It was cold and frosty early this morning. This was not evident when my alarm rang. It was much more a question of whether I could persuade myself to get up and organised and head for Uppermill market or snooze the alarm a couple of times, run round our village and catch a bus to Uppermill later, after breakfast. The latter option won. I still have fish I bought last Wednesday in the freezer, so there was no rush to get before the fish-man left.
So I eventually got out of bed and went for a run round the village. It was a beautiful, crisp, clear morning - blue sky and (rather chilly) sunshine to cheer everyone up after the grey days we’ve had recently. The frost was still around and the more northerly of the two millponds on my route had a new thin skin of ice. It must have been quite lot colder overnight.
It’s a lot colder though in New York city where, according to this article, they had up to 15 inches of snow in some places, 8 people have been found frozen to death, and the River Hudson froze!
And in Sicily they’re having problems with a hilltop town sliding away. A storm caused a landslide and houses and cars just slid away. Nobody has been killed. Residents whose property is in imminent danger have been evacuated and those in other zones have been warned.
Also in Italy there have been some complaints about the proposal that ICE should have a security role in the Winter Olympics about to start there next Friday. Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, told RTL radio that the agents would not be welcome in the city “because they don’t guarantee they’re aligned with our democratic security management methods”.
“This is a militia that kills,” he said. “It’s clear that they are not welcome in Milan, there’s no doubt about it. Can’t we just say no to Trump for once? We can take care of their security ourselves. We don’t need ICE.”
There you go. Protests continue against ICE in the USA. By pure coincidence I have just read Isabel Allende’s book, The Wind Knows My Name, with stories of children separated from their parents, beginning with one Kindertransport child and looking at cases right up into 2022. The immigration and refugee problem has been going on for a long time!
Getting back to my Wednesday, after breakfast I hopped on a bus to Uppermill. There I called in at our GP’s clinic to arrange for a blood test, as my doctor had reminded to do. They could fit me in within half an hour! That was a surprise, giving the lie to the stories about how inefficient the NHS can be. So I scuttled down to the local library, exchanged my library books and hurried back to the clinic. There I was efficiently dealt with, unlike a couple of people I spoke to who had been waiting some considerable time!
A quick stop at the Italian greengrocery, where they had rhubarb, the first I have seen this season, and in no time at all I was on the bus and homeward-bound!
Sometimes things just fall into place!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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