Coronavirus week three - 5th to 12th April

You might think that all weeks would be the same: nothing different to do, nowhere different to go, no new people bring their energy and life.  But you would be wrong.  Perhaps it is a version of getting used to the isolation, perhaps it is a form of adjustment, but it changes.

The big change outside our little life here has been the steady increase in coronavirus deaths.  For the last couple of days they have hovered at just under a thousand a day.  It seems we might hit the peak over the next few days but there is still no indication of how we can escape this lockdown.  I read about the search for a vaccine.  I try to continue to find the balance between knowing what is going on and being overwhelmed. I can tell when I have got it wrong because it becomes harder to tune into the here and now.  If in doubt, less news seems to be the answer for me, a disconcerting feeling for a news and current affairs addict like me.

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, goes into hospital on the 5th April and then the following day into intensive care.  As someone who feels a strong attachment to Europe I do not share his politics but I am heartened to see politicians around the country wishing him well and I am relieved when he leaves intensive care.  We need less of the divisiveness that has torn our country apart over recent years and more of a focus on what unites us, our common humanity, our shared vulnerability, our ability to care for each other.  Get well soon Boris.

And with no end in sight to the lockdown it is even more important to make every day count.  I thought at the beginning that I would be doing more than in fact I am.  Life has got slower and I am finding that the tasks that I thought I would spend lots of time on - Spanish, Welsh, writing, - need to be balanced with other things to make the days work.  I found an article by a Spanish psychiatrist  to read in my regular exchange with my Spanish friend.  He recommends that each day you do something for the mind, something for the body and something for the heart so that could be to read a book, do some exercise and make time to connect in some way with friends and family.  I think that is a really good prescription and for myself a would add a fourth pillar: something with the hands.

So perhaps I am doing less with the mind than I thought I would.  If I do some Spanish I don't try to do Welsh as well on that day.  It is the same with the body.  I am doing something everyday but again perhaps not asking quite so much of myself.  If I do some Pilates or yoga I won't also try to run or take a long walk.  If I walk up the hill with Ian that might be it in terms of exercise for the day.

And I find if I am doing a bit less in a timetabled sort of way with mind and body I am doing a bit more with the hands and the heart.  The hands are the easy one.  I went rooting through my unfinished bits of knitting and came across all sorts of bits of work in progress which had been put aside at the birth of a new grandchild or the arrival of some particularly beautiful yarn.  I am quite excited at the thought of finishing them.  There is a jacket with only the shawl collar to do, some fairisle gloves put aside because they need absolute concentration, a pattern and the wool for a knitted sheep.  So some time every day for the hands.  That could be gardening too or cooking or baking something new.  Yesterday I made hot cross buns.  They were so delicious I had to put half of them in the freezer to stop myself eating the lot.  It would be sad to end this period of confinement with an extra half stone.

And the heart is the harder one.  Easter is normally a family time.  It is a time for Easter egg hunts in the garden, for roast lamb and chocolate cakes and filling the place with people.  This year it is quiet.  I look out of the window at the valley dreaming in the sun: no children squealing, no dogs chasing balls, no adults sprawled on the grass catching up with each other.  We send little videos and later we will facetime.  Thank heavens for the technology that makes connection possible.  And these strange times across the world have thrown up new things for the heart: a zoom call with a cousin and her husband in Australia, emails from friends.  And always there is the fact that I am sharing this time with Ian.  My heart goes out to those who are alone.

And all the time spring is throwing out beauty.  The wild cherry is in flower.

There are still primroses by the wall.

And this morning in that dreaming sunshine a swallow flashed by the window and looped back in a sweeping curve over the pigsties.  They nest in the old stone pigsty in the kitchen garden every year and every year I wait for their return.  So here they are.  The world is still turning.  Now I am going to go out and weed the raspberries and be thankful.

How is it with you in your staying home life?