Birdsong audit

We seem to alternate this winter between overcast rainy days and blue sky sunny days with afternoon showers. Today is one of the latter. I had just under six hours sleep, waking at seven, having got to bed just before midnight and losing an hour awake in the night. The impact of the meds was less pronounced and my head was clear once they took effect after breakfast and. No pins and needles sensation in my head today but sleepy enough after lunch to need an hour in bed to recover. The variability in my reaction is unpredictable. It's hard to know what I'm going to be capable of tackling as the day goes on.

The Green Party won a substantial parliamentary by-election victory in the Greater Manchester area yesterday. Andy Burnham, the popular and effective Mayor of Manchester offered himself as a candidate for a traditional Labour seat but was not selected, when it could have been won against right and left wing opponents. Losing this winning opportunity is an embarrassing own-goal for the Labour Party. Perceived as a rival leader to Keir Starmer, the excuse given for Burnham's non selection as a candidate was that he was doing too good a job as Mayor, and a mayoral by-election couldn't be afforded by the party. Methinks Starmer and his camp followers may live to regret this.

I went out to enjoy the sunshine walking in Llandaff Fields and heard the eerie cry of a Green Woodpecker in the coppice opposite Howells School. The Merlin bird app, identified this along with the song of a robin a wren, a blackcap, a blackbird, a redwing, a song thrush, a mistle thrush, a wood pigeon and a magpie. Ten different birds in the same patch of bushes and trees. I listened to the recording later in the day, but sadly forgot to save it. Such biodiversity in our parks, more than in our street's back gardens. These are dominated by crows, magpies, gulls, wood pigeons and starlings roosting in the roof eaves, and sometimes passing sparrows and tits. There's not enough vegetation cover for smaller birds where there's decking or paved patios. 

I went for another circuit of Llandaff fields after my post lunch siesta. It started to drizzle before sunset and more rain is forecast for later tonight. The roar of the Taff over the weir at Blackweir bridge was audible from the Spine Road five hundred metres away. The water level must be high at the moment.

I watched another fine episode of 'Lolita Lobosco' after supper, to take my mind off doing things I don't have energy to tackle at the moment with my 'toxic head' impeding my ability to tackle them. It's not a good place to be. I feel as if I'm not fully in control of my senses. I want to avoid slipping into panic mode and raising my blood pressure even more. Time to take refuge in sleep as best I can.

Revisiting East Berlin 1989

The temperature went down to six degrees overnight under a clear sky, and it was bright and sunny when I woke up, a welcome start to the day, though clouds appeared as the temperature went up later to fifteen degrees. After breakfast, I listened to this week's edition of 'The Reunion' on BBC Radio Four. It was all about the events surrounding the fall of the Berlin wall, and featured interviews with a variety of East and West Berliners, witnesses to a unique moment in European history. I was much moved by this, as I was part of a party of Church visitors to Leipzig from Halesowen Parish was in East Berlin the night Erik Honecker resigned on 18th October 1989, just three weeks before the wall fell. 

It was an unforgettable moment in my life, which inspired me to look for a job in the diocese of Europe, landing us in Geneva three years later. I exchanged messages about the programme with my old friend and ex-colleague Geoff Johnston. He followed me into Europe as Chaplain in Nerja when he retired some ten years later. He still has strong links with friends and colleagues in German from those years. He told me he's going there to visit them next month.

Clare went out for a McTimoney treatment, mid-morning, so I started preparing lunch and then went to get a few items I've persistently forgotten lately. I left my Fitbit on charge and was annoyed with myself for being forgetful. I was surprised to find when I returned that my phone kept on recording steps with the Fitbit app detached from it. It's not terribly accurate, as the phone wasn't in my pocket at home, but it gives a fair measure of the distance covered. The devices are about 95% accurate and can give false readings if the built-in pedometer is confused by movements which aren't really steps. I don't believe that I walk 200 steps between falling asleep and getting up, even if I do wake up four times in between.

