As the full moon approaches, yesterday seemed a good time to apply this year’s horn manure preparation; stirring diligently for an hour, creating vortices to ‘enliven’ the rainwater. Sprinkling it over the soil with fragrant branches of bay was suitably magical, droplets sparkling in the afternoon sunshine. Perhaps fortunately, there were no witnesses to this arcane process …

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”