanish drill and then slept for over an hour, before my walk around the park. I had a Holy Week planning email to respond to before supper. We watched the days spectacular Winter Olympics reports on BBC catch-up, plus a classic edition of 'Yes Prime Minister'. Then I tidied up family holiday photos scanned yesterday from the late eighties and uploaded them to share. It's been good to rediscover them and savour them after so many years.

One small technical thing I observed scanning negatives yesterday was the minute difference in the size of negatives produced from the two latest packs of film, such that scanning produced a consistent black edge on two sides of the frame. The images are a few millimetres smaller than in other later film rolls scanned. Given these rolls of film date from 1985 and 1986, and all other scans are from later rolls, it  conclude this was when I switched cameras. 

My trusty old SLR Praktica with Zeiss lenses produced fine images, but the shutter became less reliable after my Jamaica visit in 1982. I acquired an Olympus Trip pocket camera, which had simple autofocus and exposure regulation. It was more convenient to use, even if the quality of the images wasn't quite as good as the Praktica. The Olympus images on film occupy the full 35mm frame, whereas the Practica images fit just inside the frame, producing that dark edge. At least, that's the only explanation I can find for this curious anomaly.

State of Alarm - Day thirteen

Not quite so cold and humid for much of today, with some sunny periods to cheer the afternoon and colour the sunset. I sent off the audio files to Dave for uploading, and then walked in silence for an hour thinking and planning ahead the kind of audio liturgies Holy Week calls for. My aim is to offer something related to the readings set for each day's Eucharist, as I would do if I was doing a Holy Week Mission in a Parish. The effort of doing so isn't often rewarded by good weekday attendances but for me is part of the entire devotional experience of walking the Way of the Cross and asking yet again, what it all means for the world today. This I love to do. 

Well, this year we can't gather for prayer and worship at any time in the week but making an on-line offering makes it possible for people to listen on demand, as it suits them, or not. A preacher has to offer God's Word, trusting the Spirit will make use of their endeavours, and do so without worrying about the consequences, neither craving feed-back, nor approval. Heaven knows what is behind the conventional 'Nice sermon, Vicar' with which priests are greeted at the door after a service. It's not like being a classroom teacher where you can reasonably ask 'Tell me, what did you learn?', though I confess I have been tempted to ask sometimes!

From news articles I've read, it's impressive to see medical scientists, engineers and technology specialists working innovatively and flat out to design and produce new ventilators, tests for the virus that will assist in triage of the workforce into immune and vulnerable people. A team at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant found a rough design of a medical visor on-line, and in 48 hours created a design of their own and got their proof of concept prototype medically approved for production. All they need now is raw material supplies, and hopefully logisticians and delivery drivers will help get the manufacturing process running soon. Britain is short of Personal Protection Equipment to meet all the needs of nurses and doctors in close quarters contact with sick patients.

It's been the worst day of the pandemic in Spain today with 832 deaths in 24 hours, the second highest covid-19 death rate in the world. In Ibiza, only sixty six cases reported so far. Numbers of infected people in the United States have jumped, nearly a fifth of the world's cases. The death rate is bound to follow, and the economy Mr Trump idolises is going to collapse. His insistence that it will be over soon and people will quickly get back to work will not be borne out by reality. Another false prophecy for a democratically elected false prophet.

The British Parliament seems to have been too casual about precautions during its recent sittings. Now the Prime Minister, several Cabinet members and more MPs have tested positive and are self-isolating. Not to mention Prince Charles, who should have set a better example, like his mother. He too is at the age of vulnerability. Putting himself at risk of never being king? Did he think of that when he was busy dispensing earnest charm. So irresponsible. How could they? What does this say about the exemplary quality of Britain's leadership and royalty? Not so much invincible ignorance as foolish arrogance, I'm afraid.

When I completed my daily walk after lunch, I played an album by Ali Farka Toure a West African master musician, whose band uses Western as well as African instruments. Quite challenging to listen to, I can't remember if or when I last did. Hypnotic, syncopated stuff. You can see how much Jazz owes to African musical roots. Stimulating stuff.

Passiontide begins

This morning, all the sacred images in St German's were veiled in purple, and the purple rather than the optional red was the liturgical colour of the day. It looked dramatic. My personal preference, however, would be to keep the crosses and crucifixes unveiled as the sole focus of visual attention, rather than unveiling the cross alone on Good Friday afternoon, and the rest of the images at the Paschal Vigil. It's one of those historical anomalies which has never made much sense to me.

It was nevertheless quite an occasion for a news announcement. I was asked to read to the congregation at St German's a brief statement from the Diocese about the incumbent Fr Dean, whose leave from the Parish I've been covering. He has accepted a new appointment as Priest in charge of St Mary's, succeeding Fr Graham who retired at the end of January. Once he is inducted to St Mary's, the Parish of St German with St Saviour will formally be vacant. How long it will take to prepare a job description and recruit a new incumbent is unknown, but it will be a different kind of uncertainty, as both congregations will have things to do, but meanwhile they'll continue to be served by locum priests. 

Post Easter, I'll be there more sporadically because of planned holidays, and then returning to Spain for June and July, to support other congregations without their own regular pastor. It'll be two years for Nerja this autumn, and more than four for Costa Azahar. I hope it won't be quite so long for St German and St Saviour, as there are many capable lay people in both churches to keep things well organised and open for business. It's much more of a challenge in some European congregations to retain enough volunteers to cover everything that needs to be done for the enterprise to thrive healthily.

After lunch today, I walked over to Llandaff Fields with my DSLR to look for birds to photograph, as the weather continues to improve. This week at last, I've seen a pair of Great Tits and some Sparrows feeding at our bird table. There were pairs of song thrushes out in the Fields. I saw them, but didn't hear them singing as I did a couple of weekends ago.

Also I spotted a Great Tit starting a nest high up in a hollow in one of the great lime trees along the avenue that runs parallel to the river Taff. Then I caught some good pictures of a bird I didn't recognise, but on checking later, discovered was a Redwing.

This was a first sighting for me, and made it an altogether pleasant little outing.

In the evening, another tense episode of Le Carre's 'Night Manager' on telly, beautifully crafted with fine acting.