Saturday morning reverie. The past and future pondered.

As I sit at the computer and type, a delicious Saturday morning unfolds through the window beyond. True, it's wind-blown and fresh, but there is within it a raw energy that seems to reinvigorate. As I watch the pines shake and the bird-feeder swing from the cherry tree and hear the rush of the wind in the leaves (the technical word of which is psithurism, believe it or not), I imagine Malvern, in my mind's eye, further afield.

I see Church Street, staring down from the top near Elgar's statue. My sweeping gaze takes in Great Malvern Post Office, where a child peers hungrily into a Thornton's bag in the secure grip of her mother, and then it passes over the road, to Henry's Cafe and Bistro, busily serving English breakfasts to a full and happy house. Farther down, as Church Street narrows, wind-swept shoppers, many with a Nero or Costa coffee in hand, bid for space on the contended pavement. It is a busy, contented place.

And it all serves to make me realise what a privilage it is to live in such a town as Malvern. And that gives me hope for the future. I have lived in Malvern for nearly ten years now. I have worked as a carer for the elderly at Bupa, and then as a nursery assistant in one of England's most respected children's nurseries. Now, I run my own enterprise offering mainly domestic cleaning in Malvern and Worcestershire. It is the first time that I have set up on my own, and the thought of the future makes me both nervous and excited. Like the wind beyond the glass, it imbues me with a sense that anything is possible, if you just dare to take those first steps.