As predictable as night following day, January is proving to be the deadliest month - so far - of the pandemic. Exactly one year since the first covid-related death was recorded in the UK, the past month has seen more than 1,000 deaths per day.
A rare weekend sale today: the harbour at Watchet, Somerset…
If you believe in a God who is both omniscient and omnipotent - and it’s a central tenet of Christian faith to do so - then you also have to believe that he is responsible for the manufacture and transmission of the coronavirus. Since God considered his creation, in its entirety, to be “very good”, we have to assume that the virus, the malaria mosquito and the typhoid baccilius met with as much divine approval as a golden sunset, the wings of a butterfly and the liquid song of the nightingale.
Licensed today: a Sainsburys delivery van in the village of Thornton-le-Dale...
My bucket list has been reconfigured, to reflect these difficult times. Out: swimming with dolphins, viewing the northern lights, travelling on the Orient Express, driving Route 66, walking the Great Wall of China, going bungee jumping, chasing a tornado, disarming a bomb with one second to spare. In: get vaccinated, complete a thousand-piece jigsaw (of which most of the pieces are sky), meet up with friends in the beer garden of a country pub, enjoy a relationship more intimate than that between a man and his local newsagent. Oh, and get another facial tattoo.
Licenced today: a postman on his rounds in the village of Boxford, Berkshire...
Albert Einstein once observed that Chico, his wire-haired fox terrier, was possessed of both great intelligence and an ability to hold a grudge. “He feels sorry for me because I receive so much mail; that’s why he tries to bite the mailman”.
One of my better-selling pix: Windermere from Brant Fell...
When the River Derwent overflows its banks, as it does every winter, there are flood-plains to accept the water. This is Wheldrake Ings, a nature reserve managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust…
Licenced today: St Andrew's Church in the village of Bishopthorpe... just across the road from Bishopthorpe Palace, the residence of the Archbishop of York...
I watched Joe Biden’s inauguration yesterday, with a tear in my eye. After Trump’s reign of terror, which started badly and only got worse, it was a relief to have a functioning adult in the White House. Three cheers for the resumption of competent - and unexciting - government. If Biden can really “bring people back together again”, over the next four (eight?) years, it would be a major achievement, even if he does little else. In the meantime, Trump’s big orange face will continue to haunt my dreams.
Asselby is expanding… though not at its extremities, nor into the fields that surround the village. New houses are being built, instead, on patches of land which used to be gardens, paddocks or orchards. Old agricultural buildings are being converted or demolished, depending on condition. The ‘For Sale’ sign on the new house next door to the Old Sunday School has changed to ‘Sold’, so I’ll no doubt be getting new neighbours soon. Though the house was advertised as a ‘barn conversion’, it’s actually more of a ‘pig-sty conversion’…
Well, here we are, in the last few hours of the Trump presidency. The country is in such turmoil that when Joe Biden takes the oath of office, and delivers his speech, there will be 25,000 National Guard troops - rather than cheering crowds - lining the mall. That’s more than the total number of troops deployed in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan combined. If Trump had accepted the results of a free and fair election, and facilitated a peaceful transition from one administration to the next, this show of strength would have been unnecessary.
Trump has broken with tradition by refusing to attend Biden’s inauguration (the last outgoing president to do likewise was Andrew Johnson, back in 1868). He gave one last scripted speech (ie not scripted by him), in which he listed all his many ‘accomplishments’ during four years in the White House… but not a word about organising an armed insurrection!
A frosty morning on Skipwith Common...
We can’t blame soon to be ex-president Trump for the virus which has now claimed 400,000 American lives. But we can hold him responsible for the inadequacy of his response, which looks criminally negligent. On his last day prowling around the White House, he has an approval rating of just 29%, the lowest on record. But, frankly, for a man who organised an armed insurrection, that’s actually not bad…
Pic licenced today...
