In my defence, I had not anticipated when I planned this temperature blanket that the temperature would be quite so relentlessly stable in June. It’s rained and thundered a few times, but my design has no way of depicting this. As it is, there’s been a whole month of lows of about 27C at night and daytime highs of 33C. That’s it. Just red and orange stripes ad infinitum then. Every day, red follows orange follows red follows orange. And my mental torpitude echoes this repetition.

I have no idea why that popped into my head, still less what the reward is for our patience after we’ve waited and waited for however long it takes for IT to pass but waiting is preferable to the alternative.

Beijing fast-tracked the national security law that allows the Chinese police to cart us off to prison for life for “acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces” as defined by them in consultation with no-one just in time to come into effect tomorrow, effectively outlawing any  demonstrations planned for Hong Kong’s 23rd handover anniversary. The world wrings its hands and politicians bravely make speeches in their own parliaments but, and this is very much a personal view, the time to enshrine proper democratic values into the government of Hong Kong was, ooh, about 70 years ago, when it would have been inconvenient to the British rulers of the time. Not now. Now it’s too late. People have asked me what Britain can do. Well, do I really have to bring up the erosion of democracy in my own country, and its gradual kakistocratic descent into fascism? (I have never used that word lightly.) Still, make a few speeches. That will do.

I write this, of course in the middle of the coronavirus 19 pandemic. It was the people of Hong Kong who took matters into their own hands in January to stamp it out, in the face of dithering by the ineffectual HK government. We’ve been wearing masks and socially distancing since then. We are closed to all but returning HK residents, some of whom have brought the virus back with them. Our schools have only just reopened for a few half days before the long summer holidays. There is absolutely no sign that the strictly-enforced (with digital-bracelet) 14 day home quarantine following a wait for loooong hours in the exhibition centre by the airport for a Covid-19  test result will be eased any time soon. Annoying as it is, I really can’t blame Hong Kong for this. We’ve managed to keep much of normal life going because we acted so decisively to stamp on the virus. It’s an odd phenomenon, this social community awareness in this extremely individualistic city, where usually the only time that people look beyond their own personal bubble is to scowl at everyone else, but it has worked for us. I look at life here which barely changed apart from a gym hiatus for a few weeks, and view with utter disbelief the chaos and the continuing debate about wearing masks in my own country. Who would want any of that here?

This means of course that we’re more or less stuck here and unable to travel, and exacerbates the monotony of the temperature blanket. Art reflecting life. We can visit places locally, but we’ve already seen quite a lot of them and there seems little point trawling the malls yet again. Better to stay cocooned at home like Jane Austen’s ladies and practise being accomplished in arts and music.

I am, however, inordinately proud of this, my first attempt at the mosaic crochet technique. I say first attempt but I did have to redo it a few times. That’s the great thing about crochet though, unravelling and redoing is nowhere near as stressful as it is with knitting. I’m really enjoying the mental challenge of all these new techniques, and this May square kept me occupied for a week. So, obviously mine is not as neat as the designer’s, but it’s not too bad for the first time, I think.

The square is based on the Hope pattern, downloadable free on Ravelry, by Tinna Thorudottir Thorvaldar, an Icelandic artist and crochet designer. It represents love, hope and recovery. The circle in the centre is the world, and the hearts represent love extending  in all four directions. Tinna’s clear and soothing explanations, and the lilt in her accent (how many of us could teach this tutorial in fluent Icelandic?) make me want to explore this technique more. I don’t usually do “Norf” but I do like the look of the Reykjavik she depicts in her videos. One day, when we’re travelling again, I’ll bundle myself up in chunky jumpers and make the trek. Have a look at her video.

The mental buzz of crochet is utterly addictive. I keep searching for new and more complicated techniques to execute quite badly. I want to have a go at another of Tinna’s patterns and also to try Tunisian crochet but the stores haven’t restocked the Tunisian hooks yet, so that might have to wait for a while. In the meantime I found a pleasing granny square variation just today, so I’m anticipating using that for my June square when I get the monthly figures in from the Hong Kong observatory tomorrow.

Our stability is only a slight reassurance against the horror of the Siberian heatwave and melting of the Arctic this week:

As the world burns, Hong Kong appears to have its lowest level of air pollution in years. You feel that if you flicked the sky over the bay with your fingernail, it would ring a clear note as if from one of my Waterford wine glasses back at home. Similarly, knitting and crochet soothe the burning frettage in my mind. Take care. X