BACK IN THE COVID - The Lockdown Diary Day 10

Help for the self employed has been announced, trillions of financial stimuli are floating around the globe, half the country is going on a paid furlough, the NHS is suddenly everyone’s friend and yet two things 1) people have just voted for the party that has spent 11 years downgrading and underfunding the NHS and 2) there is never enough money to invest in science, technology and education, living pensions are not affordable, the cost of welfare has been driven down, austerity is necessary and yet trillions can be spent fighting a virus at the drop of a hat. Let us fight this virus then reflect upon the lie exposed before we vote again. Too much of Britain’s wealth is in the wrong bank accounts and in normal times they are very clever at not only holding on to it but convincing the gullible that they should be allowed to. They are like so many stinking Smaugs smoldering under their country piles but raiding the country to grab more of our wealth and build and an even bigger pile to gloat over.

Little things. Focus on the little things. The Bee Flies I mentioned yesterday are little things. Small but very beautiful beasties. I never knew we had them until I found one indoors about 4 years ago but they are quite common. You will not generally find Bee flies amongst the cloud of nectar feeding bees, wasps and hoverflies that fill our gardens with their noisy vibrations in summer. Bee flies emerge earlier to feed on spring flowers using their long proboscis and at this time of year are to be seen alternately darting and hovering in the sun between plants or at rest on a sunny patch of soil or a leaf before quickly darting off again. Bee flies are a harmless type of horse fly in the family Tabanidae and go by the name of Bombylius major and here is one captured today.



This patch of ground itself is interesting, it is where my long dreamt of pond was going to be dug,  Was! Yesterday I decided to call it a day on that dream and take it as collateral virus damage. I am not going to go out, cannot get supplies and by the time this is all over I will not have the energy left to see it through. Work started today on clearing the ground for what will become garden planting areas.

BACK IN THE COVID - The Lockdown Diary Day 9

Having worked pretty hard over the last few days we sat for an hour in the quiet outdoors listening to the birds chattering to each other and absentmindedly watching the Bee Flies typical of the warm sunny weather to be enjoyed at this time of year. Sharon made use of our little decking area and I enjoyed the sun perched on a mound of work in progress. We both of us have a pretty strong whistle and are in the habit of answering the bird calls back. Since some of them are clearly making territorial signals this interchange to and fro can go on for quite a while. I am not sure why it had never occurred to us but if we are good enough then our feathered resident might bugger off to someone else’s garden. Or as Sharon put it “if you are not careful our Great Tit might think there is an even bigger Tit lives here”. Not quite sure how to take that.

BACK IN THE COVID - The Lockdown Diary Day 8

Week 2 already. The time has gone remarkably quickly. Today I am intending to prepare my latest painting for the last stage, work which is largely cerebral, ideas get chewed around in a feverish spurt of coffee propelled thinking, spew out of the point of a pencil and at that point either die or survive dependent on how well sketches coagulate on the page. This can go on for days, weeks or longer but in these times of crisis it matters not one iota. It matters little anyway. I have never worked for “ambition or bread, or the strut and trade of charms” to quote Dylan Thomas but it is interesting to note how the value of time has altered. I am not referring to that value which time acquires the nearer we creep towards annihilation although we must acknowledge that the possibility of that outcome is real for many of us right now and is a factor in the way we value our days. I am referring to how refreshing it feels being free from any need or pressure to meet timetables in days not filled up by any visit or activity and empty of obligation. It does not matter if a job is left incomplete or not even started. We have already learnt how to gratefully and with good grace allow ourselves to be loved and cared for, not an easy thing for us fiercely independent-to-the-point-of-rudeness baby boomers. We are now, out of necessity, living in the moment because in our restricted locked down days there is only the moment and outside of that moment only another. I am in admiration of all those on the front line working to protect us and for my family as apprehensive as anyone would be but at the same time seeking out and enjoying, where it is possible, the positives and there are some.



Try not to get too chilled out though. Here I am scuttling hot foot up the Via Vulpes to the greenhouse having left the windows and door open thereby leaving the heater to warm up the entire country.

