27th August – Too Much of Everything

The garden swap spilled across the hall today like an overexcited hedge. Pots of mint jostled trugs of thyme; towers of empty jam jars gleamed like a glass city. Someone brought a single rubber boot (left, size unknown) and three plastic flamingos. A basket of potatoes, still wearing their soil, sat nobly under a chair. How to trade a flamingo for chutney, or a boot for rosemary? Stanley muttered “circus”.

On the walk home I kept rearranging it all in my head, to make sense of things. I poured tea and wondered: perhaps there’s a simpler way to let trades find their partners without everyone standing guard.