Future Proofing

In a case of home as tardis, the past, present and future are all wrapped up in the four walls that Douglas Lloyd Jenkins inhabits in life and work.

- Douglas Lloyd Jenkins

A writer friend once advised me that when one has a moment of indecision as to potential subject, the best cure is to look out the window and write what you see. In my case, this is good advice because what I see from my desk is our lemon tree. As far as a tree can, it offers good professional support; it almost always seems to have last year’s well-ripened fruit, this year’s fruit colouring up nicely and next year’s fruit hard and green. For a columnist whose contributions stretch both forward into the future and back into the past, the stoic lemon tree has a way of saying “get on with it – if I can, you can”.

Gazing at that tree has made me think about the way we live in our homes, with the memory of past houses and the promise of future homes all swirling in our minds at the same time. Although real-estate agents and television programmes might talk about ‘forever houses’ most of us end up moving through a few different locations before we get anywhere near a ‘forever’ solution.