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Like a gaggle of children excitedly bouncing back to school (hurrah!) the clouds skate and tumble across the morning sky, a solitary needle-like vapour trail, piercing the blue, trying in vain to stitch the white back together – the phrase herding cats springs to mind. The skylight perfectly framing the constantly changing shapes – as the images slowly morph from one to another, the sense of calm they instill is immediate – no wonder there is a Cloud Appreciation Society – with gentle beauty like this unfolding beyond the window pane, we should all be members.

The moon will be full to bursting this evening, and if the sky is as clear as it was yesterday, it will be a bright one – a big clear dimpled and textured disc in the night sky, so clear you could reach out and touch it. When the moon is like this, it always reminds me of the film poster for the 1902 film ‘Le Voyage dans la Lune’, minus the rocket of course!

“The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said ‘Bother!’ and ‘O blow!’ and also ‘Hang spring-cleaning!’ and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat.”

What is Love? Love is a suit of armour with which to protect the soul, it is a shield to deflect the arrows of doubt, it is the sword to vanquish hate. Love lights the path, it warms the soul, it holds us up and it drives us on, it is the net which catches us when we fall – we have little if we do not have love.