One of the joys of stopping for chats with people is that you discover new points of contact that you never knew that you had in common. And so it proved today when we were chatting with acquaintances along the Kidderminster Road (up and down which we walk daily) only to discover that we had stayed in some of the same places in Spain (Calella. north of Barcelona) Then in turn we chatted to their neighbour who, as it turned out, was a French national by origin and was a teacher of both French and Spanish. So suddenly our number of ‘Spanish’ connections seemed to increase rapidly.

In common with many other people I use the app on my mobile phone called WhatsApp but as this is designed specifically for a mobile, it is not designed to work on a desktop. However, it is so much easier typing on a ‘proper’ keyboard rather than using the fiddly keys on a mobile – I find that even though I bought a slightly bigger than normal iPhone than normal two years ago (an iPhone 8 Plus), my fingers still cover three of the keys at once and despite Apple technology ‘learning’ your particular typing style, I still make multiple errors when texting (and that is before predictive texting takes over). So I was delighted when I found a way to get a version of WhatsApp to run through a browser on one’s desktop, so I spent a certain amount of time last night playing with some of the people in my ‘Contacts’ section (brought over from my iPhone) and sending them a message saying I was experimenting an inviting a reply to see if the messages had actually got through (which they had).  Incidentally, one of the interesting features about the command ‘Send‘ is that you actually have started a transmission process (analogous to popping a letter in the post) and do not know whether (a) the message has actually been delivered, let alone read and (b) whether the message was understood. I remember an incident in the comedy series Only Fools and Horses in which Rodney and DelBoy were tested at a local hospital for some condition or other and when they got a message back saying the results were ‘Negative‘, they interpreted this communication from the hospital as though they had contracted a fatal disease from which they would die (a ‘negative’ outcome)

It being a fine afternoon. I gave our communal lawns (500m²) their weekly cut and my trusty ‘Stiga’ (Swedish) petrol mower behaved flawlessly .The only thing I did after it faltered once or twice last week was to soak the sponge oil filter in engine oil. After a quick Google search,  I have now come to appreciate that this is essential and not just an optional extra – apparently, unfiltered air can rip through and damage your engine but the addition of engine oil makes the filter much more ‘sticky’ as minute particles of pollen and dust which can damage the engine are trapped much more efficiently if the foam air filter is correctly oiled with engine oil. Now I know!  When this was done I emailed my very old (in both senses of the word) friend and former colleague with whom I worked in the Central Office of Information (COI) in 1966. I was keen that we both keep in touch during the current crisis so I have given her the choice of communicating via email (which I suspect she prefers), SMS (text), FaceTime,  WhatsApp or Skype. I’ll have to wait to get her reply before deciding which to use on a regular basis.

Tonight being Thursday, we had our usual ‘Clap for our Carers‘ session at 8.00 pm. Methinks the response was a little bit down this week but I am still delighted that there are people in our local community who still care. My son rings a bell whilst I  bang an open aluminium cooking pot with a spoon which makes a really raucous din. Immediately after this, Question Time was transmitted at 8.00 on BBC1 and one of the panellists, a doctor, argued that wearing a mask may not protect you from the virus but reduces any virus load that you may eject by a cough or a sneeze to 1/36th of the virus load. If true, this makes the case for wearing masks to prevent onward transmission (rather than to protect oneself) almost unanswerable. I think I would like to see it happen but I suspect the government with its present problems would rather not know!

