Spencer

The week commencing 15 Nov. included a walk with Paddy's new dogsitter, so she gets to see him off lead--he's a very good boy.

Thursday's highlight was a film on the rights of nature, done by law professors at Queen's. It was a very lyrical exploration of Irish language, mythology, and the role of colonialism in degrading the natural environment and our relationship to it. Also the legal standing of forests, rivers, bogs in Western capitalism vs in an imagined world where we protect, rather than destroy, the biosphere that sustains us. One professor said something profound while standing on a cliff in Mayo. He said these mountains and this coast will be here long after we are gone. Ultimately, the law of nature will prevail over the law of man. The rights of nature are about rebalancing those laws, putting nature (including people) before profit.

So that was Thursday. Friday I had a nice long catch up with Marek, who goes from conference to conference, including giving the keynote at a Dubai law conference next week. He's delivering a paper I edited over a year ago--academia moves very slowly. His research was on the ways in which competition law favours developed over developing economies. That is, legal judgements against monopolists (in countries with highly developed approaches to competition law) don't hold in countries that don't have good protections against cartels. Guess which countries those are?

Saturday I saw Spencer, which I thought was brilliant. Imagine having a very unhealthy relationship to food and living in a family that does little else than gather for sumptuous meals. And I can't imagine living in a family that celebrates killing things (hunting pheasants features prominently, in fact I think there's a dead pheasant in the opening shot--prefiguring more destruction of beautiful things.

On Sunday I attemped to make pumpkin bread, which I have been making since I was about 8 years old. During the week I went into town to buy more canned pumpkin. Last year, I thought 2.99 pounds was a lot for a can, this year 3.99. Thanks Brexit! Or inflation to cover Covid costs. Who knows.

The sad end to the story is that none of the loaves turned out. Overcooked on the outside, and they fell apart when removed from the pans. I used the larger of the two ovens and have never mastered the dial with six icons. I guessed which one to use, 45 minutes in, the insides were liquid, so I tried another icon. I don't think this is the Mary Berry approved method for making perfect cakes. They are edible but not something you'd give as a gift--the original idea.

15-21 Nov.