Water Street, Lavenham

We’re in the St Ives area until Sunday, mainly to participate in the St Ives Old Riverport Ukulele Festival on Saturday.

As in previous years we’ve travelled a few days earlier to explore the area. Today we stopped off in Lavenham to follow a Country Walking route from the village. An 8 mile circular walk mainly around field edges and boundaries was not that inspiring.

The buildings in village were spectacular as was the church reflecting the wealth of the area over the centuries. As usual, the overall effect was marred by the rash of cars parked in front of all the buildings. It was so difficult to get a blip without it being it photobombed by cars.

A highlight of the church was over 250 kneelers hand embroidered by individuals and organisations from the village. They were amazing - just a glimpse of them is shown in extras.

We read today of the dramatic fall in wildlife numbers over the last 50 years: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y3j0vzpl3o. Words and phrases such as devastating, appalling, disgraceful, deeply concerning are often overused. I don’t know what words can be used to describe this disgraceful set of figures.

What are we doing? This situation is the new normal. People will get used to how it is now. People who have long memories will know how feeble the dawn chorus is nowadays compared with even 50 years ago.

Thank you for your comments yesterday about Client Earth. It is an organisation well worth supporting. And bearing in mind the BBC article it is needed in spadefuls. We just cannot trust most companies and organisations.