Seeking Solidity

A day when it proved impossible to concentrate. Unable to write anything new, I tried to make a start on the transcription of the pages and pages of notes I've accumulated in the last month. That was a very slow process. I kept finding myself somewhere else, on news sites, reading opinion pieces, trying to make sense of the invasion of Ukraine.

Of all the terrible international conflicts in my lifetime, this one feels closer to home than any other, perhaps because ordinary people are able to broadcast the horror of the experience from their own homes, able to deliver live coverage directly from their phones. Everyone is a journalist in the era of Twitter. I'm normally pretty good at cutting myself from situations I have no control over. This is different. It's not so much a need to follow the course of events, but wanting some kind of understanding of why. The utterly irrational is deeply disturbing to me.

Feeling very off, I hoped a run would help, but I found my legs to be as heavy as my head. With the moor sodden I actually decided to hit the road, not something I do too often, which perhaps explains why in over a decade of blipping I've never before posted a shot of Ilkley's architectural gem, the Grade 1 listed villa designed by Edwin Lutyens named Heathcote. I think I was subconsciously seeking solidity on a day when everything seemed to be shifting by the minute.