Summer Time Skyflake


And here we are, sprung forward an hour into British Summer Time. This daylight saving time scheme is also known as Western European Summer Time and is practised in the Canaries, Portugal, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, the Channel Island Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and the Isle of Man, as well as the UK. Whatever we are calling it, the sun feels obligingly bubbling hot. It’s a spring heat but winter being the nearest season we have for comparison, it seems hotter than it is. In a temperate climate, and especially if you should happen to live in a rain-belt, a sunny day is something to leap on. I have jumped as far as the sun lounger, sprawled back on full tilt, flip flops kicked off. Dog lies down, chewing a bit of grass. Last night’s bonfire gives out a shudder of dew-damped ash. I watch aeroplane trails smudge and disperse, while a little blue butterfly sits on a honeysuckle leaf, like a flake of sky.

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