Donald Trump is busy tying up a few loose ends before he vacates the White House on Wednesday… which include racing through a string of federal executions, and stripping the protections from Califoria’s conservation areas, so they can be exploited by mining companies. Oh, and granting pardons to criminals, cronies and co-conspirators. There’s a brisk market for pardons, with wealthy felons hoping to have their crimes and misdemeanours expunged from the records. John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer convicted of illegally disclosing classified information, was told by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani that he could secure a pardon for $2 million. He turned the offer down, but, who knows, in the final days of the Trump presidency, there may be room to haggle…
Had the rioters broken into the senate chamber, as the lawmakers were certifying the results of the presidential election, does anyone doubt that representatives would have been captured, held hostage or even murdered? According to eye-witnesses, vice-president Mike Pence was ushered to safety with less than a minute to spare, as armed rioters stormed the chamber, shouting “Hang Mike Pence”. Security is now being ramped up in all fifty state capitols, in expectation of further violence tomorrow. Yet the man who incited the violence is still holed up in the White House, alone with what passes for his thoughts. Meanwile the removal vans have pulled up outside the White House, to mark the end of the most divisive and catastrophic presidency in American history…
Though I keep abreast of the news in our dis-united kingdom, the story is one of governmental incompetence and missed opportunities. I expect the figures for covid infections, hospitalisations and deaths to keep rising for at least another month (1,564 people have died in the last 24 hours), before they start to stabilise… as a consequence of the strict lockdown and the roll-out of vaccines. We will no doubt muddle through, but life, in the meantime, looks as dreary as the weather.
There’s nothing dreary about what’s happening on the other side of the Atlantic; the news from Washington DC is rivetting. By refusing to accept the result of a free and fair election, Donald Trump launched an assault on democracy, which, last Wednesday, turned into a literal assault, as he incited his followers to march on the Capitol. His promise - “I’ll be there with you” - proved to be yet another lie, as he retreated to the White House to watch events unfold on TV. When prominent figures phoned him, to ask him to go public with an appeal for calm, and to call out the National Guard, he refused to take their calls.
Four people died in the attack on the Capitol building. Having seen a lot of filmed footage, I’m amazed that the death toll wasn’t greater. If the mob had found any lawmakers in the Senate, I’m convinced that some of them would have been killed. When I heard the crowd shouting “Hang Mike Pence’, it didn’t sound like an idle threat. Republic senator Jason Crow was one lawmaker who feared the worst: “I made the decision to call my wife, tell her that I loved her, to pass that along to the kids, and I was preparing to either make a stand or fight our way out”.
In the aftermath of the incursion, Trump addressed the rioters directly. “I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order,” he said in a video. “We love you”, he added, “you’re very special”.
It’s hard to know what Trump hopes to gain from inciting his army of racists, fascists, fruitcakes, white supremacists and conspiracy theorists. It’s obvious, from the way he still treats the virus as a hoax, that he has given up any pretence of good governance. Like the UK, America has just posted a record number of covid-related deaths in the last 24 hours: 4,320. His reputation is iredeemably tarnished, the Trump brand is toxic and his presidential legacy is as the organiser of an armed rebellion: America’s beer hall putsch. We’ve heard not a word of contrition from the conspirator-in-chief, and the governors of all fifty states are gearing up for further violence before Joe Biden’s inauguration next week…
Licensed today: Black Middens Bastle House, a fortified farmhouse in Northumberland…
On Jan 11, 1935, aviator Amelia Earhart began an 18-hour trip from Honolulu to Oakland, California, making her the first person to fly solo across any part of the Pacific Ocean. Joni Mitchell pays tribute at a concert in London, in 1983…
The president of the United States - yes, the actual president - incited his followers to invade the Capitol buildings in Washington, the citadel of American democracy. If this was happening in what Donald Trump calls a “shithole country”, we’d call it an attempted coup. Five people died. Having seen a lot of footage of the rioting, I’m only amazed the death toll wasn’t a great deal higher.
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has spoken to the Pentagon’s top general about “preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike”. Though Trump is due to leave the White House in ten days, he could still do a lot of damage between now and then. He already has blood on his hands, along with his many ‘enablers’ in the Republican party. That’s even before we factor in the number of Americans - 340,000 and counting - who have died from Covid-19 while Trump did nothing except take to Twitter with his lies, taunts and conspiracy theories.
