Boris encouraged us to “enjoy summer safely” as pubs and restaurants opened up again on July 4th, having been closed for three months during lockdown. The chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a new government initiative called ‘Eat out to help out’. It was a £10 incentive for the month of August to encourage us to go out again to restaurants and kick-start the economy. However, nothing changed with us, we very rarely eat out in the UK, so unless they start selling noodles from a street cart for £1 we are unlikely to help out in that way.
Instead we continued to explore the countryside, and one rainy afternoon we went for a walk with the Whale ‘pod’ (Lauren, Jack, Eloise, Miles and Dexter). As we emerged from Green Lane bridle path and walked along Beek’s Lane we saw a purple thistle. Eloise said “it looks like Coronavirus“. I was so proud of her but didn’t know whether to laugh or cry inside. She looks so young, carefree and innocent and yet at just six years old she is so aware. Both Eloise and Miles, like other children, have had to be taught how to keep safe during this horrid situation that we are living in.
We continued to watch the crops growing in the fields and enjoy finding the creatures living amongst them.
These ‘seeds’ taste like cardamom Glen had read, but we didn’t try them to confirm it.
On another drizzly day we ventured out of the village for a little touristy trip. i.e. not shopping for or delivering essentials. We drove instead to the nearby, but previously unknown to us, ‘village’ of Tiddlywink. Astonishingly I had never heard of the hamlet which is only a ten minute drive from here. The name is derived from the rhyming slang for a “quick drink”, apparently one of its cottages had been known to serve beer to passing cattle drovers back in the 1870s. It consists of eight cottages along the side of the road, so blink and you would miss it. We drove on, and eventually went through Slaughterford. It is picturesque, with a river running across the small village in a wooded valley between Castle Combe and Box. I’ve been aware of Slaughterford all my life but have never really thought about the name. I’ve read that it is named, not after a battle in a ford, as you might expect, but because there were lots of blackthorn trees grown there. The bitter fruit of the blackthorn is the sloe, best known for flavouring sloe gin, the only gin I actually like (love!) So the name was originally from ‘ford by the sloes’. Who knew? Still learning something everyday.
On the day that we should have been excitedly making our way to the airport to fly to Spain to see family and friends I actually drove to get my hair cut for the first time in four months. Hair dressers were finally ‘allowed’ to open, but with PPE. I wore my new washable face mask Karen had given me for my birthday (who would have thought last year that would be something I would get!) and Lisa, the hairdresser wore a visor: happy ‘new normal’ days.
From 1st August, the government advise for vulnerable people who have been shielding for the last four months is that they are now free to leave their homes and join in the new normal, whether that is going to work or in shops etc. I know this has been done to help people’s mental health but as the virus rates have started to increase again we are encouraging Dad and all family with underlying conditions to continue to stay in when possible. However, Dad was also able to have his haircut in his house. Whoop!
Before 
After
Glen is sticking to my free hair cuts in the garden… he has saved £60 already!
I’ve continued helping Sue to clear out her childhood home this summer. We have spent many an hour looking through memories of her 100 year old Mum’s life, including photos and leaflets about her riding vespas in Ireland as a member of the Vespa Club! Who knew! Photos and memorabilia of trips to Spain and as far afield as Australia, but none so surprising or amusing as one particular find….. A street map of Grimsby Town Centre! It should not have been so funny as we found it. 🤣
As we passed the New Zealand pigs in Sheepfair Lane for the umpteenth time since we arrived here, I couldn’t help but think about the new swine flu virus found in China recently, one that has “the potential to be a pandemic”. It’s not always easy to keep my thoughts light-hearted and carefree, even in this beautiful village.
We deferred the pre-booked summer flights to and from Spain, instead booking to stay there for a month next year. Just before we were due to go the government lifted the ‘all but essential travel’. However, we would’ve had to self isolate for 14 days on our return because the cases in Spain kept rising and the Government’s advice reverted.
On 9th July Lauren and I celebrated our joint birthday together as we have done nearly ever year since Lauren was born on my birthday back in 1988. We wont forget this one, seeing as we had to have our first social distancing birthday hug.
We made up a Click-n-Collect birthday present crate for Lauren, complete with ‘substitutes’ and hand gel. I do love a theme.
