The calm before the storm

We had a short spell of calm, sunny weather this afternoon, and I took advantage of it to grab a couple of photos of the view from the balcony before I started to clear or secure all the loose items lying around outside. I think I last photographed this view when it was post-harvest gold; now the winter wheat is greening the big field, and although the trees are starting to colour and some have lost a lot of leaves, the hedgerows still look predominantly green.

Now, after eleven, it's very gusty and wet outside - I finished my deck clearing after dark in pouring rain. All the pots, canes, watering cans and surplus greenhouse staging are stacked in the greenhouse, garden chairs moved to shelter, and the last green tomatoes picked from the balcony. By tomorrow, storm Ciaran is expected to bring very high winds and a lot of rain. The only things that likely to flood here are the front path and the paved area outside the utility room door, so at worst a bit of water will seep under the doors, but the wind is more of a worry. This area experiences a lot of power cuts, usually brief, and it's likely that the storm will bring down a lot of trees around the region, which will in turn damage and bring down overhead power lines. We can cope without electricity for a while, if necessary, but any extended power cut will be difficult: we depend on electricity for our cooking and hot drinks and our heating as well as for J's hoist and lift. We are also fearful for the many mature trees around our garden and orchard: eighteen months ago Storm Eunice snapped the trunks of two large conifers, one of which fell onto and partway through the roof of our bungalow. The bare deciduous trees coped better, but now they still have most of their leaves so will be more vulnerable to large gusts. There's nothing more we can do now except hope the next 24 hours will not be as stormy as the weather warnings suggest.

I've been blipping too late to write anything sensible recently, but as well as despairing at the distressing news from the Middle East I've been following the current phase of the Covid inquiry. There's not much that surprises me - on the whole the revelations are very much what we surmised and observed in 2020 - but it's still impossible not to be shocked at the shambolic picture of incompetence, procrastination, utter failure of planning and preparation, disregard for consequences and for the rules set for others, lying, toxic relationships and more which is being documented through What's App messages, diary entries and the testimonies of advisors, civil servants and politicians. At the heart of this was the former prime minister, who, despite the actions for which he has already been censured by police and parliamentary inquiries, has constantly asserted he that "got all the big calls right". It's now abundantly clear that in the early months of 2020 he failed to make any clear decisions at all and stated that the interests of the economy should not be sacrificed to protect "people who would soon die anyway". I'm taking a certain satisfaction in feeling vindicated, but it's also depressing to realise that most people are probably not interested in raking over a pandemic they now see as history and would rather forget.