Cloudy again with occasional sunshine, 19C. It's the third anniversary of King Charles' accession to the throne today. I slept fairly well, but later on, a painless trapped nerve in my neck or shoulders, not sure which, made my left arm and face muscles tingle, verging on numbness, which was a bit unnerving. I managed to relieve it with the Theracane massage stick which Kath bought me some years ago. It's very useful for undoing knots in muscles. I made breakfast and Clare came down and joined me, then returned to bed. She's slowly adjusting to getting around on crutches, but must be very careful. The mind is willing but the body reacts with acute pain if she over-does it.
Even though the moon rose above the cloud too late in Cardiff to see the full eclipse last night, I was quite pleased with some of the photos I took and uploaded them after breakfast after doing the usual Monday housework.
Kath sent a message listing three possible places in Newbury recommended by Pete to choose from for lunch with Veronica. Today Veronica and John set out from L'Escala to drive to Kent, a formidable trip! I cooked a veggie dish with Canellini beans and brown rice for lunch, then slept for an hour, before doing the shopping. The down side of using the car as little as possible is being unable to do a big food shopping trip once a week. Shopping piecemeal takes a lot of time and walking the streets when the park would be preferable, but I suppose it does help us to think often about variety and freshness in our diet.
Late, I walked down to the Taff, and spotted a female cormorant on top of the pillar from which Blackweir bridge is suspended. Cormorants seem to roost there but only occasionally. If I see one fishing in the river I check to see if the pillar top is inhabited. It's been a long time since I last saw one up there, maybe even this time last year? Another thing I noticed was a large flock of starlings foraging on a football pitch nearest to the field where the stabled horses graze. Gulls and crows do the same thing from time to time in poor weather conditions but starlings less so. It's this time last year since I saw them gathered on the grass. I wonder if there's an abundance of a certain insect there at this time of year, which attracts them.
The park bench nearest the bridge, began to deteriorate a couple of months ago, as one after another of the wooden slats forming the seat were broken until the seat was unusable. I remained like that for about a month until it was cordoned off with official 'do not use' tape. Last week it was repaired. I wonder why it took so long before its unusable condition was officially noticed? I took the opportunity to sit on it and enjoy the sunshine for the first time today. Two guys with hi-viz jackets were sitting on the grass next to it, minding a pile of kit.
Next to them, several large iron plates were laid out on the grass, ready to welcome a few heavy vehicles. Attached to the top of the pile of kit was a strange notice saying 'ITV food waste', an indication that a movie making team was about to turn the location into an outdoor studio. As I headed home several vehicles with trailers resembling horse boxes drove past me down to the river. I think they may have been mobile dressing rooms. In the main car park stood a mobile toilet unit, presumably ready for moving to the location. It's not unusual for Pontcanna Fields to be used for movie making, and sometimes the entire car park is taken up with movie production team vehicles. Coincidentally, the first Welsh TV channel studios (TWW) occupied a site next to the same car park, but was demolished in the 1990s and replaced by houses. Use of the fields as an outdoor movie location perpetuates its link with the TV industry. You could say it's a media habitat, I suppose.
After supper, I watched another crime series on ITVX called 'Karen Pirie'. It's set in St Andrews Scotland. The accents of characters in the initial dialogue was so strong, I switched on the subtitles for a while. The protagonist is a Detective Sergeant, reviewing a cold case, after its profile is raised by a crime podcaster. This triggers a chain of events leading to a another murder 25 years later. The story is told over three episodes ninety minutes long. A slow moving story, to say the least.
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