Spring versus the news

My moods swing up and down these days, probably just like everyone else's. I had a dream the other night in which I was wandering through a landscape devoid of any vegetation at all, following a couple who were trying to ignore me because they owed me money. The landscape was totally black, and the couple's clothes were the only colour to be seen amongst the lumps of charred debris scattered between pools of lifeless and stagnant water, the surfaces of which were also black with oily soot. This was not what I think of as a good night's sleep on my 70th birthday.

H.I. has discovered a rich seam of very English Miss Marple thrillers on You Tube which I never knew existed. They seem to have managed to employ every well-know actor they asked to play in the series, and each episode is packed with familiar, well-respected faces from showbiz. I don't know how this production company could afford to have so many of them all together at once. The other amusing thing is that the actor who plays Miss Marble is a dead-ringer for a friend of ours, both in appearance and mannerisms.

This is, at the moment, is the only effective escapism from the news which threatens to overwhelm the less resilient amongst us. Where would you rather be today? Gaza or Tel Aviv?