Message pebbles. Hallowe’en stuff. Paintings. Music. And cycling.

At the height of the pandemic people started leaving painted pebbles on walls, at the roadside or in the nooks where branches grew out of trees. Many of them thanked the NHS. Some of them just had the three letters NHS, to remind us of their sterling work. At some point they just stopped appearing. Maybe it was when things loosened up a little and people got out and about more.

Recently they have reappeared, at least around here in places where I walk. Mostly they are one word messages: HOPE, PEACE, SMILE. Today I saw one painted pumpkin orange, with a classic white-sheet ghost on it and the word “BOOO-OOO”. Hallowe’en permeates every aspect of our lives! Even our three-year-old grandson is going around singing Hallowe’en songs, which he claims to have learnt in nursery. He also asked me to pick him up in the co-op store this morning so that he could get a closer look at the “spookies” - his name for the Hallowe’en bunting the place is decorated with.

We had been out for a walk in the mid-October sunshine. I’m not sure it’s even the same month as yesterday! 

 

The evidence of the damp of the last few days is the sudden growth of interesting-looking toadstools all over the place. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the early days of lockdown I started keeping a journal which sort of morphed into a collection of watercolour paintings, mostly of wild flowers I collected here and there. It seems I am in good company. David Hockney in his house in Brittany has been doing something similar: I was just sitting at the table in our house and I caught sight of some flowers in a vase on the table. Being February, the sun was low, casting a deep shadow on the table. I decided to draw it, the background was dark, so I made a rich brown for it.” I suspect his are a bit more professional than mine. 

He has an exhibition coming up in London. 

I recently read, and wrote, about Daniel Barenboim withdrawing, at least for a while, from the musical scene. Here’s something I read in praise of the great man who has done so much for music, and for the world: 

“Britain has been vastly enriched by his presence in multiple ways, not only as a pianist and conductor but as a Reith lecturer in 2006 and a flag bearer, along with Ban Ki-moon and Doreen Lawrence, at the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games. Over the years he has become a global champion of the music of England’s Edward Elgar, whom he once described as making “the best case against Brexit, because he was a pan-European composer”.

Thanks in no small measure to Mr Barenboim, this country can no longer be dismissed internationally, as it was a century ago, as “the land without music”. Instead we are one of the most creative and successful musical nations of the world in every form. But music education in British schools and colleges is now being cynically starved of resources and support by the government. We don’t merely need Mr Barenboim in good health. We need to follow his inspiring example too.”

And finally, here’s a rather less inspiring anomaly: “British Cycling has just announced a sponsorship deal with oil giant Shell - one of the world's worst polluters who are continuing to drill for oil and gas in the face of catastrophic climate breakdown. We can't let them get away with using British Cycling to greenwash their reputation.” Some people are asking for signatures on a petition to stop this happening. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!