Week 17 6-12 July
Angela 9 July 2020
Hello Everyone
It's so good to hear news from different parts of the country and the world. We are made aware of the loosening of lock-down here in sleepy North Norfolk by the huge increase of motor bikes zooming along the coast road and the returning heavier traffic in Cley high street. There are more second homers around, quite legally now, some of them old friends which is nice. Like many other SUPSLISKANS, we are sill remaining cautious about getting back into circulation, but we are having more garden get togethers with local friends who aren't circulating much themselves. I have even made an appointment for a hair cut but Leo is happy for me to continue hacking at his, even though he may be heading for a pony tail! In the very hot weather, now just a memory! Cley beach was busy with swimmers and fishermen, but unlike the other beaches we have seen on the news, people were well spaced out. Having a shingle beach not a sandy one does help!
We managed to meet up with our family for the first time since March a couple of weeks ago in Thetford Forest, between Ealing and Cley, which was great. We had a lovely day with picnics, birding and ball games. All being well, we hope they can come up to Cley next month.
I was interested to hear about the Swiss schools all being back Janet. Our 6 year old grand daughter Freya went back a few weeks ago 4 days a week, with first 7 and then 10 children in her 'bubble'. Once settled into the new routine, she is really enjoying it, especially with such a good pupil/teacher ratio! They finish in a week's time and return in September. I don't envy teachers if they have to organise for full classes with social distancing in such small spaces. The local school where I help with reading already had big space problems pre-virus.
I know everyone is so pleased that you are settling into life at home Margaret, especially with your excellent carer. The Bolero video was lovely Sue, especially the background information on how it was produced. I did like your poem Jane too.
We had some drama a couple of weeks ago when the only supermarket in our nearest town, Holt, burnt down in just 20 minutes. It has left a huge gap in more ways than one as it had the only Post Office too. There is now a pop up Post Office and talk of a market being opened in the car park. Fortunately nobody was injured, but they still don't know how it started.
| The news photo of Budgen's fire |
I can't compete with 'rum running' ancestors in my family history research Jane, but I have started following up some notes my father made based on accounts kept by his great grandfather who was a tenant farmer in South Wales, born in 1810. I have had some luck in finding an extensive online account of life in the area where he lived which gives a full picture of the hardships of farmers then as well as references to some members of our family. We have a distinguished Welsh hymn writer 'Ap Leyshon' who was also very active in the temperance movement. Neither of which leanings have been continued in the family since! I also discovered a CD produced by the local history society with a complete inventory of the grave yard where many of my ancestors are buried which has been very useful, once I manged to translate from the Welsh. I remember my uncle showing me around many years ago and when he had some difficulty locating the grave of one relative was heard to mutter ' Well, I don't know ... the old so and so must have moved'!
We have now got used to Zoom bingo games with the family and online fitness sessions with our regular teacher. Zoom 'Silver Swan' ballet classes have now started and recent ones have included grand children and even dogs joining in which is interesting!
I don't much like wearing a mask, but it does seem completely sensible to wear them in potentially crowded places. It is quite daft to have such different advice in different part of the country with ON taking a much firmer line than Boris. I still can't believe his recent remarks about Care Homes and then hearing his ministers trying to undo the damage. Pure Monty Python! All we can do is carry on carrying on.....
At least all the recent rain has helped the poor parched garden. Our wildlife list now includes Partridge chicks, young Blackbirds, Robins, Blue Tits and Starlings a very destructive mole and equally destructive Muntjac deer. We have installed solar powered mole deterrents which seem to be working as the mole now digs round the flower beds in ever decreasing circles as they beep away at him.
Keep safe, well and happy! Love, Angela
Pat, 10 July 2020
Hi everyone,
Nice to read how everyone is coping in these strange times. That was some fire, Angela. I wonder if it was an arson attack. Kids playing with matches perhaps.
No notable drama in Bristol since the Edward Colston statue removal. They are thinking of displaying him in a museum in his paint-daubed state.
