September 2, 2018
Everything changes, all of the time. I am not fooled by the beautiful hot afternoon with the doors fully open onto the garden. The morning and its telltale dew, heavy enough for Daisy to leave prints across the kitchen as if she’d been standing in water, are reminder enough that summer is leaving and autumn […]
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August 26, 2018
In the woods, my head is spinning at all of the wild bounty springing forth from the trees and bushes. Elderberries as black as night hanging heavily like chandeliers, hawthorns bursting with bright red berries and, in a secret corner, a stash of sloes I have been patiently watching, waiting for the perfect moment at […]
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August 18, 2018
It’s the mid-eighties. My mother and father are arguing about something inane and unremarkable. I, in another room, am listening to the bickering and sniping batted back and forth until, predictably, my father gives way to his own favourite method of ending an argument, avoidance. With a flourish and slamming of doors, he decides to […]
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August 10, 2018
Leaving Provence I am staring through the window of the train as we speed past a procession of faded patchwork fields. A stone farmhouse, weary cows spread thinly on gently sloping banks, and a patch of sunflowers dry, faded and with their heads bowed in submission. It is as if the weeks of unrelenting hot […]
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August 10, 2018
Martin is round for dinner when his phone rings. It’s a friend back in rehab for maybe the 25th time, calling to say hello. He should be at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting but he slid out and he’s in the pub. It’s hard to hear what he’s saying because it’s noisy and, anyway, his speech […]
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