welsh hills again

This week we went away, yes that's right, away from home!  We went to stay for a couple of nights in The Bull Inn in Sedbergh with some friends.   It felt odd to pack a bag, to decide to take my new tapestry crochet bag for my ipad and chargers, to think about something to wear which was not jeans or leggings with tops and t shirts. Part of me was pleased at the prospect of change and part of me did not want to go and leave our quiet, peaceful hideaway.   Away we went, over the border into England.  On the M6 the traffic was as heavy as usual. New cases of the virus are continuing to track at around 1000 a day but deaths and hospital admissions have fallen considerably from the peak.  Certainly out on the roads there was none of that sense of the country having gone into hibernation which was apparent even a few weeks ago.  The world was busy and on the move. Sedbergh is both on the very western edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and just i...

Well here, rather extraordinarily, is a week with lots of post coronavirus firsts in it!  Some restrictions have been eased and while new cases have risen, both here and in England,  there has as yet been no increase in hospital admissions and only small numbers of new deaths.  Many of the new cases seem to be in younger people so it is possible that, however unpleasant the virus may be, young people are not as badly affected as the over fifties and that might account for a different profile in the new cases. So this week had three new experiences for me since the onset of lockdown:  first of all on Tuesday I went to see the hygienist at the dentist for the first time since January.  This was quite a strange feeling.  I had been asked to wear a mask and to wait outside the dental surgery when I arrived.  A young dental nurse, gowned and wearing a visor, came out to take my temperature and ask a variety of questions to establish whether I might be suffe...

Can this strange period really have been going on for so long?  Sometimes I am so used to it I hardly register it as strange.  I get up, I do my Spanish skype or zoom call three mornings a week.  I run, I read, I garden, I do complicated crochet.  I talk to our children on facetime or whatsapp.  This week I have been cleaning the house ready for the visit of an estate agent this afternoon.  In many ways it all feels entirely normal.  And then I turn on the news and there is a further restriction in Greater Manchester and other parts of the North.  I am so glad we took the opportunity to see our older son and his family in Manchester as soon as we could.  We sat in the garden when we went, although we could have gone inside at that time.  We stuck to our rules here in Wales and spent our time with them outside. Now at the moment two households are no longer allowed to meet inside or in a private garden so even spending time with them...