Yesterday, the weather was rather cloudy, not to say gloomy and I think that a large storm is going to sweep over the country from the Atlantic in the next day or so. Today is a rather different Sunday as some of my usual contacts are busy with other things so after a walk down the hill to collect my Sunday newspaper (if they have sufficient stock which is sometimes a little problematic later in the day), I might busy myself with a tidying job to do. Actually, the day before I found my desk drawer a little difficult to shut because of quite important papers that I store there so I took the opportunity for some spring cleaning and reorganising. Even little things can be difficult to dispose of as I discovered when I found a brand new but unused cheque book with both my own and Meg’s name upon it as we used to share a joint account. So this had to be carefully disposed of via cutting out IDs and getting them shredded and, of course, the shredder had not been emptied for goodness how long so this was another job. As I was having breakfast, there was a long and extended account of the horrific injuries suffered by Palestinians in Gaza where a lot of the victims were children and were supposedly on a safe transit road i.e. declared safe by the Israelis. When the various well researched and documented accounts were put to the Israeli Defence Force, the response nearly always the same to the effect that the IDF took its responsibilities very seriously, that casualties might occur to civilians if they were in a conflict zone (which appears to be the whole of Gaza) and that each incident would be investigated by the competent authorities but, of course, we never hear the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After I had breakfasted, I thought I would revert to an earlier pattern fo a Sunday morning so I walked down the hill and then collected my Sunday newspaper. Then and almost on the spur of the moment, I decided to make a detour from the direct way home and, instead, make a journey through the park following the route along which I used to push Meg in her wheelchair. I then espied the park bench upon which Meg and I have sat for literally years (about five in any case) and then sat down on it. I have to say the memory of Meg and I sitting on this bench evoked some of the most powerful emotions of grief I have experienced in the last three months since Meg died. Feeling very sorry for myself, I texted my vey good ex-University of Winchester friend who responded very quickly with a comforting phone call and we have agreed to have a longer chat this evening. Then I looked sideways and saw on an adjacent bench a gentleman who I know is himself widowed and has the most magnificent and sweet-natured labradoodle dog he calls ‘Alfred the Great’ The thing is that my park friend and I always have a host of jokes to tell each other, some a little male-oriented, but after we had exchanged some joke and stories, my mood lightened somewhat and I struck out for home. On the way back, I was delighted to bump into our French friend who is a widow but moving out of the area shortly to be nearer to her daughter. I can fully appreciate the reasons for all of this but I hate losing close friends I have made over the years like this. Nonetheless, I think it is a week or so before she actually moves but she has been very busy both selling her house and the furniture within it. We are going to have a farewell get-together before she goes and I would not be surprised, knowing our friend like I do, that she throws a ‘farewell to you all’ party in her house before she actually does leave. Then I busied myself making some lunch where I actually cheated a little. I took one large carrot and one half of a potato which I them cut into bite size chunks and then boiled until tender. I then added one of these thicker ‘beef and vegetable’ soups to create a sort of instant stew. My mother-in-law used to call this ‘lobby’ and the internet source does call this ‘Staffordshire lobby’ which is basically a beef stew, traditionally eaten by poorly paid potters in the region, using cheaper cuts of meat along with root vegetables and pearl barley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These days, I find that I have to keep an eye on the weather so that I can find the most appropriate day for lawn-cutting, general gardening or car washing activities. The old-fashioned gardening books tat I consulted extensively when I was growing a lot of vegetables often started off a chapter with ‘Choose a fine day..’ as though one could. \u00a0I am trying to keep my newly acquired car in good condition but my efforts, as well f those of my neighbours, is hampered by the extensive building wok that seems to be going all around us. Before the building proper starts, there seems to be an enormous amount of landscaping, earth moving and drain-laying activities and consequently a fine dust seems to be distributed quite liberally on all of the neighbouring houses, gardens and of course cars. The builders themselves are using a sort of spray mechanism to attempt to alleviate the nuisance caused by the dust problems but this seems to be a drop in the ocean for all the good that it does. As a treat for myself if I do decide to wash the car, I will treat myself to a special program on Sky Arts on the famous tenor, Andrea Bocelli undertaking pilgrimage type journeys and singing appropriate contributions en route. I suspect this is a repeat of a programme I saw some time ago but the programme transmitted on Sky Arts is two hours long so I should be able to find something to enjoy (whilst reading the Sunday newspapers at the same time). There is also ‘Today at the Test’ but I fear that England will certainly be outplayed and will lose the final test but draw the series as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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