Is it really a week ago I posted about routines? How time flies. I’m not sure if it counts as a new routine yet, but I sat outside our front door again, reading, and I also listened to an episode of In Our Time from 2011 on The Origins of Infectious Diseases. Cheerful stuff! But interesting. I dare say things have moved on in the intervening 9 years, but the basics still hold I think. You can listen to it or download it at the In Our Time webpages.
Scottish Government put out a paper today on policy issues coming out of lockdown. The paper can be read or downloaded here. I’ve seen a bunch of criticism about lack of specifics in the document but, if I read it correctly, it was never meant to be about specifics. It’s about the things that are going to be factors in decision making. From that perspective it looks to me like a good start, though I’ve only read it through once. Chris Deerin in The New Statesman agrees. The Devil, of course, will be in the detail and there is a long way to go, but the contrast between it and the ramblings of Raab and Hancock, who sound like a bad club act, is stark.
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Four days ago, I set myself a new target of a continuous 45 minute exercise bike ride. I did that this afternoon. The obvious next target is one continuous hour OR increase the resistance again and go back to shorter times and build up. I’m undecided.
After that I only had a short walk this evening. It struck me while I was out that several people were out walking in good clothes, like they were promenading. It was quite civilised. There wasn’t much wildlife about, although I did see a particularly ambitious jackdaw trying to chase off a heron.
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I’m going a bit off the beaten track with the music tonight. To the best of my knowledge, The Faded Coat of Blue was written by John Hugh McNaughton (1829-1891) and first published in 1865. It was about the American Civil War (1861-1865) but was revived later during the Spanish-American War in 1898 (which also gave us the excellent Fightin’ In The War With Spain recorded in 1929 by Wilmer Watts and the Lonely Eagles). The Faded Coat of Blue was popularised by the Carter Family, but this version is by Elizabeth LaPrelle.
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