As you may know we love making our own bread but unfortunately it does not do well in the heat and the damp. The hot summer provides ideal conditions for mould which although attractive to the biologist does not make for a positive eating experience.

It is some days since I have put pen to paper.  I saw a very moving scene from my window this morning. A council employee was operating a street cleaner rotary brush machine. He stopped outside my house, got out of his cab, and turned on the Radio Three which is our local classical radio program and there was the most wonderful Beethoven string quartet radiating across the street. He stood there silent for about 2 minutes, turned off the music and resumed his job.

One of the reasons for my lack of activity last weekend was that I had a friend stay. It was a delight to have him for many reasons and one of those was that we didn’t have to go to endless lengths to arrange a bedroom, bring down the bedding etc. He very much likes camping and came complete with camping kit which he immediately assembled in the garden. I showed him where the tea and coffee was, the quirks of the shower in the bathroom, and thus his independence was established.

At the end of the day, I think with friends it’s all about wavelength. In my case it’s a lot about people who have had the red pill versus the people who have taken by default the blue pill (The Matrix-yes?) and are largely unconscious to the real things that are going on in this world. If you want to bore yourself to death, go back over my diaries and have a look at the various headings to see where my disposition lies. It is such a pleasure to be able to speak to someone without having to explain everything. The use of keywords, Masonic hand shakes if you like, instantly puts one in the same ballpark as another person and you don’t have to go back to square one and explain the basics every 5 minutes.

For locals (Somerset) , to whom this itinerary would mean something,  last Saturday we went to Mells, Then the annual open day at Nunney, a very stylish and expensive little village about 12 miles south of Bath, then to a retro reclamation yard somewhat west of Glastonbury. There was a traveling exhibition at Nunney entitled ‘Jesus Laughing and Loving’. I was struck by one of the images, below. We see Jesus’ unsmiling almost serious images all over the place. This one is refreshing and shows him as human (part divine of course).

Finally my wife has grown some lovely sunflowers in our garden.