Busy

 Busy times, with much family activity, but I did manage to get away for a day's walking in the Cotswolds with my brother and friends, in the course of which I revisited the monument to the Bray children in Great Barrington church  – 'one of the finest in England,' in Mrs Esdaile's estimation (it features in this book, pp175-7). Unfortunately the long, difficult journey back from deepest Gloucestershire left me too exhausted yesterday to post my usual after-walk report. 
  Also contributing to the busyness is a small pile of books on death, ageing and longevity that I'm reading for review. Talking of ageing, here's Kay Ryan – 

As some people age they kinden.
The apertures of their eyes widen.
I do not think they weaken;
I think something weak strengthens
until they are more and more it,
like letting in heaven.
But other people are mussels or clams, frightened.
Steam or knife blades mean open.
They hear heaven, they think boiled or broken.