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters”, Trump boasted in 2016. Can this narcissistic psychopath really be allowed to remain in post, even for one more day? Ideally he should be locked inside the Oval Office, with a bottle of Jack Daniels and a pearl-handled revolver, and told to “consider his future”. Failing that, he should be frogmarched out of the White House - tomorrow preferably - by military police, and deposited, like a sack of rubbish, in Pennsyhlvania Avenue. There’s still time to change the locks, fumigate the building and prepare for the low-key inauguration of “Sleepy Joe” Biden on January 20th…
“Start the new year with this inspiring choice of online health breaks”, gushes an article in today’s Guardian. Yes, that’s right: an “online health break” means more time spent gawping at a laptop screen. The narcissist with money burning a hole in his (or, more likely, her) pocket can take a virtual trip to India. “The Ananda Starter includes an in-depth ayurvedic consultation with a doctor to review your mental, physical and emotional health and assess your body type (dosha) and current imbalances; a set of signature dosha-based recipes; an individual yoga consultation and assessment; and a private class (choose from hatha yoga or meditation) with tailored advice and adjustments”.
Or maybe a weekend course “filmed in and around the villa near Montefollonico, south-east of Siena. Meditate under the olive trees, do yoga in the hills, learn to bake bread on an organic farm, and hear Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun, talking about making her home in Cortona, about what it’s like to follow your dreams”.
Or how about a three-day retreat offering “a guided deep detox alongside live classes, educational talks, coaching workshops and fitness sessions. You’ll receive a home detox box at the start, with nutritional supplements, dry skin body brush, ayurvedic tongue cleanser and colon cleansing kit, and there is support and guidance via online Q&A sessions with nutritional therapists, counsellors, a hypnotherapist and a fitness trainer. Raw juice deliveries are on offer at an extra cost”. Extra cost? With the retreat costing “from £499", you’d have thought they could throw in some raw juice for free.
I’m looking after my own well-being by going for walks, and wondering if it’s too early to have a drink…
Show-host Jimmy Kimmel is affable, funny, incredulous - and hits just the right tone - as he reviews the Trump-inspired incursion into the Capitol buildings...
Unable to tear myself away from the laptop screen, I watched last night’s insurrection from start to finish. I simply don’t understand what makes Donald J Trump such a compelling figure for so many people. This is a man who, though banned from Twitter, still has access to the nuclear codes. During his last two weeks in office there's really no knowing what he might do. The last time I watched live TV, without blinking, or moving from the sofa, was 9/11.
Licenced today: The Basingstoke Canal at Winchfield, Hampshire...
Boris Johnson is getting flak for changing his mind about how best to deal with the virus. In a political context we talk disparagingly about U-turns and‘flip-flopping’, while praising the man who has ‘the courage of his convictions’. I’m no fan of Boris, or this Tory government, but a willingness to change our minds, when in receipt of new and compelling evidence, is what drives the scientific enterprise forward. According to a quote attributed to John Maynard Keynes: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
Lake Windermere from Brant Fell...
A tape has emerged of an hour-long phone conversation between Donald Trump and Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger. Trump tried to persuade Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state. “I just want to find 11,780 votes”, he said, which would have allowed him to beat Joe Biden… by a single vote! After he’d failed to persuade Raffensperger to overturn the result of a free and fair election, Trump threatened him with legal action. Before ending the call, Raffensperger said “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true”. Having left office, most presidents write their memoires; the only book I want to read by Donald J Trump is his prison diary…
Having become disoriented yesterday on Bleaklow, in Derbyshire, two female hikers had to call out the mountain rescue team. I can’t be too judgemental. I also got thoroughly lost on Bleaklow, many years ago, when I was taking pix for a book on the Pennine Way. Misreading my OS map, I walked off the hill in entirely the wrong direction. By the time I reached the valley bottom I was more than ten miles from the car. A walk I thought was over had barely begun.
Even the rocks on Bleaklow are enjoying more intimacy than I am…
This pic reminds me of lines from Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep…
