They have worked so hard to make the club and course user friendly and their coffee shop is still open for takeaways. I don’t play golf (mum and dad were keen golfers) but Chris enjoys the game and often has a round before coming here to patch up gates and put in fencing and plan projects with Jeremy. This afternoon he and one of his golfing pals walked around the golf course without hitting a ball (not allowed in this new lockdown). Then they came here to have a look around whilst I was looking glamorous in my overalls and mucking out duck and chicken houses. Following government regulations I kept out of their way.

The duck house and four of the hen houses are now clean and filled with fresh straw. Three more left to do and plenty of rich manure has been put on the raised beds. Good for growing vegetables.

In 2008 our son conducted an interview, in Jericho, with Saeb Erekat who died today in Jerusalem aged 65 from covid related causes. Mr Erekat was one of the chief Palestinian negotiators with Israel for over 20 years. The link to the piece is here. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/sep/26/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast

The new vaccine, to the passing of Rabbi Lord Sacks, to reminiscing about past holidays and about family and much, much more. We both agreed that Rabbi Sacks was a towering intellect who was also a supreme communicator. As you can see from his daughter’s hesped (eulogy) below he was also a loving and doting father and grandfather

So Nigel got an extra treat. Mabel won’t eat raw egg or drink fresh goat milk. She prefers processed food!

Maybe the announcement of a forthcoming vaccine and the possibility of a peaceful presidential transition in the US will bring more light into the world. That doesn’t mean jumping on and off aircraft as if there were no global consequences nor does it mean continuing to farm crops and animals in a thoughtless way which poisons our land. But if we can “reset” the way we live then maybe we will have cause for celebration.

Brussels Sprouts aplenty. Pick, wash, trim and then cook