Frost. Thoughts on understanding reality. Virtual get-togethers.

 

After a few days of fog and gloom and damp during which it barely seemed to get light, today is bright and crisp and sunny but very cold. 

 

 

 

                                    There is a skin of ice on the puddles,

 

 

frost on the grass and along the paths, 

 

 

 

and even on the mysterious old 2CV parked in one of the backstreets of the village - nobody I have spoken to knows who it belongs to. 

 

So much for village communities knowing everything about everyone!

I have had further thoughts on people mistaking The Crown for a documentary. After all, people do send cards presents when characters in soap operas get married or have babies. So maybe there are loads of people who have difficulty separating fact from fiction. Of course, some people have this problem about how big the crowds are at inauguration ceremonies and what the results of elections are. Therefore we should not be surprised if ordinary folk get confused. 

This afternoon we are having a sort of zoom get-together. This is a bunch of friends, some of whom have known each other since early childhood, going to primary school together. Others were at grammar school together. I got to know them when I was in my first year at university. It’s much more daunting  meeting your boyfriend’s oldest friends than it is meeting his parents. Parents can be largely ignored apart from those formal occasions when you are invited round for tea or whatever. If you and the oldest friends don’t hit it off, well, you’re pretty much stuffed. We got on fine.

After university we went our separate ways but met up from time to time. Cold weekends in the Lake District are among the old memories. When children came along we almost but not quite lost touch. The children grew up and flew the nest - well, mostly - one of our number has children still in the process of flying the nest. Quite a few years ago now we had a reunion, something we have repeated every year, indeed sometimes more than once a year ever since. We’ve had adventures on steam trains and such like, always culminating in meals with lots of wine.

Then along comes Covid-19! So today we are having an online reunion. All of us having nice food in our own homes and raising a glass online to better times in the future ... maybe next year!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!