Is it me, or is everything on TV crap? Aside from the welcome addition of Erin Watts, I watched Spooks tonight wondering why on earth I bothered, as indeed I have done with much TV recently. I know some TV is rubbish, wonderfully rubbish, yet in the right moment it can be so fit for purpose. Wilfred is my current favourite aside from the Great British Bake Off. But everything else essentially fails to engage me. I am a TV snob. There, I said it. And don't get me started on films. It's the last series of Spooks and I have been a loyal servant. Misguided, I think. Tom Quinn, Harry needs you.
Of course along with Spooks and Strictly, there are other hints that the autumnal season is creeping in. Adam, the bloke off Countryfile (come back Julia Bradbury) has almost finished his harvesting and is talking about getting ready for winter. And if you look carefully, the leaves everywhere are beginning to turn. Change. On the road side, on the trails, even in the garden, though the grass still grows at a rate that has this year failed comprehensively to be synchronous with the green bin collection cycle. But it's all a mere suggestion that autumn is just around the corner. I mean clearly it is autumn, the calender states this fact very clearly. I don't want to make out I'm in denial, just noting a few observations.
And then there's change in the weather. Perhaps it's the weather that's teasing me with false hope. I had a great run out this morning. Now, I'd like to think I'm not shy of running in the rain, the dark or the cold. In fact, I love it. But this morning the sun was shining and I was excited by this. It was like a treat. A stolen moment. And every run I take just now in the sunshine, I can't help thinking that this will be the last time, the last time the skies will be blue, and the last time I'll feel genuine heat from the sun on my back. Like a child watching fireworks gazing up at the sky, every time the sun pops out I give a little 'ooooh' and 'ahhhh', quietly wishing for it never to end. Unlike Spooks!
Highlight of the run was coming across a densely packed field of cows up by the Wizard. Something has got their attention and well, I've never heard mooing like it. Avoiding further pleonasm, all I can say is that the noise reverberated around the woods, like a flotilla of boats and ships, parping off their whistles and horns at the welcome arrival of a mighty ocean liner (I think there's a word for this, but can't recall). It was a surreal experience. Speaking of things mighty, I produced another house brick of a cake today, in the form of Banana and Walnut loaf. I went a bit off recipe, so only myself to blame. In isolation it was OK, but once again, the current Mrs Stock usurped me with an excellent Apple cake. No change there, then.
