Maple posy

Two years ago, during my early lockdown walks, I noticed the blossom on this hedgerow maple tree for the first time. I've forgotten the variety, after spending some time trying to find out what it is, but its dark red-brown leaves, which really glow as they unfurl in spring, and the pretty pale yellow flowers, are extremely striking. I particularly like the way the russet red bracts curl back, giving the impression that little bunches of flowers are tied up with bows. Edit: I almost never look back to last year's blips, but I've just discovered I shared a near-identical photo a year ago, with a note of the maple variety.

I'm back to trying to catch up. This was only yesterday - Sunday - but I'm already struggling to think what I did, other than washing the inside of the second, older greenhouse. The outside is still awaiting much needed attention. 

I was relieved at the French election results. I had not really expected Le Pen to win, but there was still a nagging anxiety, as well as the inevitable horror at the number of votes she received. In 1984, I was living in Paris, in a tiny "chambre de bonne" in an attic in the 6th arrondissement, when Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National won almost 11% of the votes in the European elections and gained seats for the first time. The following day, on the bus, in the streets and the library, and later on a crowded metro train, I found myself looking at the faces around me, reflecting that statistically one in ten of these people had voted for the extreme right, on a platform which included the repatriation of legal immigrants and the reinstatement of capital punishment. It was a shocking realisation. It still is, despite the substantial rebranding of the French far right.