Beauty and the beast

Cycling home last night (sans headlight, thanks to juvenile delinquent dregs upstairs) I realised that you can find beautiful things that give you pleasure in the most unlikely places.Like the Rotherhithe tunnel roundabout: a perilous three-lane monstrosity that I have to navigate on my route home through Surrey Quays. It was raining quite a lot last night and I was very damp, although not particularly miserable. I don’t mind cycling in the rain, but it’s not very pleasant, and I was looking forward to getting home. Buses and cars swished past me, showering me with oily tyre-spray, and maniac bikers zipped past and down into the tunnel at a speed that I find scary, frankly. Anyway, round the roundabout I went, and as I approached the turn off, I smelt honeysuckle. I wasn’t even sure it was possible to smell honeysuckle this late in the year, but there it was, drifting through the mist and rain, delighting my senses. I feel grateful.