Shadow

'When life gives you lemons', they say. They don't usually conclude with 'make marmalade', but I think maybe I'm using tasks like making marmalade and hauling fallen timber around the orchard - not to mention riding a bike round in circles or basking in the grins of grandchildren - to help me deal with the sour landscape the news media are beaming at us. I read of blippers avoiding the news altogether, and I don't blame anyone for that response, though I can't quite go along with it myself. I don't yet know how this is all going to play out, but I feel a need to understand it as it happens, however repellant many of the actors currently on stage. There is definitely a case, though, for spending time on positive things that maintain our personal equilibrium and detachment

The second and final marmalade day of the season. I'm glad of the opportunity for a commemorative picture. All of this is now shredded and jarred. A sense of calm, and order, and worthwhile activity