It seems incredible to me that we are mid-way through April already – the months go faster and faster. Today, I met an acquaintance in the park who knew two of my sets of acquaintances but who I didn’t know knew each other. This got me thinking a bit about how networks of social relationships develop. I am going to be a little more theoretical but bear with me and you will see where I am going. When I was at university in the mid-1960s, one of our tutors was Professor Ronald Frankenberg who compiled a book called ‘Communities in Britain‘.  Sociologists and social anthropologists had written a series of studies starting with simple fishing, mining and agricultural communities and progressing through larger and more complex communities including small market towns. The idea was to build a type of continuum of the way that communities had developed through time from simple to more complex. In a theoretical chapter at the end,  Frankenberg attempts to arrive at a theoretical and mathematical understanding of the way in which we can describe communities using social network and communication theory. He borrowed from a 1949 work ‘On Human Communication‘ to show how messages arrive from A to B. Put simply, if A is connected to B and the link is broken, then communication cannot occur. If however, there are some other points in the system (let us call then C and D) then if the link between A and B is broken, it is still possible to get a message through the system by going through C or D. This is technically called redundancy by telecommunication engineers – put really simply, the more extra nodes there are in the system (i.e. the more redundancy) the greater a chance that a message will be delivered. If we take an example from the last war – if the British had bombed a railway line between two German cities and they were only connected by one direct line, then the effect would be no trains!. But now imagine the Germans attempting to bomb a railway line shall we say between Birmingham and Manchester. The railway chiefs could always route a train through ‘Didley Squat junction‘ and the train would get through eventually, albeit with a little delay. This must actually be happening all the time on the World Wide Web – if one link is down then a router will despatch messages in different directions to ensure that the email gets delivered. Frankenberg’s great insight was, I believe, that we can define a ‘community-ness’ by the amount of redundancy as well as by the connectedness of the system. Can you see where I started off and where I am going from with this idea?

In the late afternoon, we FaceTimed some of our closest friends who described to us how they ought to have been in receipt of the government letter, sent to all people with complex medical needs (which the husband of our friends certainly has) Put briefly, life had been very stressful trying to get supermarket slots. medication and the like. However, through some kind of systems failure, the letter had failed to be sent or to arrive – but when part of the medical networks caring for our friend realised this they got the wheels in motion and suddenly everything changed dramatically and life got a lot easier as they could now get the priority access through supermarket queues to which they are thoroughly entitled (but which hitherto had failed to materialise) So gradually things are starting to get better.

Some sad COVID-19 related news for us today. One of my daughter-in-law’s relatives had died of the virus (although he was of an advanced age and suffering from dementia) We were also saddened to hear that one of our closest friends in Leicestershire had also suffered a bereavement – first the mother died last autumn and then one of her own sons died of oesophageal cancer in the last day or, with very few family members or friends being allowed to attend the funeral. This must be happening to families up and down the country…

A busier than usual day in our local park today. We espied our friend Julie from 200 metres away as she was nearing the end of an hour-long walk and so another long and interesting chat. Julie told us about a flowering cherry in full bloom that had been felled in the recent storm but I think it’s not an unusual occurrence. We have an occasional gardener who tells us that quite a lot of trees in the area have keeled over because the water table is so high after the recent rains so they lose their footing. Incidentally, did you know that scientists think that trees have developed some communication systems with each other via their extensive root systems? It’s not quite as daft as it sounds. We then had another chat with another of ex-Waitrose friends who is the mother of two twin girls. She was in good heart but somewhat tired as she was only getting a couple of hours sleep before it was interrupted by one or other of the girls. On our way out this morning, I decided to make a present of a magnificent hoe made by Wolf tools that I think is technically called a ‘push-pull’ weeder. It has a flattish blade but with a wavy front edge and is magnificent for quickly cultivating some ground if it has been recently been dug over. It works by cutting off any the heads of any tiny little weeds which then shrivel up and die on the surface of the soil. I think this particular hoe was given to me over thirty years ago as a birthday present but as I have another more up-to-date model of this type, I was willing for its older brother to go to a good home. When we got home, we found some Easter cup-cakes had been delivered to us a ‘thank you’ and they were delicious.

We spent a very pleasant afternoon taking coffee with our new next-door neighbours. They have been incredibly busy juggling work commitments and getting the bungalow exactly to their likes which has involved building a conservatory, trying to reconfigure the whole of the garden and so on. They (and we) have been so busy of late that it was great to spend the days in each company – as it happens we think alike on many issues (such as the mutual loathing of Donald Trump, for example). As it happens, I had one or two garden implements that helped my neigbour with some difficult tasks (removing old concrete posts, for example).

