Monday 22 March 2021. Evening

A sunny morning, a grey day, an apricot-grapefruit-watermelon evening. A friend sent a link to Lana Del Rey's new album, and I listened to it three times in a row. It's hard not to feel melancholy from the retro- and introspective tracks sung in the fragile soprano of youth, but with the echoes of the...

Tuesday 16 February 2021. Evening

For Valentine's, my sister made me a profile on her new Disney+ account. In the 48 hours since then, I've watched the live action version of Lady and the Tramp four times. Plus a few of my favourite bits in bed before going to sleep. It's not like I'm addicted or anything, I swear I...

Thursday purpose

Frozen February sunrise, Cambridge, 2021 photo by Jessica Zarins I'm getting seriously sick of lockdown. And I really shouldn't have espresso with post-dinner profiteroles when it's not at a restaurant that I have to leave and can walk off before I try and sleep. After a few weeks of good sleep the old ghosts reappeared...

One person’s comfort is another one’s fear

Monday 18 January 2021. Blue Monday. Soon there will be an inauguration, and 6.1% of the UK population have received the first dose of the vaccine. Minute by minute, the days are getting longer. But at 7am, when I go for my walk after failing to sleep for more than a few hours, it's still...

Thursday 14 January 2021. Pheasants

Halfway through the first twelfth of the year. Grey and wet, in the ground and in the air, in case we forget. A Moomintroll-like melancholy seeps its way through the house, infecting us all, like a slow, local pandemic that takes root wherever there's life. We build obstacle courses and give ourselves war paint in...