Water lily

Today I took my Mother to have her hair cut while I stocked up in Waitrose. Martin, meanwhile, tidied up her garden including removing some  excess weed from the pond, to show off  the water lily flowers to better effect.
The poor old tortoise is really slowing down and preparing for hibernation - he didn't get out of bed at all!

This  evening we watched a programme about the Great  Smog of London in December  1952. It killed thousands of people (many more than was admitted at the time) and the government was woefully unprepared and slow to respond to the warnings and to reduce  air  pollution. Sounds familiar? Nowadays although we may be able  to see more clearly, because the polluting particles are so much smaller,  how much lung damage is still being caused by air pollution?    
My Mum was teaching in a London school in 1952, and remembers the school being  closed at the peak of the  Smog.