We see that the Government has today reverted to its traditional mode of lying to us. We had a graph which showed the UK death rate below other European societies, particularly France – but the UK figures included only the deaths recorded in hospital and were not comparable with the more inclusive figures than the French data which included all COVID-19 deaths, whether in hospital or elsewhere. When one of the journalists pointed this out in the press conference, there was the usual obfuscation, answering a question that was not actually posed, trotting out that it was the government’s intention to… and so on. There happened to be a letter in today’s ‘Times‘ which argued that journalists should only ask one question and pursue it relentlessly until the question that has been asked is actually answered instead of being evaded, met with a half-truth, statement of the obvious and so on. In general, at the daily press conferences, the journalists nearly always do ask pointed and well-directed questions but the replies are nearly evasive. The favourite seems to be answer a question that was not actually asked or else to think of an answer with a really big number in it that is meant to impress but is really meaningless. My particular gripe is over the claim that the NHS frontline has recently been supplied with  ‘x’ million pieces of equipment which does not answer the question that the front line is evidently short of PPE and needs a lot more!

Last night, a brief but very intense squall hit the Midlands – when we woke up this morning, we discovered that two owls had been smashed to pieces and the body parts lay scattered around the patio we have outside the house in the back garden. Before readers recoil in absolute horror, I ought to mention that the owls in question were china owls (well, pot actually) and had been residing on our outside patio table. So what were they doing there in the first place? Well, the story is this. Last summer, I renovated some aluminium garden furniture (table and four chairs) by repainting them with a dark green  ‘Hammerite’ paint. However, a local robin had taken to perching on the back of one of the newly painted chairs and was threatening to ‘poop’ all over my handiwork. In order to preserve their renovated status, I scoured the local Charity shops (of which we have at least half a dozen) and managed to secure two pottery owls, often used as money boxes, They were put at slightly different angles and they were used to deter robins and the like from messing up our garden furniture. Unfortunately, the storm arose before I had the chance to lay them flat and they paid the ultimate sacrifice…

This morning the normal pattern repeated itself in that we exchanged several pleasantries with dog walkers in the park but we did not tarry long as there was quite a brisk wind. On the way back home we did have a chat with some near neighbours who live just around the corner but with whom we have not had the chance of an extended conversation before today. They were digging over and renovating a little triangular plot in front of their house and they had been waiting for a spot of rain so the earth would have softened a bit before they started digging and planting. We mentioned to each other that one of the side effects of the present crisis was that once people had got bored with decorating, gardening and spring cleaning they would revert to more traditional modes of indoor entertainment and the experts were predicting a ‘baby boom’ in about nine months from now. We reminisced that the last time a national crisis brought together groups of neighbours was in 1973 when the country as a whole had to endure a three-day week as well as intermittent power disconnections of both gas and electricity. The official (Conservative) government advice, which we followed enthusiastically was that we should ‘shower with a friend‘ to save the country’s diminished energy supplies. ‘Oh, that’s interesting’ the wife of the couple remarked ‘as I was born in 1974!’ We giggled and wondered?

In the late afternoon, we were delighted to have an hour-long FaceTime video link with my wife’s cousin’s daughter (is that called a ‘cousin once removed’?) We found out how at first hand how COVID-19 crisis was affecting the USA – predictably, the Democratic states were blaming the lack of preparedness on President Trump whilst the more red-neck states (inland, Republican) were inclined to believe that it was all a conspiracy to attempt to discredit Trump! Whereas here in the UK, we quickly added shops selling alcohol (off-licenses) to the essential stores such as supermarkets, pharmacies and garages the Americans had decided that it was a top priority to keep open – the gun stores! One really has to wonder. Now that we have discovered the joys of FaceTime-ing, we wonder why we have not done it long before. Of course, it does assume that you have Apple technology at both ends but given that the Apple Contacts pages give you one link to activate, then what could be easier?

This must be one of the strangest Easter Sundays that any of us have ever experienced but I suppose we will all get used to living in strange times. This morning we were delighted to make our daily trip to the park which, actually, was extremely quiet compared with yesterday. I am pleased to report that the ducklings now number 5 from that we suspect is brood No. 2. Whilst we were having our daily coffee (necessary for the ‘oldies’ to regain their strength after an energetic 1km walk to the park, you understand) we had a couple of conversations, one with the elderly lady with whom we exchanged wartime reminiscences early on in the week, and the other with Julie, our ‘Waitrose’ friend. In the midst of our conversations, a heron swooped and nearly made off with one of the ducklings, only to be beaten off by an assiduous mother duck. And so to home, where we enjoyed a nice dinner of roast beef, cooked in our slow cooker (and I saved half of the joint for another Sunday lunch). In the afternoon, I undertook one of my regular duties which is to round the house, wiping each light switch with an anti-bacteriological wipe which may, or may not, fend off the COVID-19 virus. This task doesn’t take that long but I am amazed how many light switches there are in the house overall (I lose count after the first 20!) I feel that I will have the same degree of success as that enjoyed by the elderly gentleman who used to throw little pieces of pink paper out of the top of a Chapham omnibus in order to deter the elephants. He was always successful, by the way, as no doubt I will be.

