Woodbridge revisited

We had a slow lazy morning, but the sun appeared and the dense cloud of the past few days began to break up, Ann drove us along winding country lanes for lunch in Woodbridge, a lovely village up the river Deben, which we last visited seven years ago, with its old tide mill, boatyard and quay crammed with smallish marine craft. Houseboats, seagoing barges, yachts and the suchlike are crammed alongside each other resting on mud when we arrived, as the tide was out. Several craft of typical character were from from Holland, a near neighbour in maritime terms.

We parked a couple of miles out of the town, down river at Kyson Hill, then walked down to the footpath along the river into Woodbridge. I heard a curlew and an oyster-catcher as we walked, but we didn't see either. The restaurant we were aiming for turned out to be fully booked, so we bought sandwiches and drinks at a modest sandwich shop nearby and took them down to a seat overlooking the estuary, and ate them in the sun watching a couple of snipe foraging for food in the mud, twenty metres away - I think there were more than a dozen snipe feeding in the area, along with the gulls and other birds I couldn't identify a hundred metres away. I took over eighty photos, half of them of birds in the estuary, uploading these from two cameras after supper.

In the news recently Haiti has suffered another devastating earthquake with around two thousand deaths reported. Emergency aid has been slow to reach the country, perhaps partly due to international attention being distracted to the crisis in Afghanistan? Since the recent American and allied  forces withdrawal, the country has been overrun at shocking speed by Taliban insurgents. The capital Kabul was handed over without a fight, and in the past few days thousands of people have sought to flee the country, fearful of reprisals because of their role in government, or as contractors with allied forces. 

Britain has made a commitment to receive up to twenty thousand refugees, army interpreters and their families. Around the country local governments are expressing willingness to offer hospitality, but are concerned that national government should support them financially. This particular national government has a reputation for over-promising and under delivery. It's impossible to see what the impact will be of this inevitable moral decision if post brexit and covid economic recovery is very slow, limiting resources to help poor and deprived citizens as well as those being offered sanctuary. 

Looking back to times when Ugandan Asian and Vietnamese refugees were welcomed to Britain, as with Jewish refugees from the Nazis, it seems likely that in the long run Britain will again benefit from a new wave of incomers bringing their creative gifts and energy to bear in freedom and security of their new country. Some people see refugees only as a threat, and not as a promise that revitalises national life and identity. Will this ever change? I hope and pray it will.

Seen with different eyes.

I asked for another telephone conversation with my GP this morning, to report back on how I have been since completing the last course of antibiotics. I can't say I'm happy with my progress. My blood pressure is still frighteningly high on times, and my pulse can be very variable. I'm unused to dealing with this. It saps my confidence. Nothing new came from the conversation, except a promise to chase up a hypertension cardio specialist appointment asked for a month ago, and another chase up letter of concern to the colorectal surgery team, from whom I have heard nothing since mid November last year. The only remedy for the acute pain in the soles of my feet after walking my daily 10k is paracetamol, or not walking as much. No suggestions about prevention or cure. Maybe I can reduce the impact by not walking the whole distance quota in one go. As I had to wait at home to receive the doctor's call, it came too late for me to got to St John's for today's Eucharist, but it couldn't be helped.

I'm sure the open wound is deteriorating and impacting on my central nervous system, because of where the wound is located, plus the stress of fighting infection and the complex muscular movements entailed in every aspect of movement daily. Being old, I doubt if I'm going to be a priority. A fifty percent success rate with this treatment, I was told. Unless you die before completion. I should have been operated on by the end of June, by the department's own estimation. Five months on hold due to covid-19, and more crisis management to come. Chance of death before completion of the treatment is bound to increase. There could be thousands of others in the same position as me, and some will already have lost their lives, not due to covid 10, but for lack of treatment, which won't appear on death certificates, and only vaguely reflected in excess deaths statistics.

I tried out my new Olympus camera with different lenses today, in the garden, and walking around the park. The 40-150 lens works differently from the other telephoto lenses I use and isn't as flexible. It's necessary to stand a lot further away to fully frame a subject, and then zoom in for detail. It's fine you're picking a subject at a distance, say a ship off-shore, and then want to home in on its flag, or the bridge. The wide angle kit lens, however is very good, but this too will call for a more practice to get the best from. I like the colour quality and sharpness of the images I get with it, and the lightness of the camera, which is robust as well. That's a real bonus.

A super sunny autumnal day with lovely colours developing, crowned in the evening by a showing on BBC Four of the classic award winning 1942 black and white movie 'Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Berman, and Doolie Wilson as Sam the jazz singer, plus many other actors who went on to have distinguished careers. I listened carefully throughout. Bogart never actually says 'Play it again Sam' but similar varied phrases referring to the move signature tune 'As time goes by'. The photography is superbly atmospheric and the wisecracking dialogue remarkable. It's perhaps the third time I've seen it in my lifetime, I could watch it again tomorrow, as it's laden with powerful yet almost understated themes, which are sill relevant, given that Casablanca is a bit like contemporary Calais, and staging post for refugees in transit, except most of these refugees are monied, though just as desperate and helpless as the poor masses.   

People on the move

I had a meeting yesterday morning with a couple whose wedding I shall be blessing on Saturday at the church in nearby Frigiliana. Bride and groom live in Britain, but the bride's English parents live in the village. The groom's family are Mallorcan and they'll be coming from there. It's another reminder of the movement and settlement of people made possible by the existence of European Union. This is valuable, not only at the political and economic level, but at the personal, domestic and social level, in the exchange of tradition and custom, and the shared pleasures this brings.

Just as we get used to the new kind of normality that ease of international mobility gives, the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees and economic migrants from third world countries, makes huge demands on resources, and seems uncontrollable, driven as it is, by need, or fear of violence. It's generating new anxieties, xenophobia and racism, and is a real challenge to all E.U. countries to deal with in a just and humane way, that curbs the threat of increased criminality, either among migrants or among those wishing to exploit their plight. 

Despite being resource rich, African and Middle Eastern countries are still plagued by problems arising from the seemingly unbridgeable gulf between powerful rich minorities and the majority poor. Injustice breeds violence, but the impact of climate change places everyone under additional pressure as environmental impairment reduces the possibility of countries being able to sustain their growing populations. 

African street traders have been a common feature of Mediterranean coastal life for more than the past decade, people in a position to take risky initiatives, work hard and patiently, driven more by opportunity than need. Today's population influx fleeing conflict is much more of a mixture of educated people and poor peasants, all of whom may have good things to contribute once settled provided there is a will to make it happen. In the long term, Europe will be enriched by accepting them. It may help re-create relationships with Third World countries following the eventual demise of economic as well as political colonialism

It's so good that Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change pulls no punches, respects the science, challenges the dominance of modern consumerist culture and calls environmental damage 'a sin' - yes indeed - if the church's understanding of sin as anything which causes suffering is truly understood. He will come in for fierce criticism from those with vested interests in denying the seriousness of the environmental crisis we are facing. Church leaders internationally are applauding his bold stance. But will the captains of industry and their political supporters listen.

Today was pretty hot. I had a pile of work to do, which kept me in most of the time. For the second day running, I went out for a stroll after sunset, and got a few more photos of the thin sliver of a moon and a couple of bright planets before they followed the sun below the horizon. This is just one of several

  You can find more photos here