For Polly

I had every intention of blipping the pond skater in the extra, today. On a fabulously hot and sunny Sunday when some folk celebrate the ingenious tales of one who could walk on water it felt almost appropriate. It was taken at Sheol and Cathy's, where despite my offer the lovely Janet drove and I had a few more delights of the liquid kind over a splendid lunch.

Just after lunch I received a message to tell me of the passing of local barrister and environmental campaigner Polly Higgins. Polly was not only a lovely woman, and a special soul (and a biker to boot!), she was the driving force behind Mission Lifeforce, now relaunched as StopEcocide.Earth.

StopEcocide.Earth has the objective of making a new international law under the Rome Statute of Ecocide, in the same way there is a law against genocide and acts of aggression (war). Where agreements such as the Paris Accord have failed, where civil action is overwhelmingly expensive and biased toward the corporates, an international law would make ecocide criminally punishable without limit.

I became a trustee of this initiative when it was in its first phase of Mission Lifeforce and I am now an "Earth Protector" under the trust document on which the project rests. But tonight I raise a glass (Laphroaig Quarter Cask, Polly, can you feel it?) to a lovely lady gone too soon but mercifully swiftly, with whom I spent too little time. Oh, and the camellia was Cathy's too.