Water.

It’s been quite a while since we’ve had any significant rainfall in our part of sleepy Suffolk even though there have been torrential downpours just a few miles away. The grass is so dry that our cats are reluctant to walk on it as it hurts their feet; many plants are wilting and drying out before they even flower. We’re being careful with water, even letting it cool in the washing up bowl to throw onto the beans and sweet peas as well as the hibiscus and anything else that’s started to droop. All this reminds me of an assembly given every year to the pupils in the New Barnet school where I worked many years ago. A colleague called Gus would tell the children of the importance of water to all aspects of life, that it’s a resource we need to use with care. His advice about toothbrushing comes back to me every day – to turn off the tap whilst brushing, that way we’d all be doing our bit to preserve this precious commodity. After nearly 40 years I can still hear his words – “Just turn it off !”