Interlude*

This summer has been all too authentically serious: escalating war in Europe, genocide and deadly brinkmanship in the Middle East and race riots on British streets. Today, just before children go back to school and their supposed betters return to the Palace of Westminster, there are finally two comic-horror stories to smile about, however briefly 

The Prime Minister is reported to have moved a picture of Saint Margaret of Grantham from its prominent position in Downing Street to a location that no-one dares specify. It is obvious to me that it is in a locked attic room to which only he has the key, and that we now need to watch very carefully how rapidly he ages

The second is a classic scare about an invasive, alien species landing in Europe. As the paper headlined it, a "Colony of Invasive Red Dwarf Honeybees" has been discovered within Europe's borders. The jokes just tell themselves, but this is not a space-travel fantasy with a sardonic supercomputer and a cool cat. It turns out that, incredibly, there really is such an insect as the red dwarf honeybee. It lives wild in Asia; its honey is harvested there by honey-hunters; it has migrated to the Middle East and has now been found on Malta

I looked up Malta on a map - it is further south than Tunis and Algiers. These bees do not inhabit cavities; they live on a single comb in the open air, suspended from a low branch. They sound fascinating, actually: they communicate danger by issuing an audible piping sound, which prompts the colony to generate a hiss to repel predators. A small open-air colony may get by in Malta but it will not last long in an East wind in a British February. I think this invasion may be limited in extent

Sunsets are getting earlier. The angled light caught these dancing flies in just the right way to make them glow against the long shadows on the hill at the head of the valley. Like silly-season stories, the moment was quickly past

(* - "Originally the term for farcical episodes drawn from real life introduced between acts of long mystery or morality plays" Etymology online)