vinculafido

  Green I’m not a painter. Far from it – a teacher at my Primary school once delivered her termly verdict on my ‘art’ with the devastating/amusing put-down ‘messy but improving’ . If I were to try my hand at painting today, I guess the same would be said, undoubtedly with the coda: ‘but not a lot’ . Nevertheless, I like watching Sky TV’s annual ‘Landscape Artist of the Year’. A group of contestants is often asked to grapple with a scene that’s mostly green, and it’s always interesting. Because, of course there isn’t a single green, as my six-year old self might have naively thought, but an astonishing range of colours with a family resemblance such that we’re able to refer to them by the same adjective.   And in this spring, right now, the whole Dulux colour chart of green-ness is on display, fresh, enlivening, calming in equal degrees. Today I’m glad of the green, because my mood is sombre. Sue’s Nana, Hilda Woods, would have been 125 today, and in this county of airfields...

  Honington St. Nicholas The drive up beyond Grantham this morning in the company of Nicky Campbell and his Radio   5 phone-in guests is depressing. Two subjects are aired. The much-heralded ‘Co-op Live’ mega-arena, due to open in Manchester a fortnight ago, has been cancelling gigs because the venue isn’t ready. In the course of Nicky’s morning conversations, it becomes apparent how much has been invested by the potential punters at Olivia Rodrigo’s scheduled performances, now no more. Heartbreak has been visited on families, and considerable money lost (some of it beyond the scope of re-imbursement). One family has been using the diarising of such events as a key part of the strategy for curing a thirteen year old’s anorexia.   A lone dissenting voice texts to say something to the effect of ‘Get over it. This is such a first-world problem…’. Campbell seems angered. ‘Have you no heart, man?’ he hollers at the unidentified contributor. Is the anger real or manufactured ...