What a beautiful day, weather-wise!! Such glorious blue skies and warm sunshine! So much so, that we chose to breakfast on our patio this morning, nay, feast, on banana pancakes, smothered in maple syrup and sprinkled with raspberries and pecan nuts. It was absolutely glorious.
Mum was in her dressing gown pretty much all morning, but, once dressed, she also ventured out onto the patio with us. We wrapped her up in blankets (even though it was 19 degrees), making her look like she was sat in an old-fashioned Turkish bath (tee-hee!).
But we thoroughly enjoyed our hour or two sunning ourselves outside today. The birds were a-tweeting and butterflies were a-flutter-by-ing, generating such tranquillity that, for a while, we forgot that we are in a Corona-virus crisis.
Of course, reality set in when the delivery of goods from our local farm shops, Oakes’, arrived at lunchtime, reminding us that there are such good people in our midst, caring for us as we isolate ourselves from our beloved community. And, on that note, John got THE letter from the NHS today, reminding him that he is identified as someone at risk of severe illness if he catches the virus. We knew that, but it’s nice to know (sort of) that the ‘authorities’ recognise it too. STAY AT HOME and WASH YOUR HANDS is the refrain….. yes, we will. And so to washing all of the bags and goods received from Oakes’. Yay!! Lucky me!! And more hand-washing.
But the day was still beckoning outside, so, after lunch and an hour of day-time TV (Judge Rinder, this time), neither John nor I could resist the call of ‘jobs-to-do’, and we ventured once again into the fresh air to tackle those things that we haven’t previously had ‘time’ to do. Me, to do some dead-heading and weeding; John, to continue to deal with ‘big stuff’ down the bottom of the garden.
In between times, of course, we have chatted to a whole host of people on-line. The family: beautiful conversations – thrilling, heartbreaking, moving, loving – especially when little ones lean into the camera to plant a kiss on the face they see their end of the phone – ours! And the excitement of a mention of our Andrew, on Tom Aikens’ (look him up folks!) live Instagram feed; Friends: who send uplifting messages or silly jokes or political commentary; long-lost family who pop up out of the blue because they are thinking of us just now. Oh, wow!! And the Vicar, who is checking that we are OK. So thankful for it all.
And this, against a background of a total of 461 deaths from the virus to date; Prince Charles infected with the virus; over 500,000 volunteers offering to support the NHS in this crisis; and the prospect of us all applauding those brilliant front-line workers in the NHS and caring professions on Thursday evening at 8 o’clock. And our especial thanks to our own surgery, supporting John to provide alternative medicine today, when supplies of existing products are unavailable, and also prescribing other drugs recommended by the consultant.
God bless them all.
Loving the image of your mum!!
There’s more…..