The outdoor Christmas lights went up this weekend.  That was a first.  I’ve always been a proponent of not decorating until December.  I notice many people are decorating early to bring on the feelgood factor because of pandemic fatigue.  That wasn’t our motive. Last weekend was gloriously sunny and warm so we thought we’d take advantage.  ‘Make hay while the sun shines’, as they say.

On the face of it, it’s a silly saying.  I, nor anybody I know, makes hay.

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It’s a stormy, Autumn day.  The wind is coming in the from the West, whipping sheets of rain past my window.  Unusually, I can’t see the Minquiers, a group of islands and rocks about 15 km south of Jersey, where I live.  I can barely make out the sea for the low cloud.  There are loads of whitecaps.  The BBC weather report talks about big seas and dangerous tides in the English Channel.  The waves are pummeling our beaches.  My cats are tucked up on their favorite chairs.  There is no desire to play outside today.

Stormy weather.  On a grander perspective I am curious as to when the storms of 2020 will end for us all?  The world is indeed on a steep trajectory of changes this year.

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Aging is an interesting thing.  In 2020, I deeply appreciate my years of experience.

I’ve enjoyed the freedom to do what I have pleased for most of my working life.  A great deal of doing what gave me pleasure when I was in my teen’s and twenties, was going to parties, dances, concerts and night clubs.  I enjoyed many a classroom where I was eager to learn and socialize with others.

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The world is upside down! As I look out my office window, I am watching a house being demolished on the street below us.  Breaking up the concrete and dismantling the metal mesh is a noisy process.  It makes writing difficult.

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Last Sunday we went for a walk on the cliff path of Gronez, a headland on the north west coast of Jersey.  Gronez is replete with fortifications built by the Germans during their occupation of the Channel Islands during WWII.  Hitler viewed the occupation of the Islands as strategic to form part of his Atlantic Wall.

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