Autumn. Out and about. Italian rain. Music events. Christmas is apparently coming already. TV programmes.

Well, autumn seems to have arrived with a vengeance. It was positively chilly when I went out running first thing this morning. It’s a lovely day though, blue sky and sunshine but with a rather biting wind, perfect for a bit of a family walkabout. That was what my daughter had planned. She and Granddaughter Number Two, together with the small boy and their recently acquired rescue puppy, flown in from Cyprus, decided we should go for a walk after they had taken the small girl to school. This meant that they arrived more or less as I emerged from the shower. 

 

Once I was properly dressed we took the puppy for a short walk, my daughter and I had coffee and then she and the small boy departed for his Friday morning toddler music group. Granddaughter Number Two and I spent some time moving various things away from floor level and out of reach of the puppy who is, of course, teething and wants to chew everything. Then we all finally had some proper breakfast. 

Later in the morning my daughter and the small boy returned and we all went for a longer walk. So I seem to have spent a good deal of time walking around the village this morning. It’s a good job it’s such a nice day for being out and about.

Over in Italy they are being less fortunate with the weather: 

“At least nine people have died and four are missing after dramatic storms provoked severe flooding in Italy’s central Marche region, forcing politicians to finally raise the topic of the climate crisis a week before general elections.

Dozens of others are reported to have saved themselves by climbing on to rooftops and trees, in scenes described as being akin to an “apocalypse”. Fifty people are being treated in hospital.

Heavy rain began to lash the region on Thursday afternoon, with streets turning into rivers and 420mm of rain falling in the worst-hit town, Cantiano, within a few hours, half the amount that fell on the town throughout the whole of 2021, Corriere della Sera reported.

Mario Tozzi, a geologist, told La Presse that six months’ worth of rain had fallen across the region within three hours.”

The world’s odd weather patterns continue to cause chaos. 

A little further up the road from our house, at the cricket club they are getting ready for Party in the Park. This is a sort of local mini music festival, featuring the brass band and a collection of tribute acts I have never heard of. I think this is the fifteenth time they have organised it. Of course during the pandemic it had to be cancelled. A friend of mine marvelled at the fact that they have decided to go ahead with it under the current circumstances. Indeed she suggested that the organisers, who have spent a good part of the last year working on it, and attendees, who have all coughed up the price of tickets, might be arrested by the “mourning police”. 

The clothing company Fatface send me advertising emails. Their latest reads: “100 Days to Go! 🎁🎄”. It seems a little early to start on the Christmas advertising but there it is!

I was reading about “This England”, a five part series by Michael Winterbottom which is about to appear on Sky, starring Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson, telling the story of the pandemic. Really? Do we need such a thing!

 “The period This England covers is quite tight, just that first wave. In retrospect, of course, that was the most dramatic time. We’d never seen a pandemic before. We’d never heard birdsong so loudly or missed our friends en masse. We’d never tried to process how large a number 1,000 is when attached to deaths in a day. We didn’t have a clue. As later events – worse surprises, fresh lockdowns – piled up, it was like building a carapace of cynicism. But those early days were defined by ignorance and innocence. “I felt it important to underline that this was a new virus,” says Winterbottom. “One of the main things we wanted to capture was how quickly people had to respond to this ever-moving target.””

Meanwhile Emma Brockes, in her Digested Week, reflected, among other things, on the apparent change in Theresa May:

“This week, she continued making public appearances and speaking about the Queen with such warmth and humanity, one wondered where this delightful version of May had been until now. For surprise transformations, it can really only be beaten by the time Michael Crawford turned from Frank Spencer into Phantom of the Opera.”

The thing is that I remember Michael Crawford when he was a bright young actor before he turned into daft Frank Spencer!

She also reflects on That Queue:

“It’s a queue to break one’s heart, full of Thermoses, cheerfulness, solidarity, snake-eyed vigilance against the threat of people pushing in and a woman who has held in a wee for a solid 48 hours – a feat to be immortalised, two years hence, in The Queue, a novel by Cormac McCarthy, and later an Oscar-winning film (dir Yorgos Lanthimos).”

I would not be at all surprised to see such a novel and film appearing. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!