I’m really not sure that ‘lockdown’ actually describes the situation in England anymore as the Governments contradictory advice and actions have pretty much demolished that idea. We never had the severity of isolation the many other countries had anway, but now it’s feeling like the whole idea’s been thrown away in a sort of “well, do what you like now” free-for-all where the Government has washed its hands of any pretence of controlling the situation. That said, that pretence slipped when Johnson backed Cummings a week ago and it’s been a slippery slope ever since.

Now we see many of the Governments expert advisors backing away from them and breaking ranks to put their side of the story and social-distance themselves from what’s looking like a disasterous mistake. Having locked down the country too late the error’s being compounded by by releasing lockdown too soon. Who can blame the experts for not wanting to be left carrying the can for this one?

Still, it’s not all bad news eh? Matt Hancock has announced horseracing can resume soon, so everyone can take their mind off things by having a flutter with whatever money they have left by betting on the gee-gees. Hang on, isn’t Health Secretary Hancock the MP for Newmarket? You bet…

With all this in mind the pair of us resolved to continue with life as the new normal. The weather’s still amazing, with the sun cracking the flags, so it’s not much of a chore to stay at home when you’re blessed with the amenities and countryside that we have.

Even so, the day passed quickly, although as usual, our plans were fluid. Dawn needed to get a few hours work done so whilst she was banging away at her keyboard I was occupied in the same fashion whilst trying to catch up with a backlog of blogging. There’s so much that I could write – and want to write, but finding the time is surprisingly difficult. It wasn’t ideal, but I sat in the garden and soaked up the sun whilst blogging via my Samsung Galaxy phone rather than being stuck in the office and bashing away at the computer. The smaller screen, glare and tiny keyboard make typo’s inevitable and the ‘spullchucker’ constantly rewrites things for me so every so often I’d disappear inside to correct them on the laptop and check on the cat, who’s still not at his best. 

Later in the day, when work was finished we did manage to walk up to the supermarket to pick up some essential shopping. The place which was blissfully quiet. There were no queues and the isles were empty. Most people seemed to be out enjoying the weather. Later on we decided to do the same. Rather than walking from home we drove up to Norland Moor on the opposite side of the valley. As it was late in the day the moor was equally quiet. We only saw a handful of other people and it was glorious! 

The walk wasn’t a long one, but it was lovely to get out and enjoy such a fabulous evening. The one thing that’s made up for being locked-down has been this run of glorious weather. Back at home we had another relaxed evening. Whilst I watered the garden Dawn was busy in the kitchen rustling up our evening meal. Hake on a bed of salad with fresh Tarragon, Chives and Parsley taken from our garden. Ideal summer food!

I’ve a favour to ask…

If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us locked-down freelances need all the help that we can get…

Thank you!