June 1st and another month begins. It's now 10
weeks since my virtual house-arrest by the virus started. I've only been out
once and that was an abortive trip to Brenton Point a nearby beauty spot. the
real incentive was to make sure the car battery wasn't flat. The car-parks were closed so i couldn't stop
unfortunately. But now the restrictions are easing a bit in Rhode Island I
might try again. So far I have no signs
of going stir-crazy, but maybe that's because I seem to have so much to do. My heavy-ish teaching load is
coming to an end in mid June so there will be some easing off then, but not
that much I suspect, as 'the book' is going well and likely to absorb much
attention.
It's weird but if anything the activity level of
contacts around the word has if anything increased - as I suppose we are all at
home, keeping ourselves busy. I actually travelled to London one day last week,
virtually of course, and participated in a 'webinar' (a web-based seminar) 'at' the RUSI on Whitehall. On what faces the
Navy after Covid-19. It was a strange experience but quite fun. Talking to 300
or so people without being able to see their reactions and waiting for their
questions was a first for me. I have some lectures for Singapore coming up too.
Talking of which, even two-an-a-half years after
the event, I still suddenly get bombed about losing Cherry, out of a clear blue
sky. This time it was in one of my classes, when a super-bright Italian was
doing a brilliant presentation on Turkey and its navy. Amongst his pictures was
one of the famous Mosque seen from the Bosporus - and that set me off,
because our trip there was so successful with so many happy memories. In
particular, I recalled the photo I took
in a Turkish-delight kiosk in the Grand Bizarre when I captured the chap
selling it (a Syrian actually) hardly being
able to contain his delight at the
presence of Cherry the intrepid shopper supreme. We spent a long time there,
eating and chatting. After that I needed to go into the records to find it !
As for Covid-19, Rhode Island is easing up a bit
and after two weeks of this the downward trend is still holding which is
encouraging locally. But there's a lot of concern that other parts of the
States are easing up too fast. The Washington Post ran an article on this
picture of a Memorial Day pool party - doubly shocking because its hardly
appropriate for what is the American equivalent of Armistice Day and secondly
there's not much social distancing taking place. Not unnaturally, there's
concern that the US may see a big second peak in the Autumn. All the same on a crude
deaths per head of the population count, the US is doing a lot better than the
UK. I 'did the math' as they say round here, on Wiltshire and Rhode Island, the death total
is roughly similar but the population in RI is nearly three times bigger.
For variety's sake, and to make the most of the
nice weather I move my office out onto my sitting out area, by the sadly
headless statue of Ceres (or if you prefer the Roman, Demeter), the Goddess of
the Harvest (the same as on the top of the Devizes Corn Exchange). It's nice
out there
but hard to see the screen of my little laptop. So I have taken to
putting it inside a big cardboard box, out of the sunshine. The only problem is
that I have to put my head inside the box to read it, which rather defeats the
purpose of the exercise ! But I shall carry on experimenting. The weather here
is now very variable really hot sunshine one day, fog another and ferocious
winds on the third. I blame Trump.
My 'rounds' are still going well, though it's now
twice that I have skidded on loose gravel and fallen off my bike, so I'm being
a bit more cautious. This keeping fit lark seems to have its dangers. But as
the temperature warms up I have noticed a proliferation of new wildlife, when
roaming around the place. A lot more birds but they are much more difficult to
see now the leaves are out and I keep getting irritating shots like this one of
a Cardinal.
I did have one treat though, which I could see from my bench on the
cliff top - a Great Egret fishing on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The same
day I was joined by a rabbit,
as tame as you like, crouching obligingly still
while I took a photograph of it from a yard away. Another welcome find was
George the very furry cat of my landlady's daughter, who normally lives over
the water in Jamestown. Equally happily the large squirrel hole in the front of
the house has now been covered up with copper sheeting. Apparently there were
signs of racoon activity up there as well. So peace, perfect peace, as the
handy-man said.
I gather from Nathan back at the house that the
same explosion of wildlife is taking place there too. He texted me that a
Moorhen had taken up temporary residence in the pond and frightening the life
out of the fish. That was a first. We've had Mallard ducks in the small un-netted
pond but not Moorhens. Apparently there was one spot where the net had dipped
under the water and the Moorhen was splashing about on top of it making
everything much worse.
But the big news is that I have discovered to my
amazement that BA are resuming a near normal service from Boston and so unless
there is a major hitch I shall be taking the somewhat perilous flight home in
early July. This would be as well since my lease for the year runs out at the
end of June. When I asked whether the usual tenants for July and August were
coming to take over, she said she was afraid so - 'They're from Texas' she explained.
Read into that what you will
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