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
?........'
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