There but for the grace of...

I'm not religious but if I were I feel sure I wouldn't believe that a higher (greater... ?) good/ power/ whatever would choose to put me in a place like this and leave others to watch their children be murdered in Syria.

I'm here because my Mother and her family before her, for as far back as anyone can search, were born in Braunton and because I met my husband in North Devon.

It's not luck, it's not grace of God. It's DNA and it's chains and decisions and patterns of behaviour.

It's day 12 of Tess's virus. She's coughing but got through the day and ate well. She managed a paddle in the sea this afternoon but the wind was terrible and we had to fight against a sand storm which made her cough again.

It's been a shame, a pity, a bit of a struggle, but really there's struggle and there's struggle.

I can't help feeling relieved that the news is reporting world events more fully again.