BACK IN THE COVID - The Lockdown Diary Day 7

We live opposite a sizable school playing field and typical of such maintained sports fields it is frequented by seagulls. I think they must be attracted by fertiliser, probably fish meal, regularly spread over it. Seagulls are therefore resident all year round in quite large numbers.
Today the sunshine was warm, glorious and uplifting and with our local seagulls making their usual row we felt positively ‘on holiday’. We are settling into this lockdown quite comfortably I think. Busy in the garden, regular coffee in the warm outdoors, not, deliberately not, rushing or working to a timetable or even caring if the job is completed, chatting to the neighbours is the very essence of living in the moment, involuntarily and forced to, but relishing the experience.
Some long overdue fence-painting was completed today and a little green house work. I managed to surprise myself in the greenhouse.



Our neighbour to the left is an industrial robot service engineer and keeps, for example, food packaging lines working. Why he has not been declared a key worker is beyond me. Another neighbour, who works in the NHS related stories of people ignoring keep out signs, climbing over barriers, wandering around in secure areas and for a good ten minutes we swapped stories about the general stupidity all around. One of the least attractive things to come out of this crisis is how much of the UK population is either lazy minded (can’t be arsed, as they say) or just plain thick.
Later our garden was filled with loud music from a neighbour who’s family decided to relax in their hot tub, all of them, all together for about the next three hours. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, please do, but surely it is a poor idea to congregate in a hot warm environment, cheek by jowl, even if you are all in the same household. Guess which neighbour’s family was relaxing in Corona soup, the engineer or the nurse. The nurse! (I shit you not! As they say!)

BACK IN THE COVID - The Lockdown Diary Day 6

Gary Pockett was taken to hospital and had emergency surgery to remove an infected appendix. He will be back to his beautiful little family today for a quick recovery but they will all need to stay in isolation for a while.

The now long overdue total lockdown enforced by law agencies is coming, probably later today. Rumours of a cabinet mutiny abound and any case the French will quite rightly close their borders if Johnson does not get serious and start following expert advice. Starting 7 days two late and who knows how many unnecessary deaths. I have been following the cases and death statistics and it is now so bloody serious I have found it better to swap over to a logarithmic scale.



The sun is out again. I am anticipating that the weather will deteriorate in a day or two and intend to spring clean the bird boxes, make essential repairs and put out some fresh fat feeders. The garden was very peaceful. We are not far from a main road but there is always an ambient thrum as the world goes about its business up and down Cricklade Road. Today was noticeably, even eerily quieter. The calm was welcome. As the Buddha said. You cannot calm the storm. Calm yourself. The storm will pass.

I am getting increasingly pissed off with whiners and holier-than-thous complaining about stockpiling as if panic was avoidable. I suspect they were so busy climbing to the moral high ground that they were too late to the shops and are inconveniently short of a few things or were simply not paying attention. People should think before mindlessly circulating moralising memes around the internet. In any case stockpiling is sensible, reasonable and what is more saves lives. If your government is telling you to get indoors for possibly three months of isolation you are going to get some stuff in. We are going to be reliant on others but we did our best to keep that need to a minimum for their safety. Of course we should be concerned about those who are housebound or otherwise vulnerable and running short but panic spreads like a virus itself and it is for government action to stop both. Being merely human, we cannot stop either.

Why does stockpiling save lives? Because fewer visits to the shops yourself or indeed your family if you are confined indoors the fewer people there are out there spreading the virus about. There is a direct relationship between the amount (or extent) of social distancing and the number of deaths. The greater the distance, the lower the spread, the fewer the deaths. As of today there are 100 deaths in crowded London and 6 in the whole of Wiltshire. Social distancing at work. So the message is stockpile and make fewer visits to crowded supermarkets reducing people at large and avoiding close contact for hours in long queues with strangers.

The real blame for shortages lies with the government who should have dictated to supermarkets, there are only 7 main supermarkets after all, to control supply to average amounts right from the start. You cannot blame people, especially those with families to support, when all they are doing is looking after themselves and their loved ones.

