WOW

We're standing in Southend Library this morning, looking out the window, and she comments on the press coverage this tree has recently had. I'm not a morning person, really - bit slow on the uptake, so she kindly pointed out that it's March, and this tree has forgotten to shed its apples. It still thinks it's the growing season. I made a politically incorrect joke about her comment on the tree being some Scottish breed - I said, well, the Scottish are known to be tight, but... funny at the time. Anyway.

I don't blame the tree: it may or may not know there's a recession and to hang on to - and show off its assets seems to me to be a good move. It also appears not to know that it's not autumn any more; winter has passed, it's spring. To be in joyful denial of the seasons passing is quirky but I find optimism in it. Or it's ruthless determination, but either way, me and the tree might be kindred spirits.

And we have to be: the recession has hit the arts badly, and the landscape is changing at a daily pace; worried faces, an unsure future; considering options, plan B, plan C... let's go to a Kibbutz instead and leave it all behind.

Hardly: really exciting to hear Syd Moore on Womans Hour www.bbc.co.uk/programmes11/03/11 'give it some' about reclaiming the Essex Girl stereotype, her Essex accent loud and clear, but what a pleasantly feminine and eloquent voice. Syd is an intelligent, articulate woman with a lot to say: unshakable conviction in her beliefs and and a determination to carry on regardless, refusing to shed any assets along the way. I take my hat off to her. She does it in style.

"Launching this year, WOW - Women of the World - is a joyous celebration of the formidable strength and inventiveness of women - a pioneering, groundbreaking annual festival, which will present, recognise and celebrate women, and act as a conversation space for issues of all kinds." www.southbankcentre.co.uk/women-of-the-world Incidentally, a Kibbutz is a combination of Socialism (common or public ownership) and Zionism (self-determination) through agricultural sustenance. So we may not have to travel to Israel to have some of the pioneering energy and celebration of ourselves, a sense of identity, a new growth of joy and optimism.

I'm not the kind to hug a tree, but that's what I might just go back and do.