The Daily Echo: Day 193

We had a lovely morning. We braved it and went to the garden centre to meet up with Danielle and the kids so that she could choose a couple of shrubs for her very decorative pots which sit outside their front door. I was anxious, having discovered that there are COVID cases in the vicinity, but we double-masked, quadruple-sanitized and got nowhere near anyone. It was so good to see the children and William was pleased to see us, but Thomas had a quivery bottom lip when I leered over the pram, wearing my outer space gear, to cooee at him. I quickly retreated, not wanting a bawling baby as we walked round the shop.

We loved seeing the grandchildren again, but we are definitely missing that beautiful intimacy that we had. Especially with Thomas, who really isn’t going to recognise us for a while, because we have a different coloured face every time we see him. Mine was red and pink with flowers on today, John’s was spotty and wordy with ‘keep your distance’. Charlie Mackesy, artist and author, represents our hope, though, beautifully…….

We enjoyed our little trip. Danielle found a couple of nice shrubs and we bought some bedding plants that John plans to plant out in the front garden. I also made an impulse buy – a little solar lamp in the shape of a hare. Apparently it has to stand outside for a couple of days in the sunshine before you switch it on. Well, that’s going to be fun isn’t it? Waiting for it to work? Is there going to be any sunshine in the near future?

We were also looking at hedging, as some of our hedge in the back garden has died off. The garden centre had a good selection, but we thought we’d better do some research first into what’s best to buy before plunging in. That brought us to thinking about visiting a different garden centre, but I was thinking of a cup of tea before we went anywhere else, so we came home. We settled on the sofa with our drinks and had a little snooze – again. Oh, dear, this is getting to be a habit.

A little while later we woke up and sheepishly thought we’d better get on with a few things, having abandoned the idea of going to another garden centre today. John was keen to get planting the front flower beds, and he also said he’d have a go at jet-washing the block-paved drive. It’s a while since it was done. Off he went, and it was a good while before I saw him again. I think he even stayed out there during the heavy showers and the hail storm. He’s a very determined man.

I, on the other hand, stayed in. I was keen to try out my new carpet shampoo machine. Well, I say new – not exactly, because I’ve had it for quite a long time and, before I actually used it, Michael and Danielle borrowed it. And then, of course, I used it at their house while they were on holiday. But it’s the first time I’ve tried it out in my own home.

Obviously, it will depend on what the carpets look like when they are dry, but generally, I think they came up quite well. The machine certainly had a lot of dirty water in it anyway, so I am sure that the carpets are cleaner than they were. Shadow, the black cat, certainly seemed to approve, as he spent all evening laying first on this bit, then on that……

As the daylight began to fade, John came in. Made me laugh. He looked like the ‘Monster from the Deep’ and was a tad grubby. I think he was wearing most of the dirt from the drive……. He peeled off the outer layer of clothing and then made his way, very carefully and rather gingerly, to the shower, trying not to drop any dirt anywhere on the way and trying to ease his aching limbs into working again.

It transpired that he hadn’t done the planting up after all, though, being keen to get the jet-washing done. Difficult to see in the dark, but what I can see looks good. Finish it tomorrow maybe?

We chose not to do any more physical work this evening and just plonked ourselves in front of the TV. Not that there was much on, really. We started to watch the series ‘I hate Suzie’ and ploughed our way through one episode. We weren’t keen, although the reviews have been very good. Anyone recommend we persevere with it?

It was a fairly pleasant evening, despite the fact that we thought TV was a poor show. John lit a fire to banish the chill in the air, and we sat cosily in front of it. Lovely. And we both ate chocolate. Uh-oh…. it’s started……

We watched the news today and note that there are more cases of COVID. 6,634 to be precise. 40 deaths in the community. 1,542 hospital admissions; 228 people on ventilators and twenty deaths in hospitals in the last couple of days. Balsall Common is still showing as nought to two cases.

And today the tracing app was made available to everyone who has a smart phone. I haven’t downloaded it yet, but I expect I will. It feels awfully scary though – although I suppose it is no different to the existing technology that tells Big Brother what I am doing every day, is it? Or is it?

Life is no longer as we knew it, though. Gotta adapt, I tell myself…….gotta adapt. I expect I will, but I’m finding it hard, despite the wonderful people around me whom I love and care for me.

Keep at it everyone. Stay safe and God bless.