In the early evening, I was playing about with the FaceTime contacts list that faceTime displays when an older Winchester colleague accidentally made me a video-call. He intended to call his son but hit the wrong button! I was delighted and we exchanged notes. They were amazed at the sojourns that Meg and I enjoy on our local park bench as down in Southampton, the local officials have taped up all of the park benches to deter would-be loiterers and aged rest-takers from utilising them – I must say, that I feel that it is a bit over the top. Incidentally, after my encounter with the flesh-coloured tights lady yesterday, we were passed in the park today (at a suitable distance) by a lady runner who was displaying a full face-load of makeup complete with false eyelashes and sporting a fetching leopard-skin leotard (or whatever you call the gear that people run in these days).

In the early evening, we watched the rerun of last Thursday’s Question Time on the Parliament channel (232). We then had a FaceTime chat with my sister (who I didn’t realise had an iPad) so that was a pleasant bonus and we are now arrangements in place to FaceTime the rest of the family as well, once we have suitable times organised. We are also in email contact with one of Meg’s cousin’s daughters who had been re-located before the crisis to Seattle. We received a long email telling us that things were like in the USA from the inside and are making similar arrangements to FaceTime each other as soon as time zones and diaries allow. So all in all, we have had a fully communication-rich Sunday – we wonder what the forthcoming week is going to bring. If the crisis had any benefits whatsoever, it was to appreciate how lucky we are to have family and friends with whom we can rapidly communicate – perhaps this will set up a good model for the future when we don’t neglect the friends that we have as we were forced to do during our working years.

Another really beautiful day here in the West Midlands, only marred by the news that the West Midlands is emerging as a COVID-19 hotspot. I quote from the Health Services Journal:

While London has continually topped lists of coronavirus cases in the UK, Birmingham has the highest number outside of the Capital, with the West Midlands emerging as a hotspot for transmissions last month….The government has said it is investigating reasons why that might be the case, amid suggestions that people’s religious convictions are contributing to the spread.

Now for some more cheerful news. Although I didn’t count any ducklings in the park today, I did see a snow-white duck (which stood our amidst the mallards) and a bird which I surmise from its very long and upright neck was actually a goose. Well, it takes all sorts! As a sight for sore eyes, I was amazed to see a woman runner who, as she approached, appeared to be absolutely naked from the waist down. But as she approached, it became apparent that she was actually wearing exceptionally tight-fitting, flesh-coloured exercise leggings. I am reliably informed that this is quite fashionable amongst the younger women these days but I must confess I had never seen anything thing quite like it – perhaps I don’t get around much!

Later in the morning, I made a large fish pie – I normally do this every 2-3 weeks and it supplies a meal on the day and a further three meals for the freezer. It is not at all difficult to make but would be too fiddly for one meal and hence I make a large casserole of it. Typically it would four different kinds of fish (salmon, haddock, cod or plaice, prawns) with a bottom supplied by sliced (parboiled) potatoes and a topping of mashed potatoes and shredded cheese. I do cheat a little and add some Schwartz Fish Pie or White Wine sauce if I have in stock – the subsequent meals are really quick because it only takes about 3 minutes in the microwave and is normally accompanied by tender-stem broccoli. I realise this is not to everyone’s taste but I am trying to cut down on my consumption of meat (for a host of reasons) and increase that of fish.

