Days 50-59 of Lockdown. 12th-21st May 2020

So another nine days of Lazy Lockdown living has drifted by. And I know I am getting lazier … I can tell by the snug fitting of my clothes. At the beginning of this Lockdown I was like ‘a man on a mission’ …. each day crammed with a variety of activities. Now, I get up later, get started on things later and finish earlier. I still manage daily exercise and one or two different ‘projects’ but I have slowed down tremendously. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing … even in retirement, Steve and I have continued to live life at quite a pace – and I’m sure we’ll return to that as soon as it’s allowed. So for now, I’m going to learn to be more chilled, there’s always tomorrow!

To address the weight issue however, I have returned to a little running and have upped the workout sessions by switching to Joe Wicks – that really gets the heart racing. Longing for my fitness classes at Shenley Leisure Centre to start again, hate working out alone!

Walks

Still enjoying some fabulous walks every few days. Never tire of being out and about in the countryside and around the pretty walking paths we’re so fortunate to have. One walk this week though got a little hairy at one point for a couple of reasons.

(1) We were quietly ambling along a deserted village road in Upper Weald when we were nearly knocked off our feet by a speeding Mercedes being pursued by a wailing police car … as far as we were able to see that chappie had no intention of stopping.

And (2) … just up the road from that incident our faithful Ordnance Survey app told us to turn left onto a footpath, so taking us off the road. Having been nearly run over we jumped at that chance. At the stile it seemed a little ‘unused’ but we carried on…. and then it just got more and more overgrown – no trace of a footpath … but of course, we just carried on. The last couple of fields we had to plough through before reaching civilisation, the grass was practically up to our waists – God knows what was lurking below. The obvious things lurking were nasty nettles, thistles and all things prickly – our legs were being torn to shreds! And not a dock leaf in sight – we had to resort to spittle!! Oh the joys of rambling!!

Sewing face masks

Have turned my hand this week to making face masks – these are my first two attempts – they’ll be winging their way to Manchester for Alice and Mel. Happy to make for anyone ‘in need.’

Zoom calls and quizzes

Zoom calls have become such a way of life in Lockdown – having to keep a diary these days for Lockdown appointments! It’s not the real thing but is an amazing substitute when you miss people so much. And loving the quizzes – questions are getting fancier and fancier – dingbats, ‘Have I got news for you,’ Logos, anagrams. Never win but love the fun we have.

Garden visitors

Steve is still keeping a close eye on our feathered visitors – this week’s been all about the Finches – Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Chaffinch …

A return to House-hunting

We’re waiting to see if the offer we had on our house still stands after Lockdown but now that the Estate Agents are back in operation we thought we’d start to take a little mooch around … but only viewing if the houses are empty. Looked at one yesterday in Grange Farm – the Estate Agent goes in first, opens all the doors and anti-bac cleans all the door handles – but we were asked not to touch anything. Well, it’s something different to do!

And more garden visitors ….

The very very BEST thing of all this week was some truly special visitors … all entertained in strict Lockdown style, in the garden. Now that rules have relaxed a little we thought of meeting up with Tom and Jess in a public place – but then we thought what’s the difference between that and our garden. And so, we planned for them to come over on Sunday for a socially distanced barbecue. And as a surprise, Alice drove all the way down from Manchester to join us and, bless her, drove all the way back afterwards. It’s hard to describe how complete it made us feel to have them here … although we weren’t able to physically hug we were together, talking, laughing, feeling close. A perfect afternoon. ❤️

Lockdown life is really OK …. we can do this! ❤️