What an honour to deliver the first hit of Myxomatapesis part deux! A weighty prestige indeed, and so I turn for help to one who could always carry stuff two, three, four-times her size – our small and mighty Vera Azarova.

I can’t really put her into words, but I can say that she flew into the world in December 1985 and flew out in September 2014, and so we think of her even more deeply and even more often at this time of year.

Since Vera’s death, her strong and mischievous babushka has been visited often by a bumble bee. When we sang for Vera a couple of years ago on the beach in Broadstairs, a bumble bee flew into the circle. And during some of my long hours at the laptop of late, it has not been rare for a bumble bee to plonk happily into the window and say hello.

So out to the bees. Out to Vera. Out to friendship. And out to the Equinox! Out to equal light and dark. Because we cannot have one without the other.