Masks became compulsory in shops etc later in July so I was delighted, like I said, to have had one for my birthday from our bubble friend – thanks Karen.
The ginger cat appeared during a walk with Karen. Perfect timing.
We’ve had fun with the grandchildren (social distancing) indoors too. I got Lauren and Courtney’s old puppets out for them for the first time. They had great fun and I wasn’t in the slightest bit stressed about the fact that they left the puppets in a tangle! 😬😳
On 19th July Prof John Edmunds, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told the BBC’s Today programme that a return to pre-lockdown normality was “a long way off”. He said that activities such as going to work normally, travelling on public transport and going on holiday without restrictions, hugging and shaking hands with friends will not be returning any time soon. “We won’t be able to do that until we are immune to the virus, which means until we have a vaccine that is proven safe and effective. “If we return to those sort of normal behaviours, the virus will come back very fast.” 😳
On the other hand Boris Johnson, ever positive, said we could be back to normal by Christmas! 🙄
We feel drawn to the news each day, to follow the latest about the worldwide virus but like our ginger feline friend below, we are getting tired of the continuous news coverage about it. However, it would be impossible not to refer to it in this blog if we want to make this a record of time here in The Marsh.
Although most news is covered from every angle on the hour (if not more often!) an alarming find that has not seemingly been covered in the headlines is the hundreds of virus cases found in many mink farms around Europe! Both employees at the farms and the animals have been infected. I also read that feral cats have been found to have Covid-19 antibodies. Could these animals be spreading it to humans? No one but me seemed to be alarmed or the least bit interested!……. In other news petting farms and zoos are now open! 😳 mmmmmm!
Lets get back to scenes from our walks around the village.
Photos of our grandchildren on park swings and slides should not be noteworthy but this is the first time they have been to a park since they were closed during lockdown. Plenty of hand sanitiser was at hand of course.
The local airfield is also back open, as I said last month, so we dragged them away from the play equipment and took them on a hike through a footpath full of prickles, in the heat of the day to try to see an aircraft taking off. One actually did before we got there and then we missed one landing behind us when we were right by the landing strip! we only noticed it when it was pootling back to the hangar! Sorry Eloise and Miles!
We (Lauren) spent the walk counting and logging various butterflies, like the tortoiseshell butterfly bellow, on some sort of App.
Lauren is so kind to animals and loves insects and especially bees. She feeds any flagging bee she sees from a tiny bottle of sugar water hanging from her keyring. We on the other hand are currently debating whether to call in pest control regarding a handful of wasps Glen noticed in the loft. Our dislike of wasps has nothing to do with the fact that I was stung (bitten as I called it!) whilst talking to Mum and Dad on the doorstep recently and again in bed one morning! Despite the attacks I don’t feel we should be killing the wasps, I mean they are indigenous creatures here in the countryside and we should respect that. The news, as it should, has continued with rights for natives and Black Lives Matter, as much the coronavirus at the moment.
We talk about every crop we see growing in each field as we walk along/through them and after seeing a field of wheat Miles walked on a little further before announcing that he wanted Weetabix for tea! Bless him.
My thoughts, as always, are with our daughter Courtney who is still working in New Zealand. We feel she is in the safest place right now. However, with reading about the problems on the mink farms and the new swine flu I am hoping there isn’t a virus linked to cattle lurking ‘around the corner’ seeing as Courtney is working on a farm raising hundreds of calves!
We had a day out to The Wild Place with Lauren and the grandchildren. You have to book a time slot to go to such places now and we had booked on a day that predicted rain all afternoon. It was a hot day so we went without coats but I carried a huge umbrella….
We were extremely lucky to have a picnic and walk around to see all of the animals in the sunshine without any rain.
As we were getting in the car to leave, the rain started and was torrential on our drive home! Aww, the good old British summer!
Loved the photos and the description of everything. It was such a magical ‘walk’ through beautiful countryside.
This is a true record of everything we are going through at the moment. Each and everyone is making the best of a difficult situation. We pray a vaccine will be found soon.
Love Mum and Dennis
Reading about the derivation of Tiddlywink’s village name was fascinating. And some super photos as always.
Glad that you ‘enjoyed summer safely’ and are able to concentrate on the positives in these odd times.
Take care. Alan.