This is a suburb very near me with lots of lovely homes, shops and restaurants. Some old houses with lots of character, waiting for a gentle renovating hand to give them a new lease of life.

Old coloured glass and delicate stained glass framing some of the windows.

I take a walk along the two commercial roads, and along the way neighbours share plants on the kerbside – a little further I see one which has grown and flourished beautifully.

I pop into op shops and Biome and browse a bookshop but I did notice that a lot of the smaller shops have closed down, some of the arts and crafts and some of the artisanal food shops and that made me a little sad. They have been replaced with many wellness centres and beauty places. Ones which promise …

It’s not surprising. The demand would suggest there is good business to be made from these areas but it does make me wonder what people want these days. An image created for and of you if you pay the money. Not a lot about what lies beneath which to me would seem to be the key. The onus shifts to others who can tighten, freeze and sculpt. I am more for the gentle softening of lines, the fullness of the body and the miracle of a brain which still can tell right from wrong and good from bad. That extra cash saved on the sculpting can go to fixing the planet and freezing out the scourge of poverty.