Corona Diary: Half year, middle of the week catch-up

A small rambling post about what I’m up to at the moment, what’s happening out here in my little corner of the West Wiltshire town that’s been my home for the past 17 years, and what’s new since my first post about living through the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK.

News in the garden: our first courgette has appeared and there are many tiny, still-growing, pears on the pear tree. Now I need to work out how to stop the wind blowing the fruit from the tree before it’s time; also how to stop birds from snacking on the little pears. Our courgettes (and potatoes) are under a wire frame to keep away a marauding badger (or badgers!) but birds are harder to dissuade. I’d be happy if we found a way of sharing – fairly – the fruit.

Beyond the greenery of our garden, the sound of traffic becomes more and more noticeable, I think the loudest I’ve ever heard it.  Obviously nothing like living in a big city or even near a busy road but, nonetheless, it’s obvious that there is more personal traffic on the road.  Public transport has never been fantastic here – it’s the main difference I noticed when we moved from south London all those years ago – but now, with the risk of Covid-19, it seems that people are generally avoiding buses and trains.

There is a feeling of life starting up again but my life hasn’t changed dramatically since lockdown conditions began to be eased in the UK.  Perhaps I have a *little* more personal space now since both of my young adult children are venturing out and about, trying to set their lives back on track after the major disruption in March when they were sent home from their respective universities.  They both intend to leave home again – one to start work after graduating, the other to resume studying – so they are negotiating finances and house viewings while the country is still in part-lockdown.  Not for the first time in my life, I am in admiration of their independence and determination, not to mention their ability to get things done.  I know I wasn’t as organised and resourceful at their ages.

Andrew, my husband, is still working from his home-office in a shed in our garden.

Miraculously, we seem to have come through this period of enforced excessive time together without any major upsets – apart from one big misunderstanding in early lockdown days about taking the wrong shopping list, which has now become a legendary family joke.

I have gone back to using ‘screentime’ on my phone, in order to focus on writing, and not get distracted by social media spats and constant news updates.  I enjoyed making a series of collages – see my previous post – and I’m now returning to prose writing, with some poetry seeping in around the edges, as it always does.  I’m still reading Anne Enright’s The Gathering.

OK, so this hasn’t been the smallest or the most rambling of posts but it has come to an end.  As always, thank you for reading and stay well and safe, especially if you’re venturing out into the real world again.