Uncertain times
It is a luminous hairy moth with shocking pink markings on a
gold background. It is not a bit like an elephant, but its caterpillar does
look like an elephant’s trunk. It eats willow herb and the chrysalis hides in the
soil all winter and must have just emerged as this beautiful adult.
I have not waited all winter for my doctor’s appointment,
but it seems so long ago since I booked it. Online you have to write what your
appointment is for but now the original complaint has diminished and another is
in its place. The dilemma is, do I ring an already busy receptionist, and let her
know that I will be talking about something else? I decided to leave it. It was
a phone appointment. How difficult it is describing symptoms on the phone
pointing to something the doctor cannot see. But you can take a photo and
upload to them. It all seems so complicated now and how different from popping
in for a quick check.
Strange too is the fact that we are already eating summer
crops from the garden. Every year I get used to one season and then we are
quickly on to another. The new potatoes are ready. To get the full flavour you must
dig them up and then run with the container to the kitchen where a pan of water
is already boiling. The broad beans and the French beans are ready too and it
is a job to keep up with all the eating we must do. It will soon be time to
freeze some. We also must have strawberries for tea every day as they are
coming thick and fast, I do not think you can freeze them. But the days of
plenty will not last.
Bringing that point home was a Ukrainian visitor who came to
see us yesterday. She stood outside our door waiting patiently with her host,
my friend. She shook hands and told us that her parents were still in Ukraine
she had to leave them behind. She looked at us politely without expression.
How much more uncertain our world seems these days.
(taken from my column in the Shropshire Star)
Comments
Post a Comment