Weathered shelter

Those weather people only got it half right today. It was a day of two halves: a lovely morning, and a dull, overcast afternoon. I was banking on its staying sunny all day, so got some work out of the way in the morning. By the time I got out and about the clouds had taken over fully. Rather than go the planned photo expedition I just went in to town and wandered around Grafton Street and Stephen's Green, half thinking in terms of getting a book to turn to when I lay John Updike's Rabbit series aside for a bit (after all, if he wrote the four books at ten-year intervals, I can justifiably take a break when it comes to reading them. Mind you, Rabbit Redux is improving as it goes along. I'm ambivalent about the main character, though. I thoroughly disliked him in Rabbit, Run, but he's mellowed a bit in Redux and it's nasty wife Janice who's now lost my sympathy.

Speaking of books, I must mention another book I got recently: This Thing of Darkness, by Harry Thompson. I'm a bit of a sucker for historical novels at the best of times, and this is one of the best I've read. It's about Robert FitzRoy, captain of The Beagie and his much more famous passenger Charles Darwin. It's a tremendous read, and I absolutely raced through its many pages. Poor old FitzRoy! He comes across as a remarkable man (apart from being an inspired and inspiring seaman, he was a stickler for accuracy and produced charts of South America which were still used until recent times; he was responsible for changing the old 'larboard' to 'port' because the original word was too often confused with 'starboard' in stormy conditions; and he was a pioneer of weather forecasting). Despite all his talents and achievements, petty jealousies and too many instances of rubbing up important backs the wrong way meant that he never received the acknowledgement he deserved, whereas Darwin (who is portrayed none too sympathetically in the book) had accolade after accolade piled on him. A wonderful read, and highly recommended.

After that long digression, I have to say that I didn't come home with anything new after all. I'll persevere with Rabbit Redux and finish that before panicking and finding something to turn to afterwards.

And the blip? That's just the roof of one of the shelters in the centre of St Stephen's Green park. I liked the different colours of the weathering. The forecast remains good for tomorrow. Let's hope they've got it right this time.

Afterthought: I've just spotted what I was up to a year ago: ah, Croatia -- great memories!