003. Dark days, long nights

The autumn equinox was last weekend and today it was so starkly clear that, in the Northern hemisphere, the dark is here now longer than the light each day.

If I’m honest, it never really got light here. The sun barely showed her face from behind thick, heavy rain clouds, then dropped sullenly behind the tall trees, filled with croaking, groaning corvids. Despite the gloom, the rain held off this afternoon so I spent those hours in our front garden. I gave the grass a final cut - it’s been so mild that it kept growing throughout October - then planted nearly two hundred bulbs in clumps within the lawn.

For my birthday, a few weeks ago, I was given vouchers for https://www.farmergracy.co.uk, who stock the most incredible array of bulbs. For the front garden, I went for four kinds of daffodil and narcissus, a few varieties of crocus, including some amazing giant ones, and fritillaries, some white and some snakeshead. Please, everyone - cross your fingers that they make it. I can’t think of anything better right now than that riot of spring colour, come March. They’ve got a sale on now, by the way…

I wanted to be busy today, to make the most of the comfort I have here, to feel part of a place, because I’m keenly aware that many people around the world are not so lucky.

The terror attacks by Hamas are appalling. Murder is never, never justified, and one war crime can never justify another. Just as people spoke out against the colonial invasion by Russia of Ukraine, with its bombing of civilian targets, so we must also witness and condemn Israel’s assault on Palestine, which is indiscriminate - or possibly deliberate - in its killing of civilians, as well as emergency services, aid workers and journalists. I’d recommend reading Human Rights Watch reports for an unbiased view that put the value of human life at its centre.

https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/north-africa/israel/palestine

Palestinians have been trapped in what is effectively an open-air prison for more than 15 years, with limited food, water and supplies. The IDF ordered Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate the northern area, then bombed not only there but also the roads and the area to which they had evacuated. They cut off power, water and communications. They used white phosphorus. These are war crimes that target civilians.

If you can, please sign this petition and also email your MP to call on the government to press for a ceasefire

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/648292

No one deserves this and nothing can justify it. Let’s do whatever we can to tell our leaders to act; after all, they work for us.

With love to you all x