Real Food

The new Real Food Store in Exeter opened for business at 8am! It provides shoppers with the opportunity to buy fresh, seasonal produce which is grown, reared or prepared in the surrounding countryside; and to eat it in the café. So therefore it provides local suppliers with an outlet in Exeter. And most importantly - the underlying aim - it educates people about the benefits of fresh, seasonal and local food, for their health, the local economy and the environment. It is a social enterprise, set up with capital invested by members of the community who have bought shares, like me when I was living in Exeter. It's about community ownership: it's my store!

Back at Mucknell, in the morning I watched a pair of lapwings in their courtship and territorial dance, tightly choreographed looping, sweeping and diving together, or briefly parting to left and right to fly in symmetry. After they landed and melted into the field, my imagination continued in its looping and sweeping, and I can bring it back now. But more stolidly, in the evening I watched a wheatear plop around a pile of stones. It was decidedly rotund, with no neck when at rest, but suddenly extended for action. The black stripe on its head put me in mind of a very out-of-shape Zorro.