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This afternoon I did go to the allotment and there was rather a large leek growing. Serendipitously it was one that had popped up from the year before, not one I had deliberately planted. It was hidden by a thicket of twitchy grass so I had missed it earlier. Nevertheless I am taking full credit. (Also the asparagus started to appear. I'm not sure how much longer the blessed plot can keep producing asaparagus; but it is lush).

When I came back the Wizard of Oz was on TV. Michelle and Maddy have a deep love of musicals (they also watched Grease later on). I only caught a bit of it but I did my usual thing of commentating on a program people are trying to watch. On this occasion I was disturbed by the allegory of the three characters going to the wizard for, respectively, brains, courage and a heart. The wizard gives them validation by providing in turn, a certificate of achievement, a medal for valour and a testimonal in the form of a plastic heart shaped pocket watch. The moral offered at the presentation of this third gift, but valid for all three, is:

"a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others".

"As a moral it is totally moribund" I ranted. "Courage, intellect or philanthropy that only exists when it is recognised and publicly rewarded is compromised since the motive for acting cannot be completely trusted. And the idea that their inherent self doubt could be overcome so readily by a mere bauble, and that the qualities they sought existed in all fullness inside them all along and took only a petty trifling recognition to come out, is such utter nonsense". Both of them smiled tolerantly and then craned their necks to look around me at the TV. 

I have posted a photo of the mighty leek on Facebook. A triumph is a triumph.