Changes afoot

Forgot to send my fortnightly blog last time. Must do better !

All of a sudden, despite the fact that here in Newport is still pretty chilly half way through May, Spring has definitely sprung. Things are appearing all along my regular 'rounds' in the estate that I hadn't noticed and it's been interesting finding out what they are, Solomon's seal, lily of the valley,  and a whole bunch of ferns like Bishop's mitres have suddenly shown up.

The chestnut leaves are already fully out; I hadn't realised that chestnuts are among the first trees to show green. The Newport Preservation society who run all the mansions here are keeping everyone involved by sending out daily snippets while all the Mansions are closed. Today's is all about 'horse' chestnuts, and they have 50 or so along Bellevue (not counting 'our' three). Apparently, they claim,  the name 'horse' somehow derives from the tartars who used to believe that chestnuts cured horses of the 'heaves,' whatever they are. I don't believe that for a moment.  Actually, the society says, chestnuts are poisonous to horses, but that doesn't make such a good story. With all this minute observation of a very small universe I am learning a lot.

                Other changes are afoot as well. With our Governor (who gives daily briefings) has ended the stay at home order but with continuing restraints. The White House (and I don't mean the President) has issued guidelines for relaxing the controls which include 14 days of declining numbers. We haven't yet had that but Rhode Island has seen a long plateau and something of a reduction and our Governor seems to think it's in a good position resources and testing wise. I hope she's right. But some other states, all Republican, have done the same even though their numbers are still climbing. It seems madness to me. I hadn't realised before living here how strong the 'tough rugged frontiersman' stereotype actually is in this country; troubles like this are to be shrugged off with a bit of grit and a beer. It's the same kind of thinking as Bolsonaro in Brazil I suppose, and of the current incumbent of the White House, come to that. But even some my liberal colleagues are not untouched by such nostalgic fantasies. On the other hand the telly is full of adverts  from all manner of firms thanking all the medical staff and delivery people and so on, telling us to take care 'in these difficult times.' I even got an automatic $300 refund for my car insurance on the basis that presumably I hadn't been driving it much.  All this shows the US as a very polarised country. The latest polls have 40%  thinking Trump is doing a good job and are planning to vote for him, come November.   All very interesting to observe. The President we are watching closely actually runs the War College and her (yes, it's a female 2 star Admiral)  decisions will affect us;  she seems adamant  that saving lives comes first and we're not going to open up anytime soon. There's talk of the on-line teaching rolling into the next academic year.

                 In that connection, I heard last week that my flight home at the end of June has now been cancelled. Although I was expecting it, the news was still something of a shock. I shall just go on 'sitting on the shore and waiting for the breeze', as they say. Talking of breezes we've had some really strong ones recently; one ripped out all the plastic that 'the bug man' (as my landlady calls him ) had stuffed into the squirrel hole high in the front of the house and I had to get it down from a nearby tree. So I am now exposed to the squirrels should they return - and so was pleased when recently a chap turned up and dumped a whole lot of scaffolding outside the garage because that suggests that 'Vern,' who has been self-isolating, has found someone younger and willing to fix it - but it will be quite a job.

The scaffolding has been there for two weeks now, still not assembled - so maybe he hasn't found anyone yet. I've been really surprised that the winds haven't destroyed an artful edifice that someone constructed down by the Cliff walk a few days ago. It's still there. I look for it every day - another point of interest ! 

                You may have noticed the proprietorial (isn't that the way you spell it ?) reference earlier to 'our' chestnut trees earlier and it's true that walking and cycling around the place is beginning to make me feel as though I partly own it (so it might be extra difficult if I get turfed out at the end of June when my lease runs out).  It would be easy to get used to such grandeur. This photo shows our neighbour to the South, New Lodge and that's Rough Point behind, Doris Duke's little place.

                Talking of the view,  the nice ladies in the big house bought me a bench to sit on at the cliff edge, having spotted my daily excursions to look at the sea. It has that just-out-of-the garden centre smell. I was really touched by that. It's a nice place to sit and have my sandwich for lunch and appropriate to do some of my necessary reading about boats !

