Flaming June 2020

As the government allowed schools to re-open to Reception, year 1 and year 6 classes on 1st June, most non-essential workers choose to keep their children at home and remained in lockdown for fear of catching the virus.

We had our first social distancing picnic, football and hunting down of ‘stick man‘ in Dundrige Park with these gorgeous peeps.

After having both the driest and then hottest months on record here in the UK, so-called ‘flaming June’ started out flaming chilly and wet.

You’ve got to love a cloudy sky though, when you are taking photos. Especially when you are watching the rain make its way to you across the fields.

We have loved watching the wild garlic change throughout the last few months here.

We are in a bubble! As if Karen didn’t suffer enough when we spent the first weeks of lockdown in her house she has formed a social bubble with us! She was the last person we hugged before moving to the Marsh two months ago and she was the first to hug us again two months later as we formed our bubble. Will she never learn!? 😂

Our first bubble Meal together was preceded by a walk in the Marsh. We were lucky enough to get a chance to go in to a field and be introduced to Mandy the cow. I was very anxious, but the farmer, Louis, assured me that it was safe to be in the middle of his herd.

I must say that Mandy looks small here but she wasn’t! #feelingthefearanddoingitanyway

We’ve enjoyed seeing Sue on our doorstep over the last 10 weeks, initially gifting Sidney the Gnome, she is now kindly leaving boxes of books, glasses and cutlery for us to borrow as we settle in to our rented accommodation in what is our ‘new normal’ for the foreseeable.

In an effort to return many of the initially loaned crockery etc we have been taking advantage of the kind “help yourself” boxes on the doorsteps of people around the village.

During Lauren’s first walk up here with the children last month she came across a table of items which included a pile of plates. She explained our predicament to the owner and asked him to put by some plates for me to collect later. When I went to collect the plates I gave him more details about our enforced stay in this country, and how we have rented out our own home with our belongings in the loft. I told him how we are now thinking that we could well be here for a long time and he said “take that Christmas tree” and pointed to a long box on the floor. I said that my husband would divorce me if I took a Christmas tree home now. He said that if I did he would win an argument with his wife. He said that his wife had said that no one is going to take a Christmas tree in May! So to reciprocate a good deed I trotted off with the Christmas tree under my arm and the plates in the other. As I approached our front door a neighbour across the way said it looked like I had a machine gun under my arm and without boring you with the whole conversation a friendship started and the couple have since vowed to donate some baubles if we are still here in December. 😂

Glen and Jack had their first social distancing Fathers Day. We had a social distancing walk around the lanes and to look for tadpoles or frogs for Eloise and Miles in Weir Lane pond, just like Lauren and Courtney did when they were little.

They are hugging each other more than ever now, but we still just have to do with a ‘self hug’ from them.

Dad might still be officially shielding but he still manages to laugh in lockdown. #Itsnotonlyboriswhoneedsahaircut. ❤️

Father’s Day photos courtesy of Jack

Glen’s conversation with Courtney on Father’s Day was definitely at a safe distance. It was a video conversation as she is some 11,000 miles away in Te Puke, New Zealand.

As the whole of the UK seem to be spending lockdown baking cakes, when flour is actually available in store, we have enjoyed Lauren’s, Eloise’s and Miles’ home delivered treats this month. #enjoyableweightgain

For the past few months Courtney has been living in a static caravan in New Zealand and in June there was a high level ‘excitement’ in the Marsh as a …… what’s the collective noun for a group of caravans? …. I like to call them a ‘caravan’ of caravans. Anyway they arrived at the village and on to the playing fields like a caravan of camels wandering up to a watering hole/oasis in the desert. Emotions were high amongst the locals here, with people being accused of making ‘racist’ comments on the Marshfield Facebook page about their arrival whilst others wanted to help them, at a time of demonstrations and posters in support of “Black lives matter”.  

Once the mobile visitors left the village some days later the 100’s of comments and photographic evidence was removed from the Marshfield Facebook page in the same way the Colston statue was pulled down in Bristol. I assumed the comments were removed to irradiate all evidence from history of the disturbing events that surrounded both.  Calm was restored once again…… the amount of litter left by the visitors was repeated on the local beaches later in June when house dwellers came out of lockdown and executed their rights to freedom in the sweltering heat, which had eventually arrived in what was, at last, Flaming June. 

As further lockdown easing continued throughout the month, Cornwall braced themselves for the imminent influx of tourists to their coasts and countryside.  At the same time Glen and I had our fingers tightly crossed in the hope that the government advice, re all but essential travel abroad being banned, would continue throughout July. With Glen’s Mum and Dennis being unable to fly to Spain for their usual six months there, we no longer needed to fly over to see them. We certainly didn’t think it was necessary to take the risk of going through an airport, sitting in an aeroplane with a mask on and having to book a slot with the cabin crew to use the toilet. We can do without social distancing in cafes and bars in Spain for the sake of some Tapas and a jug of Sangria… or three. However, as I type this we await tomorrow’s announcement from Boris, which has been ‘leaked’ to the press. He is set to tell us that an ‘air corridor’ will be waiting for us to fly through/along from 6th July and so, therefore, it looks unlikely that we will be able to get a refund for our flights.