Need for light

I spent much of yesterday and today writing. I dropped Mthr Frances a line to remind her that I'm back and offering to cover anything she needs help with. As a result I've been asked to take a funeral in two weeks time, and a couple of weekday services also. She's getting on the treadmill of routine pastoral maintenance and picking up on things which haven't being getting the attention they deserve. She's starting on her own without a full time colleague. It must be tough. 

It was dark by the time I got out for a good long walk, hoping to take photos of the bonfire night fireworks display in the SWALEC stadium from outside in Pontcanna Fields, but it didn't start as early as I expected, and I needed to head home and dressing change and supper. In the end, it was all over by the time I'd eaten, so I just carried on writing until late.

This morning, I attended the Eucharist at St Catherine's celebrated by Mthr Frances. It's St Illtud's Day, and as she didn't know anything about one of our diocesan patron saints, she invited Clive, sacristan and head server to tell us about him. Clive did his homework very nicely and told his story in an interesting and engaging way.

I cooked lunch, and spent much of the rest of the day, writing until late. I'd intended to go out for another long walk, but apart from going to Chapter to pick up the week's veggy bag, I didn't. It was one occasion when I forgot to take a phone with me, and I nearly had to return for one, or a torch! The unit where the veggie orders are stored for collection is in a quiet corner of Chapter's courtyard. It's a badly lit area, and the unit is in shadow, so it was very difficult to read the bag labels to find out which was ours. I could really have done with that phone flashlight app. Our bag was the last for me to examine, in the furthest shaded corner! 

The phone flashlight is occasionally useful when walking at night in the park. There are many bike commuters returning from work, or students using NextBikes to get about. It's precarious for pedestrians, since the numbers of bike users in the parks has risen steeply in the last year or so. It won't be until there's a few serious collisions between cyclists and pedestrians, I suspect, that any serious attention is paid to the need for separation of pedestrian and cycle traffic on our public footpaths. I wonder what the city planners have to say about this, when there are also problems about city centre traffic management, pollution and the need for more bike lanes everywhere?

On the way back with the veggie bag, I noticed that demolition work at the back of Sussex house on Romilly Road has now flattened the 1960s annexe builtby the Council in the garden of what was once an imposing Victorian mansion when it was adapted for Social Services use. The entire site is now cordoned off by a three metre high fence made of chipboard to minimise the impact of  demolition and construction work on the neighbourhood. I'm not sure yet if we know about the fate of the 150 year old trees that line the boundary of the property, however.

Overview of Sta Pola

A cloudy cool and windy day today, windy enough to empty beaches of all but wind surfers - just as well for them as there's some kind of race competition being staged here along the shore this week.

After lunch I did a circuit of the town's outskirts up behind our apartment, going first to the Camino de la Cruz and Ermita de Nuesta Senora overlooking Sta Pola. This would have been the edge of town when a new housing area was constructed here in the sixties to accommodate town dwellers whose homes had been crowded inside the walls of the Castello. Part of its restoration by the municipality was the creation of the magnificent open public space that now serves the social needs of the every expanding population of locals and visitors.

The barrio displaced to the top of the hill is now itself enveloped by more modern housing developments to a depth of a quarter of a mile bounded by a recently constructed link road steering traffic through outer suburbs to the N332 south across the salinas from the
 town. The original modern houses are basic simple cottages, low cost social housing in their time.

The modern houses and gated apartment blocks reflect the growing wealth of the coastal region as a result of tourism over the past four decades. It can't all be holiday homes up there however, as there are several large schools serving the area, but inhabitants must go down the hill to do their shopping. Even local corner stores are in short supply in this district, unlike the streets on the coastal plain below, which are altogether more convival places than can be lived in without needing a car.

Interesting to get an overview of the place, and to wonder how it will develop over the next half century. Empty housing plots down below are gradually being filled in with apartment blocks of six to ten storeys. Will they one day go higher, as in so many other urbanised coastal villages and towns, given over the the modern industries of leisure?