Water shortages. Famous people talking. 77 years of being pushed around.

 My daughter doesn’t work on a Friday. She’s kept that day free so that she can take her small children to school without dropping them off at the before-school club. She then takes herself off on a walk to the local beauty spot, Dovestone Reservoir. One of the access routes is close to the children’s school, so she doesn’t even need to move her car. Walking to the reservoir is part of her routine for staying sane in a world going increasingly mad.

This morning she posted a photo of the reservoir, which is frighteningly low. There are rumblings about hose-pipe restrictions as we don’t seem to have any rain forecast until the end of next week, just in time for the local schools beginning their half term holidays. The water butt in the back garden, usually full to overflowing, is also getting frighteningly low. I’ve been dipping into it with my watering can so that I could keep the various plants in pots watered. 2025 has been a year of excess: a very wet start, a severely cold spell, and now a surprisingly summer-like spring! Strange times!

My brother-in-law and my sister have both been sending us videoclips of Springsteen on stage in Manchester giving a bit of a tirade about the state of things in his country at the moment. Robert de Niro has been doing the same thing in Cannes. If they’re not careful, they might not let be allowed back into the USA. 

We’ve been watching Series 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale on Four. It’s very well done even though the storyline has progressed a long way since the first series based on Margaret Atwood’s original. I bet that when they made that first series nobody guessed how true to modern life the concept would become. And now it seems to reflect so many aspects of modern life. 

It’s 77 years since the Nakba saw Palestinians forced out of their homes. And it’s still going on. 

Here’s something I copied from social media: 

“Oh, so now Trump says it again that he wants Gaza?

I wonder if he’s ever gone a day without electricity. Or tried to find clean water for his kids. Or heard drones at night instead of fireworks. Or moved a thousand times looking for safety, or couldnt find a piece of bread to eat. Or was 50 meters away from an explosion. Or carried a piece of another human being. Or digged the rubble looking for a dead family member. Or got sick but didn't find any medication. Or or or or or or and a million ors.  

 Gaza isn’t some prize on a map. It’s our home. Our grief. Our hope.

We’re not for sale. Not for politics. Not for ego. If he really wanted Gaza, he should have wanted to end the siege, not claim the land like it’s real estate. What we want is freedom not to be “owned” by another moron.”

And here’s an interesting cartoon. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!