The Watcher

We lazed in White's Plantation this morning, enjoying laying out under the warming sun, it was glorious. Though it was changed from our recent lazes, today there was a slightly ominous air. Only a few short days after Johnson's change of message and already all over the increase in movement is palpable, nature's silence broken by the return of the low hum of human activity, occasional punctuated by the throaty roar of a speedster on the nearby A35. Remember in the Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, King Theoden muses 'So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?' Well, I don't think it's reckless hate that now afflicts us, more abject indifference tempered with a soupçon of disdain. With threadbare credibility the Government seeks to hastily loosen lockdown, and moves to coerce people back into the service of the economy. We must remember to bow to Economy. We'd be fools to imagine the ideological cogs have ever stopped turning, on the contrary, they've made ground. Of course, the return is to be undertaken using prudence and common sense; 'trust us', 'you'll be safe', 'there'll be measures to protect you', words spoken in reassuring tone, unfortunately said measures are amorphous, cut as they are from the same cloth as Emperor Johnson's new cloths. Ooh, but don't the red tops, owned by those who couldn't be more removed from the people or the metaphoric 'front', love it, they rush to promote the Glorious leader's new narrative. We've all got do our patriotic duty, blitz spirit and all that, we've returned to a 'take on the chin for the economy' and 'herd immunity' mindset, though by stealth. Blue collar workers first of course, stay alert now, this is on you! Mulling it over I kept returning to Theoden's question, and kept coming up empty handed. What can you do? Alone most of us have no real agency to effect change, and I see no unifying banner being raised. It's frustrating. Then I remember an interview I'd read, ages ago, with the legendary Patti Smith, during the piece she'd briefly discussed living through the social collapse and chaos of late 70's/early 80's dystopian New York.  And I remember Patti Smith saying how she and others of the creative community got by through becoming, sort of, passive observers of it. I thought, you know, that's not a bad perspective to adopt. As much as you can, you have to exist outside of the madness, remain informed (in that respect Johnson's right when he says we should stay alert, we really must), just watch and wait stoically, like a Watcher from the Marvel universe. Ah comics, you can always find respite there too.

The Comma

Spring returned this morning and with it the warming sun. Not bothered by my attention, a Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album) suns itself on a trunk in the sunlit tranquillity of White's plantation. It's said that the ancient Celts saw butterflies as the souls of the dead, with the ability to travel between this and the otherworld. A beautifully romantic image for a people we usually see as quite macho and fighty.

The May Queen wakes

The May Queen wakes.

White's plantation

We followed the green lane which leads towards Beckley and the edge of the New Forest this morning, past White's and Hobbs plantations. It's been a long while since I walked this way.  The old green lane was always sunken and prone to water logging, over the years it's condition deteriorated to the point where it was often impassible, now where necessary the lane is sited a couple of meters to one side, on higher drier ground and the ditches on the remaining low section kept well maintained. It's lovely walking, proper rural, and in the current climate near devoid of the sounds of man, a different world. I laid down, closed my eyes, breathed deeply and escaped into it...glorious.