Things have come on apace in the garden. I have today moved a pot of flowering agapanthus to show them off to the best advantage. Not that many people will see it! I have far too many cucumbers and may be forced to make soup. The recipe I use is in a ancient Penguin edition of Cordon Bleu Cookery. Might be just the thing in the forecasted heatwave. Now the cucumbers have gone from the greenhouse I have room to start again. Hope today to sow some wallflower and sweet william seeds, following Monty Don’s advice in last week’s Gardeners’ World. Don’t know what others think, but I don’t find the programme as useful as it used to be, At one time in the summer I used to go out into the garden when the programme had finished and do something that he suggested. It seems now that he fills the hour with visits to other people’s gardens rather than giving much advice.
I have one sole engagement in my diary for next week. A friend’s son is giving her a lift to visit me as she does not want to make the journey by bus. We will sit in the garden. Plenty of space to social distance. She promises to bring me a copy of the local newspaper which every Tuesday has an interesting history supplement.
I have recently installed CCTV - 2 cameras at the front and two at the back. Result: I have seen two badgers who cased the joint in the early hours. It is also useful to see if my son has come home!! He has recently found love, and as a result is coming home late very often. With the camera I can look out on the road to see if his car is parked outside or not! I am pleased for him, of course. He is in a whirlwind and naturally what with work starting again for him too, the renovations have taken a bit of a back seat. But spurred on by the possibility of this new girl coming here briefly at the weekend he has suddenly moved all the tools and paint pots into one room rather than them being scattered all over. It means that I can open the cupboards in the bathroom although it is hard to get a plate into the microwave without shifting a large roll of underlay. He keeps reassuring me that things will get straight in the end. I have bought some of those vacuum bags for storage of clothes as I’ve lost one chest of drawers in the refurb.
Haven’t really met up with the rest of the family. My daughter, husband and son have been on holiday in South Devon in a chalet for a week - lucky things. They were staying near Bantham, which overlooks Burgh Island. I’ve always wanted to go there. It has a rather up-market hotel, which has its own sea tractor for bringing people over at low tide. I won a virtual prize this week as my daughter sent me photos of two places they’d visited that day and I got them right - Coleton Fishacre (NT) and Dartmouth. Made me want to go to Devon again. I am booked on a group holiday to the Isle of Man at the end of September, but I doubt if I shall go, even if it does go ahead. Not the time to go travelling in groups. I’m hoping it might be postponed to next year.
I'm not supposed to go out to a shop until August 1st, but yesterday my son agreed to drive me to Carphone Warehouse as my phone needs upgrading. But when we got there there was a queue outside that did not diminish, so we ended up food shopping in B &M and Iceland next door. I wore a mask and was the only person in either shop doing so. When we got home I managed to get a better deal with my present phone provider than their website advertised. A techie expert is coming on Saturday with the phone and will help me with the set up. Presumably he will talk me through it from his vehicle. I’m fairly rubbish when it comes to technology so not looking forward to the experience.
I think that’s all I can say about the lockdown. I’m struggling with Wolf Hall - about halfway through, and have switched to a PG Woodhouse for some light relief. Oh, and my son bought me Private Eye,
so I’m a happy bunny with my reading and if the sun comes out this afternoon, I shall do it outside.
Much love. Stay well and safe, Pat
Ian, 11 July 2020
Hello One and All
Why, oh why, did they lift lockdown on a Saturday? We ventured down to Exmouth today, and they were out in their swarms, not observing social distance, none of them wearing masks and making life very unpleasant for any local foolhardy enough to venture out. Why didn't Boris command that the flying ants should only start their flights on a Monday when there were less people about?