BACK IN THE COVID - The Lockdown Diary Day 5

Reports of how much experts were both manipulated and ignored are rife. It seems that our buffoonish PM is clearly out of his depth. His advisers are adept at confusing, lying and browbeating the public into voting for them but not for dealing with issues of extreme national emergency. They will be held accountable for lives lost due to their incompetence. I wonder if he’s buying his stuff on-line. He ought to spend more time indoors and leave governing to people who care about us. Is it me or does he seem to have aged badly in the last month?

I spent some time today thinking about the knotty problem of a bum wiping strategy if the loo role shortage continues for any length of time. I have a couple of ideas.

Here is the first. It is an artist’s mahl stick and bears a remarkable resemblance to similar sticks used by romans at their public ‘conveniences’. I believe they all shared the one stick. I have rejected this idea, sharing it that is, and even in one man use it would get rather crusty and be harder to clean than my anatomy. In any case I only have the one and it is used regularly.



My next idea was to rig up a garden spray head on a short hose. It worked! I tried it out up the garden but it was bloody cold. That idea was quickly jettisoned but I soon remembered that we have a shower right next to our toilet and investigation proved that the shower head would definitely reach as far as the bowl. Bingo! Problem solved.

Daisy turned up with a pack of toilet rolls today so there is no longer any need for alternatives but at least we are ready to improvise a continental upgrade to our hygiene habits should that ever be necessary. When the bathroom is updated shortly we are fitting a bidet for sure.

Batteries for the vacuum cleaner arrived, were installed and the grass had its first trim of the year (with the mower not the vacuum cleaner. Silly!) The sun shone and we gardened and relaxed, gardened and relaxed, drank coffee ate chocolate and relaxed some more and felt quite the holidaymakers.



We did not enjoy just talking to Zack through the porch window rather than cuddling the lovely boy. Mothers day was different but lots of love all round for the special lady that I married and I think she was just as happy with her day today perhaps more so than usual knowing that none of our family have as yet gone down with it.

BACK IN THE COVID - The Lockdown Diary Day 4

Not an entirely great start. I have fathomed out that the vacuum cleaner’s rechargeable batteries need replacing and consistent with my total Dyson boycott I have ordered an equivalent third party unit. We shall see. Speaking of boycotts, Wetherspoons might go bust due to social distancing instructions and I have found it necessary to have a word with myself regarding inevitable schadenfreude that involuntarily arose from deep within. I was not altogether successful at suppressing it. Another negative today is that all the Tesco online shopping delivery slots are fully booked until the 10th April, all slots, any time of the day or night for delivery or click-and-collect. Now it seems totally obvious to me that all online shopping slots should be given over to any registered user over 70 who in theory at least should be staying indoors. If the government can instruct me to stay in it can instruct Tesco and all other online grocery suppliers to deliver my stuff. They know my birthdate FFS!

Concreting and grass cutting is still in play. I still do not know anyone personally who has the Covid-19 Virus as of now and that is all the good news I need. Little Alfie sneaked into the front garden, hid two parcels, posted a note and ran away. Thanks to him we enjoyed our first food parcels and a puzzle book each to keep us busy. It occurred to me that this whole crisis might do us and others of our generation some good to compensate just a little for extreme danger, possibly harm. Our generation tends to be independent to the point of rude bad manners. Many of us have never learnt how to be loved in a close and open way we are two busy worrying about others and defending both our independence and our pride. We have never felt so loved and cared for and it is such a warm, hopeful feeling just to gratefully accept so much love. Our neighbourhood school, friends and neighbours have all made us feel wanted and cared for. Here are Alfie’s little parcels.

Grass cutting failed. I stomped all over it in wellington boots making the steps so I should leave it to perk up a little before mowing it. Steps were completed and here is the evidence.



So today had a less than quality start but a positive ending. The longer this goes on the better the garden is going to look just in time to be shut down and packed away for next winter! I had the highest exercise number on my fatbit and will shortly get to my target step count. At this time little things matter a great deal. Stay safe folks. Stay indoors if possible.