On Lichen, China and Tea

 

They say that healthy lichen implies healthy air. In which case the air of rural mid Wiltshire must be very clean. recent high winds brought down quite a lot of  small branches and I noticed how very licheny (if there's such a word) they were. Top of the crop, this one - a small twig with a great bunch of it on the end. Very comforting.

I suppose I have to admit, though,  to polluting it a bit with my weekend treat woodburner, which we are now told are so bad, especially for oldies like me. All those micro-particulates. Why is it that so  much of what we really like is bad for us ? But actually a combination of the lighter evenings, the now obvious  advance of Spring and the fact that I have nearly run out of this winter's wood is already reducing my level of self indulgence.

          As far as my own well-being is concerned I try to compensate by drinking some of the stock of green tea that Cherry and I have accumulated with all our travelling in the Far East (not that that is what one is supposed to call it these days- far too Eurocentric). As far as I am concerned green tea confirms the sad conclusion referred to above - only in reverse; anything that tastes pretty foul must be good for you. So I drink it in that spirit, and weirdly find it  gradually getting rather less objectionable. The stuff I am working through at the moment was in a large and quite elegant tin, appropriately green in colour and covered in unrelenting mandarin. I have no idea what it is - except quite expensive I am pretty sure. Green sludge I call it.

          It's appropriate in another way too as at the moment I am doing quite a lot of work on China. I've just had the first go at the final chapter in 'The Book' is on the Chinese Navy. (Sadly it's not the last chapter as I have three earlier ones to do yet and then a prolonged review of the whole lot !). As far as China and the rest of us are concerned these are indeed 'interesting times.' Being enmeshed in the US Naval War College provides some real insights into the way things might well be going and they are not very encouraging. Some serious issues for Taiwan seem to be on the horizon, and there's no doubt that even with a much more balanced President, the US is on an appropriately competitive streak.

In that connection I mulled over contacting an acquaintance in China that we met several times. A Colonel in the Chinese Army and working at President Xi's military think tank the Academy of Military  Science in Beijing, she is very bright, speaks excellent English (in fact translating my book !) and seemed awfully young to be a Colonel. Since she retired into a university research job, I'd lost contact with her, but saw that she had done a critique of the latest US maritime strategy document. I wondered if she would look at my final last chapter.   So I tracked her down through another Chinese colleague, without saying why I wanted a renewed contact. A few days later I got her reply, so now have to wonder if that would be wise. What else might come attached to an enclosure such as my returned chapter  ? What a sad state we have got into....She started disarmingly with some tributes to Cherry although I hadn't mentioned her at all:  'I am so sorry for your loss of your wife. I still remember what she looked like although we just met once. She was such a cheerful person. Conversation with her was so delightful.' Then went on to explain about  the University where she now is. It's hard to reconcile that humanity with the awful things that China does

          I am still beavering away on my little panel. I wish I were more skilful but still find it therapeutic. One thing I am really surprised by is how soft, is the inside of 16th Century oak. It certainly seems to last well. But the colour is hard to match. I will do the best I can. The incentive is to clear the kitchen table as well as rescue the fragments from the fire !

          Other complications are how to respond to invitations at the moment. planning the future is so difficult in the current situation that we are all in, especially when juggling with different time, zones travel and other health restrictions on of of the normal choices that one has to make. In a couple of weeks for example, I shall be 'in' the US and then in Sweden 30 minutes later. Real teleporting. But I suppose all these challenges must be good for me - like green tea.