A Glass Half Full

-

The wind-up to Christmas seems attenuated this year - I might add that our default position is that the sooner we can get Christmas over, spring seems so much closer (grumpy, ain't we?) - and the air seems to have been sucked out of it all; not even the usual Gadarene commercial scrum seems to be much in evidence. Somehow, the static freeze of the last few days, winter blues and mortality's siren call have frozen proceedings as firmly as the ice-rime that still grips the garden, notwithstanding the cost of living and fuel crisis, to boot. But if I hear anyone blaming all this on the current clutch of strikes, I'll swing for them: strikes are the result of external economic and political causal factors brought about by the government's abject mismanagement of it all. Period.

One certain redemption from the clutch of the cold and the dire state of the world as it stands, is the beauty of Snowdonia: pictured is Menai Bridge from Llanfair PG, across the strait, with the mountains beyond. Winter sunshine on such a landscape is almost diversion enough from the ills of the world, albeit momentarily. We're OK in our hilly fastness, despite family and friends dying or yet; but I can't feel guilty at our good fortune, thus far. We've had our fair share of ups, downs, sideways moves and catastrophes, but I think, because we've always stayed true to ourselves, things have averaged out pretty well for us. It's pretty cold still here in Fairview Heights, but we're managing to trundle on and enjoy ourselves, so here's to the next phase of our lives, or at the very least, to spring and next summer...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [
Read more