Dearest Hive Family,It is a bright and sunny day, all the windows and doors are wide open to the light, the gentle breezes, the birdsong and the quiet machinations of the valley going about its business. I’m back in bed, pacing myself as my Beloved suggested earlier, and resting into whatever this dark-at-times, mysterious process is of my health unfolding.

the sandstone quay, corrie, isle of arran in scotlandDearest Friends of Hive and beyond,If we have the blessed fortune to be relatively comfortable where we are, should we by default wish to always remain there? (Should we just sit still and be grateful??) Is this the highest achievement we can hope for in life? Is it invariably better to ‘not gamble’ with change, and to cling onto whatever joy and nutriment we can glean from around us, staying even where there are glaring incompatibilities?

Dearest Needleworking Friends of Hive!I finally finished something!! The big blanket coat, at last is ready to be picked up by Stefania!! Phew: this has been a week of a bit of straining and wrestling with things (see my post about DeBanking from this Saturday past – which is likely to only be Part One of DeBanking!), realigning specific areas of life, and possibly overdoing things physically a little. I’ve been glad of a slowing down and completion over the weekend, AND am looking VERY much forward to a special-issimo relaxing fancy dinner out with my Beloved on Wednesday – for our anniversary of half a year together!!

Hallo Fellow Frustrated Hivers!I’ve had a conversation going on for some time with my Wirex account ‘customer services’ folks – or perhaps one ‘folk’ in particular, who seems to be taking my cease & desist and statements of Sovereignty badly, and has now blocked my card and moneys.

the inside-out coat, nearing completion, from the backDearest Friends in Needlework – and the wider Hive Community,the inside-out coat from the frontIs it just me, or is technology more rapidly failing, in general? Perhaps it was designed to crumble in precisely this way; methodically and precisely, leaving us flailing and more susceptible to outside ‘solutions’. Either way, this week has seen the two devices that I invested in, in recent years, fail epically, and I am now writing from @vincentnijman ‘s trusty old laptop, to get this post to you on Monday morning…

Dearest Hive Friends and Lovers of Freedom,Part One of Slow House-Hunting can be found HEREI am sitting opposite @vincentnijman in Feni’s Bar in Agnone, during the VERY quiet siesta time here in this most glorious of historic, artigianale and artistica cities in Molise, Italy…. We’ve been here since this morning, having driven through kind of extreme rain and waterlogged roads – for Italy, that is – with disfunctional windscreen wipers (eek!), and having eaten pretty much mothing but pizza for the past few days.