pandemic – don't confuse the narrator

small town life

At first sight, nobody has really had much chance to travel over the last fifteen months, and yet when I talk to people, it seems that almost everyone I know has managed a getaway or three – to Cornwall, to Wales, to a B&B on the coast, a caravan or country cottage… I begin to think I am the only one who hasn’t had a holiday or a weekend away since 2019.

In fact I have travelled a few times, by train, to visit my aged mother, but I’ve not stayed overnight. Each time, I’ve returned the same day to the same one-horse town in Middle England.
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back in touch

While coronavirus continues to disrupt life across the world and “the Indian variant” gives particular cause for concern here in the UK, pandemic restrictions are beginning to be lifted.

Monday will see a major change in the things we are allowed to do, with pubs and restaurants being allowed to serve customers seated indoors and the size of groups permitted to meet outdoors being raised to 30.

I’m slightly bemused by the fact that the number of guests allowed at weddings, receptions and other “life events” is still restricted to 30, while the number allowed to attend a funeral is no longer limited. Continue reading “back in touch”

reductio ad absurdum

The other day, I posted a differently cropped version of the photo above on Instagram with the caption:

Blossom above my head;
clouds in the sky.

Since then, I’ve been niggling and tweaking and wondering whether and how I can turn that into something a little more poetic.
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effervescent & irresolute

As I have no doubt said many times on the blog, I don’t really celebrate any of the popular festivals and holidays, religious or otherwise. Other people do, of course, and I get the impression that this year a lot of people decided to take extra time off to recoup after a difficult year. Certainly many of our clients have been very quiet over the Christmas period, which has meant that the last couple of weeks has seemed rather like yet another pandemic lockdown.

Or perhaps it actually is another lockdown.
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needs and wants

All this talk of only shopping for essentials has got me thinking. After all, what is essential?

The shelves in the supermarket suggest that my needs are quite different from others. I don’t think I can remember the last time I ate dried pasta and I probably don’t open more than two tins in a month. But flour is essential for me to be able to follow my usual lifestyle, and so are milk, eggs and cheese.
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