FTSE 100 recovery?

Based on some generally good economic news, the FTSE 100 share index is currently up on recent days. Gains are modest, but they are gains. We should worry about China.

Life after death?

What happens when we die? I really have no idea.

I have seen a few dead bodies in my time, including my father who died back in 1987. What struck me then is that it was like a butterfly and a chrysalis: that which made him "him" was no longer there.  His body was just a shell. Somehow, I hope we do fly above the world in immortality. However, I do not remember anything before I was born and if eternity was a total absence of life, like before I was born, would this be so bad?  However, without eternity we lose our moral compass perhaps?

At one time these questions were academic but in recent years my own mortality has come smartly into focus. Nearly 2 years ago I so nearly died. I survived and may yet live many more years. All the major religions of the world talk of life after death, but is this just a way of coming to terms with our mortality? No-one has come back to tell us what is beyond the grave.

Life and death remain mysteries. All I know is we are on a journey and it is the journey that matters, not the destination. Some would argue this is the key to all the major religions: concern yourself with living a good life now and don't worry what happens after we die.  I remain agnostic and open-minded.

Stroke update

Although overall I get less tired (but some things still exhaust me), I still have poor speech and I feel giddy when walking and turning. Thin liquid swallow is still not good - in fact I can only take sips of any liquids - but my taste is returning to normal. Real orange juice was a "no no" as was cheese and bread, but these are fine now.  Wine and whisky still taste odd and I have yet to enjoy these again. Very very slowly things are improving, although I was expecting to be my old self a year ago! Overall, I still feel not right. Others think I am fine. Inside I am not still.

FTSE 100

At the moment, the FTSE 100 has hardly changed and is just 0.07% lower. In recent weeks it has fallen quite a lot. With the uncertainty over the Euro and the UK's membership of the EU, I can see the FTSE 100 remaining volatile for some time to come. It amazes me that it has not fallen more.

UPDATE 1150z:  Currently the FTSE 100 index is down 0.55%. It took a nosedive quite recently. Not sure why - I'll check.

UPDATE 1307z:  Currently FTSE 100 is down 0.68%.

The sun?

There was this very strange yellowy orange thing in the sky. Is this really what they call "the sun"? We have hardly had any sun for days now - just lots of rain. The sun had popped out from behind the clouds. I think I must have been seeing things. Anyway, it has gone again now.

Was that summer?

Yet more rain

After breakfast I managed to cut our laurel hedge and the front lawn. Then it started to rain and it has been raining ever since!

We badly need the rain but the weather is just plain miserable. Apparently the jet stream has moved and now bang over us, although the forecasters suggest that later this week we may have more summer-like weather. At the moment, it feels like late autumn and we have the heating and the lounge gas fire on.

Swifts

This evening, in a further attempt to beat my giddiness, I went for a decent (for me!) walk. One of the joys of an English summer evening is seeing swifts on the wing high in the sky and hearing their calls - a high pitched scream. To me, this is the sound of summer. Their wings are scythe like and they spend most of their lives on the wing.

They arrive late (around the end of April) and go before summer is done. It an ephemeral sound that they make. When you hear it, it is truly late spring or summer. Soon the summer migrants will head south to warmer skies and we will be joined by migrants from the north such as whooper and bewick swans from the high Arctic and Russia as well thrushes like redwings and fieldfares from Scandinavia. To them we represent warmth and mildness!

For now I am content to hear those swifts, although they will soon be on their way. Hopefully, I'll still be around for their return in the spring. Seeing the first swifts in late April brings joy to my heart. The cycle of life that has happened for thousands of years goes on. No doubt this cycle went on when we still lived in caves and when Roman soldiers walked these lands and this cycle will still be going on long after I am dust again.

See http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/s/swift/ .