We started preparing this week’s blog on Wednesday of last week, with the words: ‘We hadn’t planned on posting another blog on Kyrgyzstan quite so soon, but life is unpredictable and ‘stuff happens’.  Our ‘stuff’ turned out to be very small fry compared with the events of the following Thursday afternoon.  Whatever you think of living in a constitutional monarchy, the death of a highly respected, empathetic and influential women, who is also one of the world’s longest standing monarchs, must take priority.  It’s a cliché but it is the end of an era. 

Society and its landscape have changed markedly through the seventy years of the Queen’s reign.  During the latter part, climate change was – finally – recognised as significant.  Charles III, in the guise of the Prince of Wales, recognised this significance much earlier than many and was vocal in his responses and calls for action.  Slowly his reputation and approach has been rehabilitated from say, eccentric, to unnerving realist. 

Who would have thought, at the end of the 20th century, that the Tower of London, that massive and assertive symbol of English history and power, would have turned its moat over to ceramic poppies in 2014, in an act of remembrance, before progressing to real flowers in 2022, with the spectacular London ‘Superbloom’, in an act of hope and to signal the way forward.  Thank goodness that Queen Elizabeth II lived long enough to see them both.    

Sadly, as King Charles III, the former Prince of Wales can no longer pursue his campaigning lifestyle.  This he confirmed in his address to the nation last Friday evening.  In this carefully crafted speech, one phrase struck Terroir:  ‘we must retain our values’.  I think we all know what he meant – values relating to service, steadfastness, honesty – but we suspect that many of us define ‘values’ as being able to continue to live our lives as we have always done.  These values have to change. Whether it be by not mowing our lawn so often, not eating meat, eschewing non-recyclable plastic wrapping, giving up the car, or supporting the erection of more windfarms and solar panels, we absolutely must change our values, and our way of life, if we are to have any life worth valuing.     

The Queen is dead, but the Monarchy is not.  Long live the King.  The future of our planet, however, is not so well assured.