SOME of the most lasting impressions in life can come from the simplest of things.

The smell of flowers or cold lash of rain, or perhaps a remarkable sunset or sunrise which offers something to the beholder others may have missed.

Jolie laide is an expression used to describe something ‘attractively ugly’.

It is a strange term but one which needs no further explanation.

We find examples of it everywhere we go, from ruined buildings to long closed and dilapidated architecture.

These often forgotten treasures, while often abandoned or scarred by years of neglect, make up the rich variety of our countryside.

For beauty is not just in perfection and symmetry and the irregular and broken can offer just as much delight and often tells a greater story.

We are now well into spring and the days are much longer and brighter.

A greater optimism resonates from people’s faces and we are much more confident of the days ahead than we were six months ago.

Of course the main reason is the vaccine which has allowed the easing of restrictions.

It has given us all the seeds of hope that this crisis is now reaching an end and we will one day soon be able to enjoy the world around us without restriction.

In the meantime we need to follow the rules and take one day at a time.