I took my children to a spired city today, to seek fossils. They skipped through the end-of-day commuters with skinny skeins of arms waving in the ochre light, their ubiquitous plastic sandals telegraphing their displacement despite their urban camouflage of check shirts and flapping shorts.

Even a small, green city such as this seems alien to me now. I wonder whether i am burying us, living in this tiny village.