BACK IN THE COVID - The Lockdown Diary Day 28

It was an art day today after a pleasant lunch on a rather chilly deck and a modest amount of brain exercise with some Sudoku puzzles. The tomatoes are planted and off to a great start. After they had had today’s watering I retired to the shedio while my wife retired to her craft room. The only sound to be heard was the annoying hum of next doors alfresco bath tub over my feverish imagination which was instantly suppressed by a Hans Gáls 1st Symphony on the CD player and peace reigned.

The image you see here is the inside of my door. Three horseshoes, permanently nailed in place to maximise their potency as good luck charms. One, the oldest I think, was found in the garden, dug up maybe 40 years ago and looks to me at least big enough to be from a shire horse. Prior to 1955 the land upon which our house stands was farmland.

The other two were my Dad’s, he had them nailed up in his shed and for the same reason. I took them and treasured them. If that had been all I had of my Dad’s it would have been enough.

The folklore around horseshoes is said to have come from St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury in 959 who is reputed to have nailed one to the Devil’s foot instead of his horse and would only relieve the Evil One from his anguish on his agreement to never enter a house with one nailed to the door.



Four weeks has just flown by. The government has signalled its intention of keeping us under house arrest for quite a while yet and given that they are fighting off quite justifiable criticism for the way they have dealt with this pandemic I am not surprised. The government’s complete lack of meaningful action for the first 6 weeks after our first UK death and WHO announcing a global emergency on January 31st has attracted much attention and they still, after 10 weeks, are woefully short of PPE at the front line. I doubt whether their appetite for culling the herd’s weakest will return soon.

What is going on in care homes is appalling. Appalling and predictable, appalling and avoidable and therefore appalling and immoral. In general it feels like those most likely to die of Covid-19, the elderly, have been sacrificed, thrown to the lions as of little value.  Today there is a suggestion that the triple lock arrangement which maintains the value of pensions in relation to average salary levels should be dropped to help pay for economic damage caused by this disease. Those who die are valueless and those who survive will be milked. I have a very strong suspicion that we might be needing those horseshoes.