Deep into the Winter Woods

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My country (the UK) is currently allied with Ukraine against Russia, and that is strongly supported here. I too think it's the right thing to do, given that the enemy is Vladimir Putin, a vicious and expansionist dictator who is a clear threat to peace in Europe much more widely than Ukraine -- and a man whose regime has directly attacked the UK physically (Salisbury) and online (plenty of times). Over the Atlantic, Donald Trump is making it increasingly clear that he likes Putin and by extension Russia, so we in Europe need to step up our game. It won't be easy, but I don't think we have any alternative.

But as I said in the subject line, we need to avoid that leading to us thinking that Ukraine or President Zelenskyy are perfect, because they're not. For example, last month Ukraine passed a law weakening the independence of the country's anti-corruption bodies. This was very unpopular and caused the largest street protests in Ukraine since Russia's invasion. A week later, the law was reversed -- but damage had already been done, and trust in the President has fallen. Zelenskyy said he'd changed course after the protests, and also because of reaction from elsewhere in Europe.

That last bit is significant. Ukraine wants to join the EU, and it hasn't done itself any favours with this. Ukraine has had serious problems with corruption since long before the current war, and that hasn't improved -- the Corruption Perceptions Index shows that it's seen as more corrupt than every single current EU member. Ukraine is nowhere near meeting the Copenhagen Criteria, especially on judicial independence, and its wartime restrictions on the expression of Russian culture are incompatible with EU ideals.¹ The idea that even if peace were secured now, Ukraine would be an EU member quickly, is wildly overoptimistic. It won't be.
¹ This one is complicated by the fact that a few existing member states, such as Latvia, have similar restrictions.

This does not mean that Ukraine should give up on becoming part of the EU. Bulgaria was once hugely corrupt, still has significant problems in that regard, yet is now an EU state. Perhaps a bigger stumbling block might be one that rarely makes the headlines: agriculture. An EU-member Ukraine would be expected to accede to the Common Agricultural Policy, yet as things stand it would risk severely unbalancing it. Unlike other EU countries, Ukraine has enormous agri-businesses cultivating hundreds of thousands of hectares, and some Ukrainian intensive farming practices don't meet EU environmental standards.

I won't go on as I am certainly not a specialist, but my basic point is this: everyone wants peace, or at least everyone worth considering wants peace. But even when peace is achieved, Ukraine does not magically become like any other European country. Not even when the wartime damage has been repaired. After reforms? Well, it's a European state and like most other European states, including the UK, there are some serious problems in its structures that can't simply be brushed aside because it's anti-Putin. (I'm aware that I have at least one Ukrainian reader here, so I hope I can accept corrections to my thoughts with grace and humility.)

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196/365: Tributes to Ozzy Osbourne, Birmingham
I was in Birmingham today for boring reasons, but there was some interest to be had. It's VJ Day, and so there was a two-minute silence at midday. I observed it, but not many others did. To be honest, I'm not surprised: I have to say I think the sheer number of such silences is becoming excessive. We really can't mark all significant WW1/WW2 anniversaries this way, otherwise we'll be having them every day.¹ It feels a bit like the way people wear poppies now from about mid-October, which again I find excessive. Go back a few decades and they were often worn for only one day. I do go beyond that, but not the weeks and weeks that seem to be expected of people like newsreaders now.
¹ Plus, as my late grandpa (who was in the Royal Engineers and would have been posted to Burma had the war not ended) said, VJ Day is different from Remembrance Sunday. He felt it should be more of a celebration and less sombre.

There was nothing photogenic that I saw on that score, so my 365 photo for today is something completely different. This is Black Sabbath Bridge (yes, that's its official name) on Broad Street, across a canal just outside the city centre. Unsurprisingly it's become a centre for fans to leave tributes to Ozzy Osbourne, as you can see here. I had to wait a couple of minutes to get this photo because there were so many other people -- tourists from all over the world -- who wanted to get their pictures taken in front of it. The city museum had a temporary exhibition on Osbourne's solo career, too, although I didn't have the time (or, really, the inclination) to go and see that. I was in Broad Street anyway, so...