In terms of political news, I observed that the Twittersphere was getting incensed by the news that Boris Johnson has been amusing himself during his recovery by playing Sudoku. The particular object of anger was with the rest of the Main Stream Media (MSM) for giving prominence to such trivia at a time when the best part of 1000 people a day are dying – surely there are more penetrating questions that journalists should be asking. Also quoted today was the estimate by a domestic abuse charity that in a single day last week the number of cases which it had to deal had risen by 120%. But most anger (in the press and which I share) was the briefing given by Priti Patel who was asked to apologise the fact that many of the deaths of NHS personnel from the COVID-19 virus ould be attributed to their lack of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). After being asked twice if she would apologise to NHS staff and their families over the shortages of PPE, Ms Patel said: “I’m sorry if people feel that there have been failings. I will be very, very clear about that.’ This must rank as one of the most half-hearted, weaselly-worded apologies of all time – a point quickly picked up by the press.

We FaceTimed our dearest and closest friends in Spain in the evening. I think it is true to say that whilst the death rate in Spain is now at a three week low, the population is starting to feel the pressure of a very strictly enforced lock-down policy – for example , only one person is allowed out of the house at a time and that to walk the dog but only a distance of 200 metres (but it can be done twice a day) It may come to that yet in the UK and some are thinking that if the WestMidlnds continues to be such a hot-spot, that day might not be too far off!

It is evident that the government is getting increasingly worried that the coincidence of fine weather with what was traditionally the Easter vacation period will bring people out into the parks and recreational spaces. The frequency and stridency of the messaging seem evident because the ‘peak’ of the COVID-19 deaths is not yet actually in sight – all could jeopardised if a significant portion of the population decided to kick over the traces and try to see some friends ‘en-masse’ Although by and large, the police have gone about their law-enforcement with a degree of sensitivity, to some police chiefs the crisis gives the opportunity for the assumption of wide-ranging powers. One police chief suggested that an individual’s supermarket trolly be examined for goods that were not deemed to be essential. Fortunately, this last proposal had to be rapidly withdrawn when it became evident is was both draconian and unenforceable.

We had four interesting conversations with diverse groups of people. The first was with our friend, Julie, who we know from our Waitrose days and who lives on the edge of the park, in any case. Then we bumped. into a youngish couple who were out dog walking and it turned out that the husband worked for the part of the Health Service that evaluates the efficacy and affordability of various drug regimens. As he was working at home (like our own son) we were speculating how this situation might become the norm rather than the exception in the post COVID-19 UK. Finally, we saw two lots of our friends who live along the Kidderminster Road and we adopted our by now usual policy of standing outside a house and jumping up and down until we are noticed and people come out for a chat.

As it is Good Friday today, I also scan the broadcasting schedules to see if any performances are to be broadcast of Bach’s Mathew Passion or St. John Passion. As it turned out, I was not disappointed as St. John’s Passion was broadcast on Radio 3 and to be honest, some of the cantatas seem quite similar between the two works. I listened to the first hour of this before attending to the cutting of the communal lawn whilst the weather is so good. The mower stuttered once or twice and actually stopped although it started again quickly but I couldn’t find any evident cause (a slight malfunction of the carburettor, I wonder) As I type at the moment, I am listening to Dame Judi Dench who is conversation with John Humphries – and as it is Good Friday she has chosen the closing section of Matthew Passion (the cantata ‘In tears of grief’)which I always find incredibly moving. Bach wrote this cantata in such a way that one can almost ‘hear’ the sobs embedded in the rhythms of the music. I first heard this when I was 13 going on 14 yeas old in the school music room and it has been a particular favorite of mine ever since.

The news that the daily tally of deaths in a single day (980) now exceeds the biggest ‘one day‘ totals recorded in either Italy or Spain seems grim. A more local analysis reported in the Worcester News seemed to show the rate of increase was moderating i.e. we were getting near the ‘top’ of the curve but the national picture does not look at all encouraging yet.

Another quite interesting day. Before we enjoyed our daily walk in the park, the BioDisk maintenance company turned up and found that everything was in good working order (and it had been emptied only the day before). However, it was mentioned to us (and we had received the same message the day before) that they had noticed that in the last week or so such communal facilities had come increasing pressure as people were working from home, thus creating demands on the system. I think a note to fellow residents might well be called for, and we may have to increase the number of ’empties’ in a typical year.

