Crisis

Does that sky look threatening? Am I being paranoid?

I listened to a fragment of a radio interview with a highly articulate woman who had psychotic episodes for years, sometimes living in a state of sleepless euphoria for days on end. Eventually her condition led to her holding up a store (where they knew her well) with a toy gun, for precisely £300, then going home. She pleaded guilty to the crime and was warned to expect a 4 year sentence, but the judge ordered mental health reports that revealed an enormous number of interactions with crisis teams, emergency departments, urgent mental-health interventions and so on. The judge accepted that her mental state was the cause of her actions and that she was indeed ill. As a result her sentence was 6 months

Is that a good outcome? Better than it could have been, certainly. Something must have gone right, because she has now been managing her life well for two years. She was self-aware, calm and analytical in everything she said about her experience; optimistic in outlook. Is prison - or womens' prison - actually a gateway for help with mental health that is not available elsewhere? There must be a better way

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to enjoy hot sunny weather. It gives me an uneasy mind; as if the world has a fever. Our conditions are nothing compared to Southern Europe, where fires are raging, evacuations enforced, death and injury taking place, destruction widespread. Is planting trees now an anti-social act in those areas: creating a fire hazzard? Our young trees have withstood the heat and drought; the orchard is becoming a copse with embedded fruit-trees. Hopefully a shady refuge