My time, energy and attention are now focused on the three villages I am working with, where I’m using my writing skills to record life through personal interviews. My hope is to create a picture for future generations of what village life was like in 2025. Tomorrow, for example, I’m meeting someone who happens to be a world expert on crayfish — not the sort of person you might expect to find in a small place like Priddy.

Alongside these discoveries, I’ve noticed a challenge that runs through many small communities: keeping local groups alive as the population ages. A group of twenty members feels secure, but when numbers fall to twelve it should raise an amber warning light. When it drops to six — as I found with one theatrical group — that is the red light: urgent action is needed. Another worrying sign is when no new members join over the course of a year.

Younger people, by which I mean those under forty, don’t tend to read printed notices any more. Their lives are organised online, through laptops and phones. Here we do have The Pew — the monthly printed booklet for Priddy, Easton and Westbury — available in many places including the churches and the post office at Westbury. But if someone doesn’t happen to have their copy to hand, they may miss an event entirely, which goes some way to explaining the small audiences at social gatherings.

There’s a strong case for making better use of technology. Services now exist — some using text-to-speech — that can read out local event details when someone dials a phone number. This could be a real help for older residents who struggle with small screens or poor eyesight. These systems usually originate in the USA, but with competition the cost has come down to pennies per minute, making fees affordable if shared across a community.

I’m aiming for a public meeting next March, which seems far off, but time has a way of disappearing — Christmas will be here before we know it. My rule of thumb is always: ‘think of a number, then double it’ when estimating how long a project will take.

The real challenge, however, is avoiding what I call the “outsider syndrome” — when someone from outside a village steps in and unintentionally disrupts the natural flow, even with the best intentions. Finding the right balance of support and sensitivity will be key if we want these communities to thrive.

Input on this diary will be limited but meanwhile why not look at the 1.8 million words I have written so far and reflect on them. The search tool is very useful.