Whenever I’m asked a question with an all too obvious affirmative answer, I’m always tempted to reply ‘Does a one-legged duck swim in a circle?’ That question’s attributed to Mr Anonymous. I do like it. As I like circles. Like this one that appeared over at the Land of Meg a few weeks ago. I can’t fathom why I like circles. Perhaps it’s their continuity. Or their sheer perfection. Or the impossibility of drawing them freehand – unless you’re Giotto di Bondone, of course. And since I was very young (pun intended), I’ve had a soft spot for A A Milne’s poem ‘Jonathan Jo’. Why? Because he ‘Has a mouth like an “O”’. But I’d be lying if I said I liked all circles. Take the Southern Star, for example. (Please do. It’s abominable.) And so on to leeches – about which I wrote recently. Last Wednesday whilst wearing shorts I was sitting on the grass in my orchard weeding around the fruit trees, when a leech latched on to my thigh. I discovered it an hour later when I was sitting at my computer and felt blood trickling down my leg. The leech was replete so I easily flicked it off. I should’ve taken it outside and let it go. But I didn’t. I put a bit of salt on it. And what did it do? As you can see, it crawled in a circle. Must have thought it was a one-legged duck, eh.
