Diary > Thursday, 2nd April

[trystan]

7:30am noticeably more cars on the road. Bit grey, drizzly and windy. Not too cold.

Jumped in the shower. Suddenly thought it smelt like a swimming pool. Then I remembered that I had put bleach in before going to bed.

Some cups of tea later - still more traffic than previous days. How very odd.

Read my digital subscription newspaper.

Again, I watch people getting their paper copy, oblivious to the risk of exposing themselves (and others). I mustn't judge, but I find myself disappointed, sad and wanting to help them all at the same time. A "Corona-evangelist" or something perhaps. No. It's so difficult when I see people multiplying the likelihood of them getting ill, spreading it, and then with the odds that they then face.

"Stay at Home".  Is the newspaper to die for?

It's tough, it's so difficult. I see the lady whose husband has dementia, coming back with a newspaper (he used to get it)  - it's a balanced risk for her, that's fair enough I understand that. It must be so much tougher for her. For them. Bless them.

"Smelly man" passes, going for his scratch cards. I hope he doesn't lose his life.

I managed to finish the "Codewords" puzzle in 3 minutes 33 seconds. Fastest for me yet. Pleased with that. Small pleasures.

The weather picks up, a bit of blue sky, no drizzle.

Really enjoyed our walk today. Spoke again with the lady we bump into, safely, from across the road to each other. We gave her a little puzzle to spot - "The lamp post under the bridge - what was unusual about it." She'll give us the answer tomorrow or the next time we see her. It's good that we've made a friend. It gives some continuity to the "journey" too. I suppose that's why I enjoyed our walk.

The day is punctuated with work too, but I won't' mention that.

Salad for tea. It's amazing how long radish survives in the fridge. Ours has started sprouting. Two eggs left. Four slices of bread.

We start planning a list of what foods we can get from where. Planning on using a local farm that delivers basic things.

We stood at the door applauding the heroes of this country again at 8pm. More people again!

Over to you. What excitement has your day brought?

[mazi]

Fist dandelion in flower in the lawn grass, next year I’m going to do something about them.

A flower (just one) on the broad beans, they are under glass but hey it’s a start.

The mole is working it’s way along the base of the hedge, heading for the veg plot.

Not exiting but at least I’m still alive, ever day is a bonus for my oncologists experiment, me I just get told think of the alternative

We see eye to eye on this, the science is interesting.   

Mike

[Roobarb]

Groundhog day. 

Woke late as I'd been reading in bed till 1.30 a.m. What does it matter? Felt a bit depressed, seems to be the default stage on waking these days. Usual cups of tea. Couldn't be bothered to do anything much, no idea now what I actually did do.

Went for my walk, very windy across the field, into the woods and out again several times as usual. Felt a bit better for the walk. Returned and had lunch.

Got my brushes out and did some painting, got carried away with that. Looked at the kitchen clock and couldn't believe it was only twenty to two. It wasn't, it was twenty to three, that prompted me to finally get round to altering the clock. The paperback I sent for still hasn't arrived, no lettuce seeds either and no sign of the 'owed' inhaler from the pharmacy.

Sent some emails, logged into Rootschat. Where had the day gone? Roasted the chicken my friend kindly brought with the rest of my shopping. Had forgotten to ask for any root veg other than potatoes so it was greens all the way, my mother would have been proud of me. All very tasty if I say it myself. The rest of the chicken will do several meals for me.

Stood on the doorstep and clapped at eight o'clock along with most of the neighbours, it was good to see. My brother phoned, had a lovely long conversation, cheered me up. Time for bath and bed.

[Chilternbirder]

Supermarket had run out of my usual coffee and wasn't impressed by the one I had bought instead when I opened the new packed at breakfast. Some good classic comedy on 4 Extra though - ISIRTA from 1966. Lovely scene with Jo Kendall and Tom Brooke-Taylor reading four parts between them and ending in total collapse. I remember going to some of the recordings, they didn't re-record to cover anything fluffed.

My doctor wouldn't let me order a repeat prescription far enough in advance to restrict myself to one trip this week so in a queue outside Boots this morning. Tweeted a photo to show that I was respecting the marked waiting points.

https://twitter.com/chilternbirder/status/1245668333971791872

Decided to pick up a couple of items which would put off the next shopping trip by a few days. Health food shop and Polish shop both closed. Supermarkets both had 30 minute plus queues.

Did a little weeding in the garden. At least the weeds can all go on the compost heap. Wondering how long I can put off trimming the front hedge as don't have much space for storring woody waste. Smell of burning plastic later in the afternoon suggested that somebody was disposing of uncollected "recycling" in an inappropriate manner.

[Caw1]

Another day... what day was it and what was the date.... they are all blending in and even looking at the calendar it's hard to know as there are no difinitive activities to say oh yes it's Tuesday as I go to Yogalates or Thursday as OH plays golf.... life is slipping by unaccounted for...

Spoke to a neighbour on the phone after she'd sent me an email... I was going to reply and I thought why? Just pick up the phone so I did and we had a good natter, she lives in SA for 6 months of the year and was due back on Easter Monday but was advised to return earlier, I miss not seeing her for our usual coffee and chats... this will have to do for the moment.... will she get back to SA in October... will I physically see her by then it's the not knowing that I'm beginning to find hard.

We had a lovely walk over the fields with the wind in our hair breathing in all that fresh air listening to the birds tweeting away and watching a red kite scouring the landscape before flying off into the distance.
We were surprised to see a couple with a dog getting out of a car... they'd obviously driven there... what part of stay at home and walk in your locality didn't they understand... we saw 5 cyclists, several vans and a few cars which was quite surprising as usually we don't see anyone.
Felt much better by the time we got home and the melencholy felt before was gone.
Our daughter FaceTimed us after lunch whilst the boys were letting off steam in the garden before ' afternoon lessons ' began. They had done some french and sceience experiments in the morning with Dad... didn't find out exactly what but they'd enjoyed it... afternoon is mums/ our daughters turn.
They start the day with Joe Wicks exercises in front of the tv then dad does morning shift... they're finding it hard to actually work so most of that's done in the evening after they've gone to bed!

During the conversation she and her father discussed what veg seeds they'd got and she's going to post some for him as he'd not been able to get beetroot,parsnips,spring onions and she's adding french beans and some peas!
I spent a while in the afternoon reading in the conservatory whilst OH looked at all local planning applications on councils website... he got distracted as he'd been going to just see whether the chap who bought our pub ( closed for 16+yrs) had put in another application for change of use.... he's lost the last three he's put in! OH is chair of Village group trying to buy/save it as it's a thatched 350+ yrs old building.... only amenity we have/had in the village...it's up for sake but price being asked is as it would be if it was a house not a pub! Valuation actually went down last time as it's got no trading history.. such a pity he's being such a ....... ah well couldn't frequent it anyway at the moment if it was open!

Time for dinner then out to clap at 8pm..

Another day passes

Caroline

[Maiden Stone]

Groundhog day for me, apart from car breakdown.
Brisk walk, well wrapped-up.
Hospital late afternoon as every day this week. My driver has been stopped twice by police this week, once on the main road after bringing me home. Received apology on each occasion.
My hands are chapped from overuse of sanitiser. I put hand-cream on before I leave home and when I return. A patient in waiting area wearing mask & disposable gloves. She got her mobile phone out; does she disinfect it, I wonder.
Chilly evening. I remained indoors.