Another day dawned with crappy weather but one that was enjoyable anyway as we were stepping off the lockdown treadmill – and it felt quite anarchic! How easily we’re pleased in these strange times!

Our often mundane and routine weekly schedule was being interrupted because we’d some extra shopping to do for Dawn’s parents, which meant – wo hoo! – we had a legimate excuse for a trip out in the car! The mission (which we’d chosen to accept) was to shop for a humoungous amount of meat from the excellent Bolster Moor farm shop which is high above Slaithwaite in the Colne Valley. John and Norah had sent us over their shopping list so we knew exactly what we were shopping for – which would restock their freezer for quite some time.

The trip over was a bit of a doddle as it’s cross-country on back roads. Although there seemed to be more people out and about recently traffic seemed to have died down again which was reassuring as the edges of lockdown have felt like they’re starting to fray. The Farm Shop was certainly taking social distancing seriously. No couples were allowed – only individuals, so Dawn went in and I stayed in the car and filled my time by blogging via my phone. Neither Dee nor I are big red meat eaters, but we do occaisionally indulge so Dawn picked up a selection for us which included minced beef, minced pork, chicken livers and bacon. Another bonus was being able to buy some flour, which is as rare as hen’s teeth nowadays. Bolster Moor have been buying it in industrial quantities and then putting it in smaller bags for resale. Apparently, packaging issues are one of the main reasons for shortages, not the inability of mills to supply the raw material. Folk are running out of packaging, not flour! Dee’s final purchase was one of the shops award winning Pork Pies for us to share as a treat. Admittedly, around this neck of the woods it’s almost impossible to find a pork pie that doesn’t carry the sobriquet ‘award winning’ – but with Bolster Moor’s the title’s well deserved!

Mercy mission done we drove over to John and Norah’s to deliver the goods, along with some other bits we’d picked up for them as part of our shopping trips. I feel for John and Norah, we get to do their shopping but they’re completely cut off from a lot of their normal life. Both of them are active and have a wide circle of friends with (until Covid-19 happened) a busy social calendar – all of which has had to come to an end for now and be put on hold until who knows when.

I’d packed my camera in the car on the off-chance there could be a picture opportunity in the offing but the weather conspired against us, so as we drove across the Colne valley and the railway from Manchester to Leeds a band of rain seemed to take delight in frustrating me by blocking off the views which would have been gorgeous a week earlier as we came back cross country via Slaithwaite – or ‘Slawit’ as some insist on saying – i’ve no idea on the correct way to pronounce it as even the local can’t agree on that one! I sometimes wonder if it’s a class thing in the same way that some people insist the word ‘bath’ has an R in it.

Back at home we dodged the rain and settled back into a routine. Dawn got busy in the kitchen sorting out our supplies whilst I retreated into the office to catch up on some work and process some more old railway pictures that were next in the queue whilst respondng to emails and trying to keep on top of information about the big, wide (lockdowned) world. Tomorrow we have another day where we sally forth – this time to shop for ourselves and visit a fishmongers that Dawn’s folks frequent but we’ve never visited…

*blog under construction*

Sod it, for once we both decided to throw caution (and plans) to the wind and have a lie-in! We felt like proper lockdown slobs as we stayed in bed drinking coffee until 09.30 when we got up and prepared a leisurely breakfast before finally getting our arses into gear to start the day proper which meant sorting out various household chores before strolling down into Sowerby Bridge to pick up some food shopping. Being good little lockdown observers we combined our daily exercise with a trip to buy some essentials.

Not having been into Sowerby Bridge much recently we were surprised by the the increase in traffic. There seemed to be far more cars on the road. Mostly with single occupants but not exclusively. I’ve no idea what can account for the increase or what folk were doing or where they were going, but it was rather concerning. Is lockdown starting to break down? – and if it does, what are the long-term implications of people’s impatience? The UK’s death toll is already bad. How much worse could this get if the numbers start rising again? 

Despite the folks mucking around in cars our local supermarket was still blissfully quiet and almost everybody was respecting the rules, making our shop speedy and stress free whilst the climb back up the hill to home with a ruscac full of shopping was good weight-bearing exercise even if it did get a bit sweaty as the weather was still sunny and warm.

Feeling virtuous after our exertions the two of us retired to the front garden for a cold drink in the evening sunshine, soaking up what may well be the last of the good weather for a while as the forecast’s suggesting change is on the way. I can’t complain. We’ve had a fantastic run of good weather that’s made the lockdown easier to bear. 

Later, the fresh veg we’d replenished our stocks with went very well with some of the tinned stuff we’d been hoarding since the early ‘no deal Brexit’ fears (Sadly, we may well need to replenish them with the way this Government’s behaving) I made the two of us a rather nice chickpea, tuna and Feta cheese salad using some tuna steaks out of the freezer rather than the tinned stuff the recipe recommends, plus some Vegan Feta as Dawn’s allergic to cheese. Adding red onions, lemon juice, parsley and seasoning to the mix and serving it with salad leaves made a simple but gorgeous meal. I love recipes like this, tasty but unfussy and a doddle to make.