Actually our trip to Exmouth today, the first expedition for four months that had taken us further than Jill's sister in Topsham, was generally enjoyable. The buses were very empty, the traffic moderate and people sensibly spaced on the beach. Even on the promenade it was normally easy to keep one's distance. We managed a coffee and flapjack on the terrace of a beach front cafe and on returning noticed a free table in the courtyard of the Powder Monkey. Swallowing our principles - Tim Martin, the loudmouthed anti-Brexit owner of Wetherspoons is a near neighbour of ours in Exeter - we went in and ordered a brunch and coffee. The branch was uncrowded, unusually clean, and the staff seemed extra-friendly. We soon found out why. Perched on a stool at the next table to us, wearing flashy Bermuda shorts and a trendy top was none other than the Great Tim himself, checking out one of his joints. Jill had to hold me back from confronting him, but if I had it would have been about his brunch rather than his Brexit, neither of which are to be recommended. While we only wear masks out of doors when it is crowded, we carefully put them on when going into shops and other enclosed spaces. When going inside Wetherspoons to order, no customers and not all staff were wearing facial coverings. Why is there such a reluctance? It is going to be difficult to enforce when they are only introducing it as the risk diminishes. Is it because the European Union countries are so much stricter and dirigiste and our new buddies over the Atlantic are showing the way in the Land of Liberty where, according to Trump wearing a face mask is being "politically correct"?
As for the ants, they never really reached lift-off. The efforts were as half-hearted as they had been yesterday when they had fascinated our granddaughter Pippa who we had looked after to allow Kate to get some work done. Both the grandchildren are fascinated by bugs of all kinds.
So, things are getting back to the new normal. After a long time away, I ventured into the centre of Exeter last Monday to pay in a cheque - yes people do still write them - and on the way in I passed two emergency response vehicles with paramedics crouched over a man lying on his back with a tube projecting from his mouth. Beside him a man squatted on the pavement, his wretched heap of belongings scattered around him. As I walked by, I heard the paramedics asking, "Has he been taking [some drug I didn't recognise]?" "Not anymore", was the reply. By the time I had crossed the road they had both been scooped up into the ambulances. Yes, sadly, back to normal. In Exeter at least Covid-19 had made things better for the homeless with hotels and student accommodation being commandeered; now they were returning to the streets. Building the new, caring, green utopia, where things are levelled up and every life matters, is going to be a challenging task, with diminished resources facing increased demand.
So, I escape into a virtual bibliographical world much as our granddaughters escape into their Minecraft worlds, much to the exasperation of Jill who feels that much in the real world passes me by including such things as washing up, cleaning, hanging out the laundry. I am involved with more organisations than when I was at work and, rather than going into detail here I will take a leaf from your books and give a link which you can follow or not as you see fit:
We have been interested to learn how you are all surviving in the ever-changing landscape of Coronaland. Nothing as dramatic to report as the fire, Angela, nothing as positive as the situation in New Zealand, Germany or Switzerland. It is good to hear that you are so well looked after, Margaret. I loved Jane's poem - I produced a parody of Browning's "Home thoughts from abroad" for a local anthology, but it cannot compare with that, so I will spare you it. Like Pat and others our garden flourishes, but yours seem to surpass ours, even without the benefit of brewer's wort. And yes, there are other beautiful parks and gardens in Devon - Coleton Fishacre is certainly worth a visit.
I have gathered the last few weeks contributions together and will add this one to round off week 17
P.S. (12 July) Quick correction to my last message - Tim Martin is PRO-Brexit, not anti-Brexit as I wrote - thanks for pointing that out, Anne. I don't want to be considered a Brexiteer, although my stance should have been clear from the rest of my message. Since then we hear that customs posts are finally being put in place at a cost of £750 million with the hope that our many friends across the world will be considerate if we can't quite get things working properly for six months or so. And Gove says that wearing masks in enclosed spaces should remain advisory and not be mandatory. We should trust to people's common sense. What common sense? And will shops be entitled to refuse admission to anyone not wearing a face-covering? Will we have to wear a mask to get our £10 meal tickets in August? What a mess! Europe should be placing us in quarantine before letting us out to seek the sun, until we show that we are serious about keeping the infection level down. After all,even the Trump is wearing a facemask now as it suits him and makes him look good. Perhaps we should be importing large quantities of Lone Ranger or Zorro masks from the US to make it trendy.
Enough ranting - I'm getting as bad as Jane!
Keep on taking care, everyone - it would be a shame to succumb to C-v-d-19 at this late stage
Ian