                All the same the glorious surroundings have not stopped me thinking wistfully of home. Now that the lockdown in the UK has eased a bit, some friends visited the house in order to take a stack of rhubarb (they have a very nice line in rhubarb chutney and rhubarb jam)  and sent me some pictures of the house. It all looks in good order but did reinforce the view that that's where I should be ! At the moment, though, it's 'who knows ?........'    

     

Hankering for the Eagle Oak

Now that my friend Peter has made it safely home from New Zealand, I fear being engulfed by a surge of home-sickness as I really have no idea when I will be able to follow that example. As an early and slightly perturbing indication of this,  and for some time now, on my daily rounds I have been thinking about an oak tree in the New Forest - the so-called Eagle Oak. What sparked it all is that a key section of my exercise area is dominated by a big old oak tree, which is a pretty magnificent specimen. It's not as old or as thick as the Eagle Oak but probably twice as tall because it stands all by itself. 

 

I circle it and talk to it just as a member of the Woodland Trust should,  and I tell it about its English relative. The Eagle Oak is hard to find these days and deep in a quiet part of the Forest it gets its name from the fact that it was where the last white-tailed Eagle was shot back in the 1830s.

            It's bigger and older than it looks - something that comes out best in a pre-digital photo taken along time ago of Cherry and the kids trying to measure its girth. I couldn't find the photo here in Newport, but this one of Philippa and Barney  sitting underneath it gives some indication. It's nothing like the redwoods of course, such as one of the many that I did force Cherry to stand under. I have a weakness for trees, and look forward to renewing my acquaintance with the Eagle Oak, one day sometime.

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            The nostalgia was also sparked by going through a book about maps which was amongst the handful that I grabbed from the town library just before the shut-down. I had gone through all the ancient and medieval maps of different parts of the world, and came across just three 16th Century maps of English counties. The first was of Middlesex, where I was born, the second Wiltshire, where I live and the third Cornwall my favourite place for a holiday, the latter even showing 'Clovelle' in Devon where we have stayed so often. 'The Devises' is shown almost exactly in the centre of Wiltshire where it should be of course.  Plainly the fates are trying to tell me something.

 

            And then of course, there are regular updates from Nathan about what's been happening in the village, woodworm in the mahogany chest of drawers, the lawn mower rusting to pieces, that sort of thing. I'm lucky to have him. He and his brother have decided to make up the back path to the village and are busily engaged on that. Talk about public-spirited. One other resident is contributing to it, so I shall do so too if remotely.   

            I have also, just for interest done the statistics and so far the result is the discovery that I would be about twice as safe living in Wiltshire as I am in Rhode Island although at the moment both rates are very low when compared to other parts of the country - and we all know what Disraeli said about lies and statistics. The worry is that the pressure to reopen the economy is strong in the US, especially when emanating from 'experts' in the White House and so there is a definite risk of this being done too soon. Fortunately Rhode Island is Democrat territory and our Governor sounds very sensible and cautious, but there are limits to how long she can stand against the tide. And with the warm weather now almost here, alongside the opening of the leaves on the chestnut trees, the traffic along Bellevue Avenue is much greater than it was and there are far more people on the Cliff walk  below us than there were a few weeks ago. Rhode Islanders are looking forwards to getting a little way back to normal at least.

            Even I ventured out in the car today. I thought the battery needed attention. It was the first time I have been out of the grounds for 7 weeks. I felt a touch nervous ! It reminded me of one of our rescue cats, Merlin; he was a show cat and had been kept all his life in a cage. The poor old thing had agoraphobia and literally shook with terror the first time we took him into the garden, so much so that he squirmed out of Cherry's arms and ran into the fishpond. I had an inkling of how he felt ! The plan was to have a picnic lunch by the sea at Brenton point. But when I got there all the parking places had been sealed off so I just came back again ! Obviously, all the traffic going up and down Bellevue Avenue is merely going for a drive, no more than that  - an interesting discovery. But perhaps  opening that car park will be one of the governor's easing measures - in which case I'll probably try again.  

Until then I'll have to make do with my own view of the sea which really does look different every day. We've had some spectacular storms recently, great clouds of spray over the headland. Dramatic stuff.