Rainy Saturday

Today's steady rain is a good thing in many ways: I can almost see plants growing in front of me in the garden (and I don't think that's just the hallucinatory effect of the migraine that began yesterday and has lingered into today...though it's wearing off now, thankfully).

During the 10-15 mins of sunshine that we had late in the morning, I took the camera outside into the garden. I was watching bees, as they too took advantage of a break in the weather. But it's this image of honesty flowers, almost glowing, that drew my eye in the end.

Scanning the newspaper during the day, I find that I almost can't bear to read the news from Gaza. There seems to be no end  to that suffering. My son and daughter have both visited the West Bank, and Jack completed a short photographic assignment there some years ago, documenting initiatives that enable Palestinian women to study physics. A close friend of his was helping to deliver the programme, and had some funding for an allied photographic project. I don't have any desire to oppose the existence of Israel, and I don't pretend to understand what the best way forward might be, towards justice for all communities. But what's happening now is terrible.

Returning to the mundane domestic scenario... this evening we've been invited round for a meal with two old friends, a couple we haven't seen since Covid started. And I have just booked two cinema tickets, for Monday night, to see Nomadlands.  Maybe there will still be a steady lifting of restrictions; or maybe this is just a short window, before we have to batten down the hatches again. But the prospect of visiting the cinema is completely intoxicating!