Isolation Blog, Italy - A walk in the rain

The spiraea before the rain

In these bleak times, living in the country is a great privilege. Even on a wet day, you can always get out and walk, although the infinite naturalistic observations and explorations available are never completely free of a nagging sense of apprehension, as in this recent encounter: 

Welcome April rain, soft but insistent on the suddenly lush green fields.
A big round black umbrella is a blot on the landscape. It moves,
climbing up among trees and shrubs in a small wood before halting
at a cascading spiraea, already burdened down by its over-abundant heavy 
white flowers, now completely flattened by the weight of the rain.
Beneath the bush, down a short steep drop of ten metres or so,
perched on a still bare branch (the false acacia’s leaves come late), 
is a bedraggled scrawny huge pigeon, almost a rook,
as seen against the light. With its drenched shoulders hunched,
it seems to hear or see nothing, just waits as the rain falls.

PS Catching up with images from the city, during this crisis, religion seems to have been dumped in favour of states and governments, ill-boding surrogate communities fostered by the media. Not God but Nations. The flags are out all over Europe. A solitary, gangly Pope Francis the Good has even been filmed wandering in the deserted streets of Rome – for a moment I thought it was God herself, pensioned off. 

David Tomassini