The mystery of the topsoil trenches in the local park is solved. Brent council has dug hundreds of long wavy strips like them across parks from one end of the borough to the other; and planted wild flower seeds to provide a bee corridor. With the terrifying decline in insect populations globally – and the sight of people in China already having to pollinate trees by hand – this is a very timely initiative. Parts of local parks were already left to “meadow” last year – making them somehow gentler, more relaxed places – as well as encouraging insect life. This is a very limited form of re-wilding – and we won’t be getting wild boar any time soon – but looking across the park now is more like being in the countryside than an over clipped, tame city space; and all the more therapeutic for that. Now that London is the world’s first National Park City and aiming for 50% green space by 2050 – even as the population goes up to nine million – we will need more and more of this.