welsh hills again

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 compat...

Well now we have achieved it: all our children and grandchildren have been seen again and I am once more comfortable in my own skin.  This last week we made our longest journey since February and drove down to Devon where we had a meal with my sister and her family and inspected the amazing progress on the new house they are building and then carried on and spent two nights with younger son and his family.  We took the campervan so we could sleep outside and most of the time was spent outside in the garden because the sun shone and Ian was installing two new gates he had made for them.  It was simply lovely to see everyone again and to find that the children, aged six, four and two, were excited and delighted to see us and did not seem to have forgotten their connection with us over the four months since we had seen them.  It was strange to be out on the motorway again, to be stuck in slow moving traffic in Birmingham, to feel as though life had gone back to normal a...

On Monday 6th July the rules in Wales restricting travel to the local area were lifted and we set off down to South Wales to visit our elder daughter and her family.  It was February since we had seen them although very frequent facetime or other calls had made me feel very much in touch.  The thing is that virtual contact is fine for adults but works much less well for children.  And the younger the child the more you need the real in-the-flesh communication.  I was longing to see them.   Of course it has not really gone back to normal.  We spent the day at Emma's outside, only going in to use the bathroom.  This was helped by the fact that they have just had a stone terrace built outside the sitting room with loads of room to play, sit, eat and chat.  It was just so lovely to see them, to catch up and walk round admiring their lockdown achievements, with the construction of a shelter to sit in or sleep in and a fire pit in the field.  ...

Well tomorrow is the day that we in Wales are released from the "stay local" restriction which has generally been taken to be five miles with a little leeway for those people living in rural locations.  We already have trips planned to the three of our four children who do not live locally.  We haven't seen them and their families since February which feels like a very long time.  In Wales other restrictions remain in place with hospitality businesses, hairdressers and many non essential retailers still closed although schools reopened on a part time basis here at the beginning of this week.  In practical terms this means that ten year old grandson had one day in school this week and another one planned the week after next before school breaks up for the summer.  Nearly five year old granddaughter will have two days in school this week.  While it is nothing like full time education it is a start and a way of being back in touch with friends and teachers bef...

Once again what coronavirus lockdown looks like in the UK depends on where you are.  Many more relaxations in England, to be honest so many (and none of them applicable to us in Wales) that I have lost track of them.  This has been accompanied this last week by some major disruptions. In Bournemouth in Dorset, in Manchester in the North West and at Ogmore in South Wales there have been large gatherings, parties and public disorder.  It seems like another world from our quiet rural life and it does not make me want to rejoin it.  Pubs and other hospitality venues will be opening on 4th July in England.  Death rates have fallen but are still in three figures.  In Wales we wait for the dropping of the "stay local" requirement on 6th July.  What will we do?  Where will we go?  I have tried to shut off from thinking about it.  I am sure we will make plans to try to see our children and grandchildren but for me the secret of a reasonably happy...

Is it easing a little now?  Watching the news on television it certainly looks like it.  Living up here under Welsh rules in a rural part of the country it doesn't seem very different.  Hospital admissions are slowly decreasing as is the daily death total.  There is more traffic on the roads.   I have given up watching the daily press conference from Westminster.  This is partly news overload, and partly an irritation with politician speak.  There seems to be a refusal to admit mistakes, and a weird tendency not to make changes in a clear way but to trail changes that will be made as though testing to see if they will be palatable.  I read an article in the Times about the money being spent on polling at present by government and it seemed to fit that sense of a government which is almost too reactive, being led by rather than leading public opinion.  I am not making a party political point here.  I remember having a similar sense w...

What's new here up our hill in North Wales? Not a lot.  Last week we had a socially distanced cup of tea outside in the garden with some friends.  On Friday we bought take away fish and chips from our local cafe, brought it home and had a post fish and chips zoom call.  This was the first food we had eaten since lockdown which had not come out of our kitchen.  It is a good job that I generally like cooking.  On Friday lunchtime we sat down to listen to the First Minister's press conference, hoping to hear of some further relaxations to lockdown rules, only to realise that it is another week until the review date.  If we lived in England we would now be able to see our children and grandchildren, in a socially distanced way and outside, but here very local restrictions remain in place.  I don't generally have a problem with the slow and cautious way in which Wales is approaching its lockdown rules, indeed whether you agree or not, there does seem to be ...