It’s not often that you can say a door made your day. But last Thursday was that day.

I was catching up with the world on my iPad, hoping to avoid the depressing sights that have become the wallpaper of social media: portraits of politicians who have either lost all shame or never had any in the first place; pictures of heart-breaking natural disasters and climate running out of control; and images of cruelty to innocent animals; along with all manner of other inhumanity and needless bitterness.

If I have a New Year’s resolution for 2020, it is to try to focus on the good people in the world, rather than the rottenness infecting the others.

So thank heavens for the door. I saw it on a Facebook page called We Are Swindon, and it was just the front door of an otherwise typical terraced house in Clifton Street.

Except it was pink. And it had ‘Hello’ painted on it. So did the little wooden gate, which also had a heart cut into it. Meanwhile, on the fanlight window above the door, the owner had painted a row of ducks and the word ‘Welcome’.

Just in case there was any doubt.

The person who lives behind it is called Kirsty Stevens. I know because she added a modest little message to the page to say she was glad people liked her door - although the general consensus was ‘liked’ didn’t begin to cover it.

“We love this,” said the owner of the page, echoing my thoughts. “It’s so Swindon… unique, brave, full of character.”

And they should know. The page exists so that those of us who try to be positive about Swindon and are proud to live here can have our voices heard above the prattle of people who think they were put on this planet only to point out its obvious imperfections, and yet never seem to have any positive suggestions for improvements, and never raise a finger to help.

As a picture can speak a thousand words, the main way that We Are Swindon achieves its aim of promoting the town positively is by being an outlet for locally taken photos that are often beautiful.

So it’s a treat for your eyes, as well as a boost for your morale, and worth checking out.

The night before I came across the door I was trying to be positive about Swindon too, by co-presenting an illustrated talk to The Swindon Society about a book I have recently published with my friend, Noel Ponting.

Called A Swindon Wordsmith (and on sale in the Central Library), it is about an unsung local literary hero whose name was George Hobbs.

A century ago, he was somehow finding time (after doing a five-and-a-half-day week as a gifted engineer and foreman in Swindon Railway Works, and being a lay preacher on Sundays) to write on an astonishing range of different subjects, mostly for this very paper.

For good measure he also tried his hand at some pioneering comedy and science fiction, and published a book of poetry.

George was Swindon at its best, demonstrating how creative and positive supposedly ‘ordinary’ local folk could be, and showing us why our heritage should be a greater source of pride and inspiration.

Fittingly, he also lived in a little terraced house, and although his door was never pink, I’m sure he would have approved of those that were.

And if he were here today, he would be praying that, whatever their colour, 2020 is a year of opening doors, not closing ones.