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195/365: St Chad's Gospels, Lichfield Cathedral
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I was in Lichfield today, ancient cathedral city and birthplace of Samuel Johnson. I had a couple of hours to myself, which was a nice treat, and I spent a good deal of that in the cathedral. They were showing the Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners, which as usual were superb -- though the low lighting in the cathedral wasn't ideal for this purpose. I'm also not that keen on the way Lichfield has (or at least had today) someone standing next to the way out asking if I wanted to donate. I'm used to Worcester Cathedral, which isn't as pushy and simply has various ways to donate (or buy stuff in the shop), while Gloucester Cathedral openly asks you for a specific amount on the way in. I must say that I prefer both of those approaches. I've never liked being asked for money on the way out of a place, whether it be a charity shop or a church. As it happened I'd called at a donation station earlier on anyway.

Anyway, that little moan apart, Lichfield Cathedral is a glorious building. It's huge inside and out -- you keep happening upon extra side chapels and staircases and the like. In the Lady Chapel they were exhibiting some of their greatest treasures, of which this may be the most remarkable: the surviving volume of St Chad's Gospels, written in the eighth century. (The second volume was probably lost when the cathedral was looted in 1646, during the Civil War.) This book, though in Latin, contains marginal annotations in Old Welsh -- some of the earliest in that language to survive. The similar pigment in the Lichfield Angel and analysis of the paper suggest that, although the book was with the Welsh monks of St Teilo in the ninth century, it was probably written in Lichfield itself, not in Wales.

It really is an extraordinary sight, even behind glass, and even to a non-religious person like me. I'll reassure you that (probably unlike most visitors!) I read every single word of Lichfield Cathedral's photography policy, and every word on the signs up in this room, and there was nothing stopping me taking this photo. I did not, of course, use flash -- so I think it's come out all right given that the dim lighting meant I had to use a 1/14s shutter speed!

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194/365: Old Mill Street Hospital, Kidderminster
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Not quite as warm today, but it still felt hot in the sunshine. I was in Kidderminster for a small part of the day, and that's where I took this photograph. It shows part of the former Mill Street Hospital, built in 1870, which closed about 30 years ago when its operations moved to the more modern building that serves as Kidderminster Hospital today. What you see here is only about half the old hospital, as there's a second, similarly sized (but less striking) building out of shot to the left. This building has now been converted to residential use. It's in a reasonably good place for this, as the town centre and a fairly large Sainsbury's supermarket are only about ten minutes' walk down the hill (off to the right).

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193/365: Bewdley Auto Services
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It reached 32 °C here today. In terms of daily maximum temperatures, this summer looks likely to come close to the all-time record, set in the legendary summer of 1976, given the forecast for the next couple of weeks. It won't be as dry as summer 1976, but the heat is on, so to speak. My photo was taken while on a walk just out of town to get an ice cream at a local farm shop. This garage has been around for many years, using an old farm building as its workshop. It's an MOT Test centre, hence the blue and white sign out front. The banner on the side is advertising Bewdley Beer Festival, which happens over August Bank Holiday weekend later this month.

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192/365: Cheap & Cheerful, Bewdley
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A mildly unpleasant day's weather today, with a very warm feel but not a great deal of sunshine, so it felt muggy and close. Even some light rain in the evening, although not enough to do the garden much good. Today's photo is of Bewdley's only real discount shop, Cheap & Cheerful. It's as piled high with stuff inside as it is outside, so despite being a fairly small place it does stock a lot of things! Ironically, it's not that cheap -- in some cases it's better value to go into Kidderminster and visit one of its much larger discount stores or even a supermarket. It's certainly convenient, though, as long as you've remembered your physical money as it's still a cash only shop. The bunting above the sign is in Bewdley Rowing Club colours and is left over from the regatta a couple of weeks ago.

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191/365: Industrial remnants, Wyre Forest
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I had a quiet Sunday, which was fine by me, but I did go for a fairly long walk in the afternoon. This took me off the beaten track in the Wyre Forest -- although there were footpaths, I met one person (and his quiet dog) in at least half an hour, and this on a dry Sunday in August. Anyway, I went looking for structures I remembered from several years ago, and happily I found them. These are almost certainly relics of the once-significant charcoal burning industry in the forest, which survived into the early 20th century. The flat light makes it hard to see, but there's a second octagonal, brick-sided structure behind the main one. Perhaps they were part of small kilns, or perhaps they held pools to wash charcoal. I don't know.