As we have come to expect, we enjoyed another fine day in the park and were pleased to meet one of our Waitrose friends there, so we had a good chat. Also, we observed some 5-6 ducklings that looked very young and we surmised that they might be part of a newly hatched brood. One of the regular dog walkers in the park who had evidently kept a keen eye on things wondered whether the local heron easily identified as it has one club foot(!) might have been responsible for the predation of duckings in the past. He told us that when the park pond was emptied for maintenance a few years ago, it was discovered to be teaming with perch fish. As we were on our way out of the park, we were approached by a volunteer in a hi-viz vest who thought that we might have been tarrying over our coffee somewhat too long on the park bench and potentially providing a bad example. to others. We explained that we understood that Michael Gove had explicitly stated that individuals (related to each other) could legitimately sit on a park bench during exercise – the exchanges were good-natured and I am sure the volunteer was acting according to his best lights. Just out of interest, I undertook some Google searches and found the following advice from the Director of Public Health for Gloucestershire published two days ago on 7th April. I reproduce the relevant bits below…

“Park benches are a really important part of our community because if you are a bit older or frail they are quite helpful to give you a rest when you are on your daily exercise route, and we’ve had a question about whether people can sit on benches together…..

We have had messages with some places closing their benches, putting tape across them. There is nothing wrong with having a park bench, if you are a members of the same family you can sit on the bench together, but if you’re not you have to keep two metre distance.

“This means if the bench is on its own, one person sits on the bench, one person has to stand two metres away.

We spent some time in the afternoon doing a communal shredding – this was quite satisfying but our garden shredder is a little ‘picky’ about the width of twigs that it will accept but after a bit of sorting, we overcame that problem and added the shreddings to our compost bin. Fortunately, I discovered in some of my ‘outside’ garden things that I keep under the eaves of the house some concentrated organic composting accelerator (although, as we all know, all men are very good at producing their own on a daily basis, preferably after some good long drinks of tea or beer). Then we started the long hunt within the house for ‘the bell’. This is quite a long story – when we had a really long (100 yd +) vegetable garden in Leicestershire, my wife needed something to summon me to the house when I was working at the bottom of the garden. And so when we were on holiday on the Norfolk Broads one year we discovered a ship’s bell in a boat-keepers chandlery and hence we acquired the bell which we screwed onto some French doors that opened out into the garden. We haven’t had a use for it in the last 34 years but we really needed it tonight. Why? you might ask. Well, it was to add to the clapping, car hooting, saucepan banging and other celebrations that we engage upon to show our appreciation for NHS workers and several others which is now a tradition at 8.00 pm each Thursday evening. We played our part – but our son who was operating the bell  was soon ‘clapped out’ i.e. the clapper fell out of the bell within a few seconds and had to be re-attached.

Yet another fine day – I suppose we had better enjoy it whilst the good weather lasts! As you might expect, there was a sprinkling of people in the park (rather than none) and we spent a happy few minutes chatting with some of our acquaintances. When we got back, Meg had a medical ‘appointment’ but everything is done by phone these days and quite a lot of things do not actually require face-to-face contact. We read one of the many articles that appear in the quality press these days and, of course, the consensus view is that no area of social life will ever be the same again. It looks as though the default medical consultation (GP’s, outpatients) will now be performed remotely as the technology becomes more widespread. As we use Apple technology in our house, we tend to use FaceTime which I must say has already worked excellently. One letter (or was it an article in the Times newspaper?) was arguing that more has been achieved by using the new technology to facilitate doctor-patient interaction in the last three weeks than in the last twenty years. Personally, I feel quite optimistic that the ‘new normality’ which will emerge after the worst excess of COVID-19 (not when it is over, if ever) may mean new forms of economic and social organisation in which as many one third of the population work from home (probable), new patterns of sociability and patterns of cooperation will emerge (more than likely) and that essential local shops and businesses may enjoy a resurgence (a possibility) What the modern-day High Street will look like in the typical town will look like, goodness alone knows, as many of the presently closed businesses will surely never re-open again (if only because there is not the footfall or the consumer spending power) to make them viable. In some ways, this might present more opportunities – e.g. bars/cafes more like their continental counterparts that sell coffee, cakes, alcohol, light meals and so on. We shall see!

