Widening horizons five steps at a time

• I'm constantly irritated by news reports - mostly on the radio - which tell me to enjoy the new freedoms bestowed by the government: to host a barbecue, or flock - on a responsible manner - to the Lake District, or the seaside... I would love an outing to somewhere nice, but at the best of times I try to avoid Bank Holiday weekends, and these are not the best of times. Oh, well...



• Here's a strange and tiny landscape, almost on my doorstep:
  
  
  
  
  
  Spotted on our very brief walk on Wednesday - I was out out of breath by the time we reached the top of the hill (it was a hot afternoon, but I am indisputably very unfit), and although I recovered, I was wary about going too far down the other side, because of having to come back up again. A pleasant stroll down a lane lined with daffodils, a conversation through the hedge with a neoghbour, a glimpse of a miniature elsewhere - and home in time for tea.



• Wednesday's pub quiz opened its virtual doors wider than usual. The quiz itself is online, and open to anyone who wants to play with it, but we are two teams who take the quiz every Wesnesday evening: our team Zooms with the Quizmaster, and the other team communicate with him by WhatsApp (or similar). We celebrated our year's anniversary by all Zooming together (plus a third team, hooray) and conferring in break-out rooms. This worked well enough that we will do it again, though not every week...



• I have been immersed in S.J. Morden's Gallowglass: Simon Morden writing in the hard and technical SF vein, not to mention the bleak outlook, of his One Way / No Way Mars books. Gallowglass took me out beyond Mars, just, to the asteroid belt: runaway Jack takes the only job that will have him (because reasons), asteroid mining, risky, unregulated and potentially hugely profitable - what could possibly go wrong? Well, everything, obviously. Then, two thirds of the way through the book, when you think you know what shape it is, there's a shift, and you are somewhere else...



• Courtesy of GirlBear: A Wing and a Prayer, stained glass art installation under the wide skies of Suffolk's wetlands (scroll down to find the video).