Chatham Island Forgetmenot

The flowers are numerous this year, but not in such big clumps as in previous years. The huge ribbed leaves however are more lush and glossy every spring.

Much of the day has been occupied in concentrated revision of my exam supervisory role. My first session is on Friday morning and I needed to put in a few hours to brush up on all the minutiae of running a digital exam, mainly to ensure that any dramas can be absorbed by the supervisors and don’t impact on the students at all. I think I am prepared for most eventualities.

At last I have started to read Peter Frankopan’s enormous tome “The Earth Transformed” and notwithstanding its great weight and volume I have managed to wrangle it in bed for an hour before sleep each night. What a good read. It serves to remind me just how very insignificant human beings are in the history and geography of the world. It is also leading me inexorably towards the fervent hope that once we Homo sapiens finish ourselves off - as we surely will - no future suite of species will include one as dominant and arrogant as ours.