Matins?

After three days of very heavy rain (especially Thursday), today was clear and fresh. The longer that I was out on my run, the less the cloud cover obscured the sun. This photo was taken about half way.

Unlike the fell runners whose journals I enjoy, admire, and shake my head about where and for how long they run, the hills I have to deal with are inner city, not too steep and rarely more than 500 m long, Maungawhau excepted! That's not where I ran this morning.

The birds congregated on the power lines are the very common city dwelling pigeons. Introduced to New Zealand they have prospered greatly. Animal loving S has difficulty in feeling warmly towards what she has called "flying rats". Not a bad epithet, as (like rats) they take the scraps and rubbish of humans in our cities and increase greatly in numbers sometimes displacing other birds.

They were silent as I went past. I guess if they were at Matins, they were silently reflecting, perhaps on the Collect of the day.

Here in New Zealand the worst that tends to happen is produced by nature, and the last fifteen months has seen some rather major natural catastrophes. Ceridwen drew my attention to the trial of Bradley Manning, and I shudder to think that anyone could think that his treatment thus far has been just or humane. It cannot be justified on the basis of protecting the people, because a State that can treat its citizens in such a way is a State to fear. I hold no faith that the authorities who can teargas passive protesters in the Occupy Movement will not find that he has to have a Court Martial, which would be certain to find him guilty. Are our societies any better than the flying or otherwise rats we despise, disparage, fear?