Covid-19 Lockdown, A Rural Diary - Weeks 4 & 5
Time
The more days and nights pass in Lockdown, the more Time seems to have become elastic. The usual definers are no longer there: the working week, the weekend, the school day, the holidays, the diary appointments and the social commitments. Instead each 24 hours has taken on its own strange shape, or lack of it. I wake up every morning and am vaguely confused as to what day it is. I cling to the few markers I have: Virtual Coffee Morning on Mondays at 11am (not everyone always remembers!); Virtual Choir Practice with my local choir, Magic Voices, on Tuesdays at 7pm; Virtual Pub Quiz at 8.30pm on Wednesdays (I haven't yet got my family interested in doing this - N not keen as it only has meaning to him if he's IN the pub, pint in hand, and the girls all have their own quizzes with their friends. Therefore I am probably destined to be the only person in the entire country who WON'T have done a single quiz during Lockdown!); Clap For Carers at 8pm on Thursdays. Then, every weekday, there is Gareth Malone's Great British Home Chorus at 5.30pm. It's different, but it's a routine, of sorts. There's a lot of time in-between which is filled with tasks according to my mood or the weather: from all the basic domestics of cleaning, cooking and laundry to communications, exercise, reading and writing. And then there's the sorting and chucking - but let's not go there. I haven't got the strength!
The girls and N have their own definers:-
N's is the permanent appointment with his desk (often even at the weekend) with an endless stream of communication, virtual or otherwise. He emerges, exhausted and shrivelled, and tries to get out for a walk to the top of the hill if he can - to breathe the fresh air and drink in the view and regain some perspective. For him, it is not the end of Lockdown that is the light at the end of the tunnel, but Retirement at the end of this year.
E's is her attempts to get fitter and leaner and to achieve the grade she has set herself to achieve in her Psychology degree. With the dissertation finished and submitted, she is now focusing on her final exam on Eating Disorders. Like her mother, she struggles with routine and pinballs between these activities.
G is the Queen of Routine and only the brave would try and distract her from it! The day starts with exercise - at least two, sometimes three online fitness routines, including yoga. The next thing you know she's off on a run or a dog walk or making lunch or making supper. And when I say run, we're talking 5k, 8k, 10k...all of which are fund-raising challenges. And if she's not doing that she's baking, or doing art, or cleaning.
L has her routine: sleep till mid-morning unless she has to get up for a Virtual Lesson. Cup of tea and breakfast; school work, lunch, school work; cup of tea and Daily Covid-19 briefing at 5pm. The latter is what she actually lives for right now, hungry as she is to be released from Lockdown prison to be with her friends again. She rightly feels cheated of those final weeks and months of school and all the rites of passage that go with Upper Sixth. She's the one who's all over the latest developments and all the statistics. Ask her anything about it and she'll know the answer....
Three such different children.
Weather
After the relative grey of Easter Sunday, the sun came right back out again for Easter Monday and stayed out for the next couple of weeks. To start with the air was cool but the sun was hot. As time went on, the air warmed up too. We all tried to be outside as much as we could. Many a salad lunch prepared and shared together on the balcony, out of the wind. We girls complained how hard it was to get anything useful done with the weather this good and feeling the need to be permanently outside getting our Vitamin D fix and a suntan....Poor N was still chained to his desk, popping out to soak it up at lunchtimes, late evenings and weekends only.
Gardening
When the weather plays ball, gardening is, for me, the obvious activity. As the moon was now waning, I sowed seeds for root vegetables. It was the perfect time for this as, during a waning moon, energy is pulled down into the earth, supporting development of root crops. The warmth of the sun would encourage germination with the help of some generous watering. I weeded, deadheaded, pruned and cleared. I even watered - a rare chore in these north-western hills. I got creative in the field, finally getting round to revealing a hidden spring. I noted the changing of the guard in the garden - from snowdrop to daffodil to primula to tulip. The grass had grown greener, the trees were in bud. The horse chestnut had gone early, as it always does, heralding the way for the rest.
