A new month has begun and there are lots of things swirling around in my mind. I have written about change a lot of times but this week we saw a huge change in the weather. Monday and for several days previously the weather was sunny and hot enough to sit outside. Along came Wednesday evening and it started to snow and has continued snowing on and off since then although there is still a lot of sun. I wonder what this sudden change in the weather will have on the plants, the birds and other animals who have come out of hibernation. For me it was about putting on thick warm clothes again and having hot drinks not cold ones. There is an old saying, 'don't cast a clout until May is out'. I have always understood this to mean don't take off your winter clothes until the end of May or when the May blossom is out.

Quite prominent in my thoughts this week were banned books. When I worked in the library around 1957 there were some books kept locked away but people could read them if they requested them. One of these was Ulysses by James Joyce and another one was The Decameron. Nowadays some countries have banned books that I read as a teenager. These include 1984 - George Orwell, Brave New World - Aldous Huxley, Lolita - Nabakov, Lady Chatterley's Lover - Lawrence and so on. What do you think about books that are banned? If a book is banned then I want to read it and find out why it is banned. If a book is banned is there something in it that those doing the banning, don't want us to know?

In my thoughts for a lot of time is the trauma of war. As a child I remember hiding with my mother in the cubby hole under the stairs while the bombs dropped. I now get claustrophobic in small spaces and hate loud bangs. What trauma is building up with those in Ukraine and other countries where there is a lot of conflict? How will this trauma be dealt with if at all or will those fleeing have to sort it out themselves. There will be trauma around the lockdowns during the pandemic as well. I have seen that in some children who won't or can't socialise with others and in some adults who will still not go outside. We can carry the pain of our ancestors within us so how many generations will it take to clear the trauma and pain of the current conflicts? I would love to read your comments on all my thoughts this week.