Microcosmic

Last year I wrote a blog piece entitled "why do things look like other things". Well things are continuing to look like other things!!

I'm going to post a series of what I would call "picture essays" if I were very pretentious. As I'm only moderately pretentious I'm calling them "essays in pictures" (that might actually be more pretentious - ed).

A stained glass window is undoubtedly one of those things that it's seen as good to resemble (unlike, say squashed chewing gum or a dog turd). It's a simile that denotes beauty - of a specific kind.

The quality that appeals is the mosaic of translucent sections or panels. Every now and then I think to myself - 'that looks like a stained glass window'
....and I like it.

You quite often hear things like “what’s the point of…” followed by some despised form of wildlife – wasps and slugs are contenders for top of this list.
You might as well ask ‘what’s the point of humans’ – I don’t think other species should be viewed solely as things that serve our purposes – they didn’t evolved ‘for us’ – they simply evolved – and like everything else they fit into an ecological ‘niche’.
None of us would be here if it weren’t for say - wasps.
Imagine a world with an alternative history in which wasps didn’t evolve. The effects would cascade up through the millennia to a present which would be different (to an extent we can only guess at) – humans would probably exist in some form, but I’d suggest that given individuals wouldn’t.
Insects aren’t very popular with a lot of people but without insects our ecosystems would collapse – life is interconnected and interdependent.
The tabloid press fuels a view of nature as the enemy – with lurid headlines linking wildlife wi…