Activities
These have been varied, from yoga on the lawn to clearing a garage to create a makeshift gym. We shuffled things around, moved others out and made room for the rowing machine which has been gathering dust in the corner for years and a work-out area. We have an old trunk (still full of clothes from the 80s - a de-pop gold mine!) with a ply-wood board on top to create a step-bench; N's old weight set; some hand dumbells; numerous elastics; an ab machine; a chair for balance or resting the computer on for the online workouts; some camping mats being re-invented as work-out mats - and a motorbike on trickle-charge which we have to work round! G has become my fitness trainer (an uphill task!) and her first leg work-out left me unable to walk for a week. I asked her to go a little easier on me..! She also polices my consumption of peanuts and wine. Irritating, but probably necessary, I'm forced to admit.
Many walks have been had in various formations - alone, together, in twos or threes. We never stop acknowledging how fortunate we are to have this beauty and this possibility right on our doorstep...
I plucked up courage to rise to the one social media challenge I have been set: to get glammed up for #BinWalkForMaggies which was a fundraiser for a Manchester based cancer support centre. So I donned my LBD, kitten heels and pink Marigolds and, feeling a tad self-conscious, put our black bin out on the morning of our Lockdown Bin Day (geddit?!). Somehow it made it to local news so I fear this is my 30-seconds of fame moment - dragging my bins out! Lifetime Achievement Award. Gwyneth Paltrow eat your heart out...
Many series are being enjoyed on TV, after the evening meal. Some we watch together, some we watch apart. Masterchef mania was a family thing (re-invigorated after a few years of giving it a miss); University Challenge while cooking supper is my guilty secret; Killing Eve is back which we watch together on Monday nights, and also the second series of After Life. There is The Nest, Breaking Bad and Designated Survivor (though only N and I watch this as it takes us back to '24' - our Sunday night treat years ago when we would go on a white-knuckle ride with Kiefer Sutherland over 24 hours of terror-induced action).
We have had family film nights and seen two lovely feel-good films (The Blind Side and The Intern) over a curry; and a couple of times the girls have had their own, tucked up together on the sofa-bed in the old playroom, watching rubbish girly films and eating fajitas, pizza and popcorn - a perfect Friday night!
G has also done some beautiful art - something I also wanted to do but haven't found time for yet. She struggled with watercolours so turned to pastels and has produced some lovely pictures from images she had in her photo library from holidays. She has also done a Covid-19 collage to mark this extraordinary passage of our collective lives...
Meals
We have eaten really well, planning meals through what was on our shopping list and subsequently in the fridge and store cupboards, rather than on a weekly menu basis. We have a rough plan of meat, fish, pasta/vegetarian and take it from there. Sometimes we prepare the meals alone, sometimes we prepare them together. We had said we could all do our own things at lunchtime - and yet still we tend to sit down together, whatever we are eating. It anchors the days and allows us to talk and share what we are thinking and feeling - more important than ever right now. It is not always amicable. Sometimes we shout a bit, sometimes we cry a bit, sometimes we have funny discussions, sometimes we have serious ones. It is all part of the daily mix. It is what families are for - the good, the bad and the ugly. But most of all, we try and support each other. We all have our good days and bad.
Birthdays
April is a busy month for birthdays. I have numerous friends who celebrate this month. Cards and messages had been sent - and some FaceTime calls took place too which would not, in normal circumstances, have happened.
St George's Day, April 23rd, is a big day in our house because it is also N's birthday, his brother's birthday, and his parents' wedding anniversary - as well as the birthday of a very old family friend with whom he not only bought his first flat and but with whom he also still works, a period of 35 long years. By mid-afternoon N had swapped his desk and we embarked on the FaceTime frenzy with friends and family over a glass or several of fizz. This included neighbours carefully bringing over an iPad to his 89 year old mother for her to join in on a Zoom meet with his brother too. All lovely, but quite exhausting, truth to tell. It is still not the same as simply being together, though of course it's a great option to have and for which we are thankful.
We cooked him a special 3-course meal and he opened his presents. Perhaps the greatest gift was that his girls were all with him - something which would not have happened if life had been 'normal'.