After lunch we had a message from Kath telling us that she's booked a three night stay for the family in a barn conversion accommodating eight for three days over Christmas, on a hill farm in Monmouthshire near Gilwern. It's a family first for us in a beautiful location. It's AirBn'b self catering, and we'll have to take all we need with us, a real logistical challenge for a family of foodies! I had an email from cousin Dianne about dates of Great Uncle William's spell of military service in the colonial Indian North West Frontier region at the turn of the 20th century, fifteen years before he was killed in the second battle of the Somme. I needed to do some additional fact checking before responding, but couldn't narrow it down beyond 1901-1908. It seems her brother Guy's grandson is taking an interest in William's story.

There was no rain throughout the day. Though it was cold, bright sunshine made for pleasant walking along the river. After supper I watched another episode of 'Lolita Lobosco'. Despite the tragic crime story, it was full of romance and hilarious incidents, portrayals of family life and long standing friendship. Books the series is based on, written by Gabriella Genisi, portray the mainly masculine domain of traditional policing is like under the leadership of a strong assertive woman who demands and deserves respect. As uplifting as they are entertaining. 

Story telling partnership

After breakfast a morning of housework, preparing and emailing out next Sunday's scripture readings for the Sunday Eucharist. Clare cooked herself fish and veg for lunch, while I had the second portion of what I cooked for lunch yesterday. I drove her to another session with the homeopath in Thornhill afterwards. While I waited, I walked around the neighbourhood park six times in a hour. 

As today is a Bank Holiday there was little traffic on the road shortening the journey ten minutes each way, a third of the usual journey time. It shows what a difference vehicle congestion makes in a city served by a legacy road system. Work on improving the road alongside Llandaff Fields isn't completed. Temporary pedestrian crossing lights are still in use, a stretch of pavement needs completion and markings for the planned bus lane have yet to be painted on the road. Another fortnight is needed I reckon.

More messaging this evening to do with arrangements for the parish Sway newsletter and its distribution, but plenty of time to watch another episode of Lolita Lobosco, now the server demand for this has either subsided or been improved. This is indeed, high class Italian movie story telling. The author behind the ten episodes listed on IMDB is Gabriella Genesi. She's married to Luca Zingaretti who played Inspector Montalbano and took over running the Montalbano TV series movie production company after the original producer died half way through. 

So, it's no wonder the entire presentation of the stories feels familiar, although that's not to say they are formulaic, only that there's a distinctive sympathetic narrative style to them. The portrayal of persisting traditional old town quarter life in a Puglian port is delightful, and certainly not as squalid as it might have been when we passed through Bari en route for Athens by ferryboat back in 1967. 

Picasa revisited

Having woken up and breakfasted at the usual time, I spent the morning receiving and sending messages, some of them to do with setting up communication channels for Sway information. Then I cooked a lunch of sardines and veg, rather hastily, as my concentration was elsewhere, but it turned out all right, if late. They were really tasty. It made me miss Spain.

During the morning, I printed off Sunday's sermon, and then decided to hunt for an an installation file for the desktop version of Picasa to run on my desktop. It's a digital antique but contains some useful features absent from the phased out web version and its successor Google Photos. It took me a while to find it on an archive hard drives. Installation didn't take long, but it took even longer, half a day in fact, for it to scan my OneDrive account to collect thousands of linked thumbnails of every graphic file it contained. A useful tool, worth having as a stand alone graphic editor and file manager.

I went for a walk after lunch. I took my Sony Alpha 68 and made some progress in understanding how to get good results from a 50mm prime lens. I took a decent photo of a butterfly I've not seen before and have yet to identify. Funny how I've come across several different butterflies this week alone, more than during the rest of the summer.

After supper, hunting for something new to watch I came across 'Lolita Lobosco', an Italian crimmie about a detective Superintendent who returns to her beautiful native port city of Bari in Puglia after working up north for decades. She had grown up in the heart of the urban village at the heart of the city, so there are flashbacks that help to explain her as a person. I enjoyed hearing the Italian spoke clear and found I could understand most of it, thanks to similarities with Spanish.

The crime story line is worthy of Montalbano, but it's set in what is in effect a family comedy with superb dialogue and a deep dive into social and domestic customs. I've not ever laughed as much at a crimmie. It rang true for a boy who grew up in a village. Delightful to watch. Refreshing. A great treat for the weekend.