Such Cynicism in One So Young

I was asked yesterday how old a friend's daughter was.  As I wasn't absolutely sure I thought I'd just check her Facebook page.  What I also noticed whilst there was one of her interests cited as Bob Marley's statement that "Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for."  It made me think.  Now this young (20) lady was a ferociously intelligent child and is, I assume, still ferociously intelligent and I know that Facebook can be a pretty superficial medium of communication.  On the other hand I know of at least one lady who announced her engagement to most of her (small) family using that medium.  But I shall forget about Facebook and the young lady and concentrate of the quote.  If one accepts that the statement is true - and I certainly don't - then it follows that she herself hurts everyone with whom she has social connections.  It follows logically that if all people hurt you and you are a person then you must hurt all people.  It's a simple syllogism.  Please tell me that it's not true.

Fine When They Work

I have a kitchen clock which is guaranteed to be correct at all time to within one millionth or whatever of the Rugby Time Signal.  It's German technology (it doesn't actually say where it was made!).  It's great when it's working.  British Summer Time adjustments are made automatically.  But every now and again the battery runs out and a new batter has to be inserted.  So for the next x number of hours until the Rugby radio signal is sent (once a day) the clock doesn't work at all.  This week the battery ran out.  The new battery - duly tested - has been put in.  That was Wednesday.  The clock still won't show the correct time.  When I re-insert the battery in the clock it either won't stop just going round and round at a racing car speed or it won't start at all.  Actually it's a bit like some people I know are in the morning.  Sometimes - just sometimes, mind you - I think that this technology lark isn't all it's cracked up to be.  What was wrong with the old clock stuck on the mantlepiece or in the corner (few people have a mantlepiece in the kitchen now) which had to be wound every day, lost exactly 7 minutes between winds and was almost always set at the wrong time anyway?

Right I don't need a clock to tell me that the weather's fabulous - 18 deg is forecast here for today - and I have to finish painting fences. 

Kestrel

Whilst David and I were driving near Villeneuve one day (actually I should have said that we were travelling because only David was driving; I was simply a passenger) we seemed to come across dozens of Kestrels.  From a moving car and often through the glass I tried time after time to capture the birds in the air and on electricity lines.  Time after time I thought I had succeeded.  In fact I had captured many pictures but when I enlarged them they were all, predictably I suppose, blurred.

 

But I was rather pleased with the next one which was taken from the ramparts of the village of Soumensac down into a field hundreds of metres away:

An Autumn Morning in Villeneuve

I didn't post yesterday and if I'm not fairly quick I may well not post today either.   I've been pondering again.  I'm in that sort of mood this evening.  Anyway I've decided that that post belongs in another place.  So this post is hearkening back to our time in France which seems so long ago.  In fact looking back I posted very little of the three weeks in France.  Perhaps I'll rectify that over the next few weeks.  I shall start with two photos take on an autumnal morning in Villeneuve-de-Duras.