resilience

There’s something about resilience that makes me think of cold baths, wet feet and the distant prospect of lukewarm vegetable soup.  And the word, defined first in the dictionary as "the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation," only adds to the depression.

Tim put down his chainsaw and looked at me, and then at the head-high tangle that stretched unbroken and uphill for an unknown distance. "Do you really think it's worth it?", he said.

Honey, eggs, fish, clothes, books, herbal medicine, fruit, seeds, a bike, a greenhouse, labour, a full gas bottle, a stove, bread, furniture; these are some of the things that we have obtained via bartering so far. Sometimes it's a one-off deal, but we've got a few regular exchanges set up, like a veg box for herbal remedies or salad bags for eggs and bread for courgettes.