Glut

A Red Dorking rooster with deep red and black plumage in a faded blue cotton work jacket and an old brown felt hat, standing on an upturned wooden crate beside a weathered green shed on an English allotment, an enamel mug of tea on the crate, a wooden trug of courgettes and one enormous pale green marrow at his feet, runner beans with red flowers climbing canes and courgette plants behind in hazy evening light

Plot Fourteen

There were three courgettes on Sunday. This morning there are nine, one of them roughly the size of a draught excluder, and he keeps watch by the shed with his tea, working out which neighbours will be home after dark.

18 August 2026