|  The
hedge shimmies in the wind as grey clouds scud overhead and trucks and
tankers hurtle by just behind the fence, Manchester-bound, along the M62.
Long catkins are dangling from the birch, its leaves
just beginning to show and one of the hawthorns has started
to blossom.
When we arrived in Mallorca last month almost the first place we passed
on the coach from the airport was Palma's Ikea store
so ambling around the furnishings and fittings this morning feels like
a bit of a holiday, especially sitting here with a refill of coffee and
my tiny box of watercolours, painting in the same small orange sketchbook
I used on the island.
I painted this with a waterbrush and did no initial drawing. As I've
mentioned before, I have only primary colours in the box.
 Green
Shoots
In the afternoon we walk up the hill to vote, glad of the shelter of
hedges with a stiff breeze still whipping down the valley. A clump of
fresh-looking ferny-leaved cow parsley is now in flower.
We have a Green Party candidate standing and, if this
was an election for the European Parliament, I wouldn't hesitate to vote
for them - there's an element of proportional representation in the way
the European Parliament is put together - but with our first-past-the-post-system
we're almost guaranteed to end up with one of two parties in power, with
smaller parties hardly represented.
'Aren't I green enough?!' exclaimed one of our local Conservative councillors
when I grumbled about this in a previous election. I must admit that our
local councillors, both Labour and Conservative, have proved themselves
to be pretty green over a range of environmental issues. But I'd love
to see the natural systems that support us all put right at the heart
of politics. 
Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk
|