And finally....to make you smile
The more days and nights pass in Lockdown, the more Time seems to have become elastic. The usual definers are no longer there: the working week, the weekend, the school day, the holidays, the diary appointments and the social commitments. Instead each 24 hours has taken on its own strange shape, or lack of it. I wake up every morning and am vaguely confused as to what day it is. I cling to the few markers I have: Virtual Coffee Morning on Mondays at 11am (not everyone always remembers!); Virtual Choir Practice with my local choir, Magic Voices, on Tuesdays at 7pm; Virtual Pub Quiz at 8.30pm on Wednesdays (I haven't yet got my family interested in doing this - N not keen as it only has meaning to him if he's IN the pub, pint in hand, and the girls all have their own quizzes with their friends. Therefore I am probably destined to be the only person in the entire country who WON'T have done a single quiz during Lockdown!); Clap For Carers at 8pm on Thursdays. Then, every weekday, there is Gareth Malone's Great British Home Chorus at 5.30pm. It's different, but it's a routine, of sorts. There's a lot of time in-between which is filled with tasks according to my mood or the weather: from all the basic domestics of cleaning, cooking and laundry to communications, exercise, reading and writing. And then there's the sorting and chucking - but let's not go there. I haven't got the strength!
The girls and N have their own definers:-
N's is the permanent appointment with his desk (often even at the weekend) with an endless stream of communication, virtual or otherwise. He emerges, exhausted and shrivelled, and tries to get out for a walk to the top of the hill if he can - to breathe the fresh air and drink in the view and regain some perspective. For him, it is not the end of Lockdown that is the light at the end of the tunnel, but Retirement at the end of this year.
E's is her attempts to get fitter and leaner and to achieve the grade she has set herself to achieve in her Psychology degree. With the dissertation finished and submitted, she is now focusing on her final exam on Eating Disorders. Like her mother, she struggles with routine and pinballs between these activities.
G is the Queen of Routine and only the brave would try and distract her from it! The day starts with exercise - at least two, sometimes three online fitness routines, including yoga. The next thing you know she's off on a run or a dog walk or making lunch or making supper. And when I say run, we're talking 5k, 8k, 10k...all of which are fund-raising challenges. And if she's not doing that she's baking, or doing art, or cleaning.
L has her routine: sleep till mid-morning unless she has to get up for a Virtual Lesson. Cup of tea and breakfast; school work, lunch, school work; cup of tea and Daily Covid-19 briefing at 5pm. The latter is what she actually lives for right now, hungry as she is to be released from Lockdown prison to be with her friends again. She rightly feels cheated of those final weeks and months of school and all the rites of passage that go with Upper Sixth. She's the one who's all over the latest developments and all the statistics. Ask her anything about it and she'll know the answer....
Three such different children.
Weather
After the relative grey of Easter Sunday, the sun came right back out again for Easter Monday and stayed out for the next couple of weeks. To start with the air was cool but the sun was hot. As time went on, the air warmed up too. We all tried to be outside as much as we could. Many a salad lunch prepared and shared together on the balcony, out of the wind. We girls complained how hard it was to get anything useful done with the weather this good and feeling the need to be permanently outside getting our Vitamin D fix and a suntan....Poor N was still chained to his desk, popping out to soak it up at lunchtimes, late evenings and weekends only.
Gardening
When the weather plays ball, gardening is, for me, the obvious activity. As the moon was now waning, I sowed seeds for root vegetables. It was the perfect time for this as, during a waning moon, energy is pulled down into the earth, supporting development of root crops. The warmth of the sun would encourage germination with the help of some generous watering. I weeded, deadheaded, pruned and cleared. I even watered - a rare chore in these north-western hills. I got creative in the field, finally getting round to revealing a hidden spring. I noted the changing of the guard in the garden - from snowdrop to daffodil to primula to tulip. The grass had grown greener, the trees were in bud. The horse chestnut had gone early, as it always does, heralding the way for the rest.
