From the series Bright Spots

Piglets. I can't help it, I think they're wonderful, with their glorious, chubby, gloriously filthy little snouts, their lovely grunting and their rooting about in the earth. They seem so playful and uninhibited. That's very much my thing: that mud-caked delight in play. When my child comes home filthy from top to toe after a day playing outside, my heart lifts a little, because he can only have had a great time. And when I see those pigs stacked up in factory farming, destined to serve as our food, the opposite happens and my heart sinks into my boots. What has become of us humans, that we think we have to treat our animals like this?

But I won't dwell on that at length, because this column belongs to the category 'bright spots'. Its aim is to show all the lovely things we humans do, the wonderful initiatives we take, and how we're capable of bringing more colour to the life around us without bending everything to our will.