Delicate grasses

A full-on day today, but a very satisfying one. We have had our new broadband service installed in order to enable son #3 to work from home, and although the setup isn’t fully completed, we’re already enjoying a faster internet connection than we’ve ever had before. A happy by-product for us of having him back to live with us for a while!

The new system has involved a lot of jiggling of networks which, fortunately, is his forté. While he was doing that with my husband, I was busy on my computer typesetting an order of service for a service of thanksgiving for a dear friend of mine who died two years ago during lockdown. I typed the service sheet for her funeral, at which only close family could attend, but this time there will be a packed church. 

I can normally type these things (almost) with my eyes closed, but today it was different. I was learning the finer points of Affinity Publisher at the same time, having given up on Apple’s Pages, which simply isn’t up to the job because it’s a word processor and not a desktop publishing program. So every few minutes I was investigating the user manual for Publisher or watching instruction videos, and thus the whole thing took the whole afternoon. I’m really pleased, though, because I’ve learned an awful lot and have set up some master pages so that I can create booklets easily in future. Having had past experience long ago with QuarkXpress, learning Affinity wasn’t too difficult, but it still taxed the little grey cells!

My husband and I managed to get out for a quick walk late this afternoon and headed across the Green in the sunshine. It looks as though the council are continuing to leave the majority of the Green unmown, with only wide swathes cut through the centre to act as footpaths. I was sad to see that the majestic horse chestnut trees which line the Green are already going shrivelled and brown – I’m not sure which disease they have, but it happens every year. It was a toss up for my blip photo between diseased trees or delicate grasses and the latter won.