In the afternoon, we had the organisation come and empty our BioDisk (miniature sewerage treatment plant) and were relieved that although it was quite full, everything was functioning normally – it will be checked mechanically tomorrow all being well. In the autumn rains, we had a large Hawthorne tree that had been overcome by ivy and was a little precariously growing on a slope. Anyway, it became uprooted and had to be removed which it was very efficiently. But left behind was a large amount of garden detritus not to mention some garden tools that used to be hung up in its branches (to save a journey into the house  – don’t ask!) and this had been left all winter. So I set myself the task of a tidy-up which was meant to last 20 minutes but became an hour. I am glad to say that Miggles, our neighbourhood cat that has adopted us (not the other way around) supervised all of my activities, pretending to catch spiders and insects (she missed the two frogs that I unearthed), and checking that everything I did was being performed to specifications. I must say I have never seen a cat like her. When last autumn, I was laying a path and then involving taking slate delivered in a ton bag which had been delivered to our house down in bucket loads to where the path was being laid, my every move was carefully observed and scrutinised. When I filled up my buckets with shovelfuls of slate, Miggles observed and counted out the correct number of shovel loads per bucket and then followed me down the garden path and supervised that it was distributed correctly before the procedure was repeated) I wonder if any readers of this blog have had similar experiences like this with any of their household pets (I exclude goldfish and hamsters from this observation)

What a beautiful day it was today – sunny with clear blue skies and the modicum of wind. I can report that having been bereft of ducklings, we were delighted to see another brood of four ducklings emerge. Whether it was 40% of the previous group of ten or whether they were absolutely newly hatched chicks born to a different mother (which I can suspect), who can say? We were also delighted to see some of our favourite friends who live just down the road and who we used to see at Mass on a Saturday evening – the latter habit we have got into to enhance our range of social contacts, but we did manage to give some solace to the Monsignor when he was stricken with colon cancer and Meg and I went on a journey to see him at a rather splendid diocesan retreat for sick and retired priests (in a house designed by Pugin) located in Staffordshire. Our friends seemed, like us, to be bearing up quite well – they were going to walk across the public park in Bromsgrove (Sanders Park – donated by a 19th C. industrialist) and round the grounds of Grafton Manor which is an Elizabethan manor house in the vicinity and used, in more normal times, as a wedding venue and up-market restaurant. Bromsgrove has a festival of arts and similar events once a year and Grafton Manor has hosted some concerts there. We attended a concert in which a young violinist played Mendelssohn’s violin concerto brilliantly (if I remember correctly).

We had a quiet afternoon in which I rediscovered the joys of fusting, polishing, etc (our bathroom on this occasion). I suppose years ago, and perhaps even today, there used to be the ritual of the ‘Spring Clean’ and so this was a brilliant opportunity to reinvent the tradition. Actually, whilst turning out our bedroom, I did discover a hardback notebook that I had forgotten about. It was actually a 2019 Page-a-Day diary but I had labelled it up nicely with some of those little stick-on letters that you can buy in some stationers. The idea behind it is this. Often by our telephone and on our working desks, we have little notebooks in which we write down the ephemera of the day. In the course of time, a lot of this can be junked – but the more important bits of information (telephone number, people’s names and addresses) can be written up in the Scrapbook where they will not get lost (at least that it the theory, anyway – it only works, though, if you make a conscious effort to transfer useful stuff from your daily jottings into it on a regular basis)  The idea for this came to me several years ago when I got frustrated learning how to do something on the computer (e.g. finding software that puts captions across the bottom of photos that you wish to keep) So I called this book ‘What have I learnt/re-learnt TODAY’ and I notice that I actually started it in March 2102 (evidently 8 years ago) My little system is. like this – whenever I discover a new technique or something I wish to retain, then I will enter it on a new page with the date first and the subject matter second. Opening it at random, for example, the entry for Wednesday, 20th August 2014 was ‘MCH’s own URL shortener’ i.e. a way of taking a long and complex web address and shortening it into something more memorable without going to the trouble and expense of buying a new domain name (although I do do this on occasions) Then, at the back of the book I have an index of all of my entries (they number 92 at the moment) which gives the subject matter and then a date e,g, see entry for such-and-such a date. I must say, that I found this system does work very well for me – how many of us can remember what you did in March, 2012 if you do not use the technique regularly? Anyway, as I thought it was of a thin day, I would pass that tip on to all and sundry…