Activities
These have been varied, from yoga on the lawn to clearing a garage to create a makeshift gym. We shuffled things around, moved others out and made room for the rowing machine which has been gathering dust in the corner for years and a work-out area. We have an old trunk (still full of clothes from the 80s - a de-pop gold mine!) with a ply-wood board on top to create a step-bench; N's old weight set; some hand dumbells; numerous elastics; an ab machine; a chair for balance or resting the computer on for the online workouts; some camping mats being re-invented as work-out mats - and a motorbike on trickle-charge which we have to work round! G has become my fitness trainer (an uphill task!) and her first leg work-out left me unable to walk for a week. I asked her to go a little easier on me..! She also polices my consumption of peanuts and wine. Irritating, but probably necessary, I'm forced to admit.
Many walks have been had in various formations - alone, together, in twos or threes. We never stop acknowledging how fortunate we are to have this beauty and this possibility right on our doorstep...
I plucked up courage to rise to the one social media challenge I have been set: to get glammed up for #BinWalkForMaggies which was a fundraiser for a Manchester based cancer support centre. So I donned my LBD, kitten heels and pink Marigolds and, feeling a tad self-conscious, put our black bin out on the morning of our Lockdown Bin Day (geddit?!). Somehow it made it to local news so I fear this is my 30-seconds of fame moment - dragging my bins out! Lifetime Achievement Award. Gwyneth Paltrow eat your heart out...
Many series are being enjoyed on TV, after the evening meal. Some we watch together, some we watch apart. Masterchef mania was a family thing (re-invigorated after a few years of giving it a miss); University Challenge while cooking supper is my guilty secret; Killing Eve is back which we watch together on Monday nights, and also the second series of After Life. There is The Nest, Breaking Bad and Designated Survivor (though only N and I watch this as it takes us back to '24' - our Sunday night treat years ago when we would go on a white-knuckle ride with Kiefer Sutherland over 24 hours of terror-induced action).
We have had family film nights and seen two lovely feel-good films (The Blind Side and The Intern) over a curry; and a couple of times the girls have had their own, tucked up together on the sofa-bed in the old playroom, watching rubbish girly films and eating fajitas, pizza and popcorn - a perfect Friday night!
G has also done some beautiful art - something I also wanted to do but haven't found time for yet. She struggled with watercolours so turned to pastels and has produced some lovely pictures from images she had in her photo library from holidays. She has also done a Covid-19 collage to mark this extraordinary passage of our collective lives...
Meals
We have eaten really well, planning meals through what was on our shopping list and subsequently in the fridge and store cupboards, rather than on a weekly menu basis. We have a rough plan of meat, fish, pasta/vegetarian and take it from there. Sometimes we prepare the meals alone, sometimes we prepare them together. We had said we could all do our own things at lunchtime - and yet still we tend to sit down together, whatever we are eating. It anchors the days and allows us to talk and share what we are thinking and feeling - more important than ever right now. It is not always amicable. Sometimes we shout a bit, sometimes we cry a bit, sometimes we have funny discussions, sometimes we have serious ones. It is all part of the daily mix. It is what families are for - the good, the bad and the ugly. But most of all, we try and support each other. We all have our good days and bad.
Birthdays
April is a busy month for birthdays. I have numerous friends who celebrate this month. Cards and messages had been sent - and some FaceTime calls took place too which would not, in normal circumstances, have happened.
St George's Day, April 23rd, is a big day in our house because it is also N's birthday, his brother's birthday, and his parents' wedding anniversary - as well as the birthday of a very old family friend with whom he not only bought his first flat and but with whom he also still works, a period of 35 long years. By mid-afternoon N had swapped his desk and we embarked on the FaceTime frenzy with friends and family over a glass or several of fizz. This included neighbours carefully bringing over an iPad to his 89 year old mother for her to join in on a Zoom meet with his brother too. All lovely, but quite exhausting, truth to tell. It is still not the same as simply being together, though of course it's a great option to have and for which we are thankful.
We cooked him a special 3-course meal and he opened his presents. Perhaps the greatest gift was that his girls were all with him - something which would not have happened if life had been 'normal'.
And finally....to make you smile
A little wagtail flew into the house and found a perch in the bathroom...
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