Coronavirus week 18 - 19th to 26th July

Time to generate a bit more energy.  While things have opened up a lot in England, life here stays pretty much the same.  One change still to come in Wales is the reopening of the housing market which should happen tomorrow, 27th July.  Will that mean that we get viewings after such a long fallow period when Ian and I are the only people who  have been coming in through the door?  Part of me is excited about that because selling the house is a necessary step on the big adventure of building our new house.  Part of me doesn't want it to happen.  We have always loved this house and it has sheltered us and given us a beautiful refuge during these last months.  Incompatible priorities.  I want to stay and I want to move on.  I can't have it both ways!

So I am shaking myself up a bit as I often do when I feel stuck.  Since much of day to day living is necessarily the same here I have to look around for ways of doing that which are compatible with the restrictions of life in the time of coronavirus.  We are not going to travel or go on holiday.  Normally we would either have gone to France or Spain in May or be planning to do so in September.  This year I think we will stay put.  I was saddened to hear yesterday that the UK has reimposed a fourteen day quarantine period on people arriving in the country from Spain.  Spain went into lockdown earlier than we did in the UK and eased it restrictions earlier too.  Now there seems to be a spike of new cases and in some areas, such as that around Barcelona, restrictions have been reimposed.  There is much talk in the press here of new vaccines and the prospect of the over fifties having a vaccine available before the end of the year.  It is hard to know how things will play out. When will we travel again? 

So I am looking for ways to feel energetic and alive that work right here in  my own little world.

Running helps.  I have tried to return to running three times a week and that works very well for me.  If I run much less often than that too many of my runs are simply hard work and not enough have that "I could run forever" sense which for me is the mark of a good run.  

The garden helps.  There is just so much going on that there is always something to give you a jolt of delight when you wander around.

Marigold, evening primrose and poppies have self seeded all over the place.  I am reminded of Mirabel Osler's "A Gentle Plea for Chaos" because the garden does always teeter on the verge of returning to wildness.  Without the chaos there would be no serendipitous evening primrose shining out from amongst the grasses.

Making things helps.  I don't know whether you have to be a maker to understand this but I am finding tremendous satisfaction from mastering a new technique in learning to do tapestry crochet.  I pulled this back five times before I finally cracked it.  The focus you need to have puts you entirely into the moment, surely the aim of meditation and many of the world's great religions!  It is like singing or sailing, or probably playing sport really well, but I have never had the sensation from sport.  I was never good enough at anything.  I do sometimes get the sensation from running, fleetingly, before the limitations of the body crowd it out!  This will be a bag for carrying my ipad and chargers and a book, in the days when I go travelling again.

And we do have some small scale plans:  a couple of days in a country hotel in Sedbergh to test the waters of life outside home, more visits to children and grandchildren.

Are you finding anything new to do?  Or maybe you are firmly in the groove and do not feel the need?  How is it for you?