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It did a lot of raining today. I was pleased about that because it means my lovely plants are at last getting a decent drink. However, the garden was a little bit sodden and then I worried about the plants drowning as the water table rose and rose. But I think they are OK, and they are certainly looking fresher than they have been doing in recent times.

As a result of the rain, we stayed in for most of the day and ‘played in’. Do you remember those expressions? “Can we play out, Mum?” When the weather was inclement it would be, “No, it’s raining, so you’ll have to play in.” And our hearts would sink, although if we’d recently been to the library I’d be happy with a book to read.

I don’t think William’s heart sank at having to play in. We had a great time, firstly with the toy cars, and then with the Duplo. It’s amazing how quickly time flies when you are playing and having fun. No sooner have you immersed yourself in one scenario than it’s elevenses time, then lunchtime, then nap-time and, well, will you look at that? It’s tea-time already!!

Part of the pleasure for me is playing with the toys that belonged to my own boys all those years ago. William wonders and wonders why a car is broken and asks, “Where are the wheels, Grandma?” and, in response to the answer, it’s often followed by the question,”Why?” Mostly the answer is that the item is so very old, whatever the question.

The highlight of the day though, was ‘The Roller Coaster’. Michael took a break and came wandering through to the kitchen. Have you got a wash basket, Mum? Yeees…..? We emptied out the strongest one, and Michael disappeared into the lounge. I was cooking the tea, and John was making banana bread. We were busy, and took not a lot of notice of the washing basket’s journey into the room next door.

A few minutes later, John popped into the lounge for something. He came back laughing. “You’ve got to go in and see what they’re doing,” he chuckled. I put my head round the door, and there was Michael, washing basket on his knees, William inside the washing basket and a video of a roller coaster ride on the telly.

Honestly, I can’t do it justice, but up, up, up they climbed to the top of the coaster, William squealing in delight, clinging on and anticipating the drop as he got to the top. The basket tipped forward and then down, down, down they swooshed, with the imaginary wind rushing through William’s hair as he swept down the coaster, leaning hard round the bends, still clinging on and still thrilled with the ride. Whooping with delight and eyes sparkling, he braced himself for another climb to the top and a swoop down to the bottom and then round again. What absolute fun.

Michael was loving it too, as he orchestrated the moves, and Danielle, giggling her head off, filmed the ride for posterity. The whole experience left us all grinning from ear to ear. No need to play out at all when you’ve got a Grandma, Grandpa, Daddy and Mummy to entertain you!!

Before all the excitement of the roller coaster, John had spent some time in the garage, keen to solder together the electrics on the rear window of the Lotus. He’d bought a soldering iron especially for the event. Unfortunately, the window didn’t play ball; the bit of copper he was soldering onto dropped off, the soldering iron fell and John went to grab it, burning his finger in the process. He was miffed. It hadn’t gone as he’d hoped and now he was injured. And he hates sitting around with his finger in a bowl of water for ages on end……

John was also a feeling a bit flat, having had a chat with the consultant immunologist. For many medical consultations, the doctors are now resorting to telephone discussions, so John spent a good half an hour chatting on the phone. The consultant revealed that John has no ‘B’ cells, which imprint and retain the antibodies of viruses and bugs. The pneumonia vaccine he’d had a couple years ago was clearly a waste of time as there was nothing to show for it in his blood. John asked me if I knew about the ‘B’ cell situation. I might have done at one time, but I don’t remember being told about it at all. I think the news has hit him hard and he is left wondering about the consequences.

Otherwise, everyone behaved themselves impeccably once again today – even Chester, who only barked once at the cats, when he found Rio in the utility room. Rio scarpered extremely fast and looked at me accusingly.

Little Thomas, whenever he was awake, was grinning from ear to ear too, gurgling at us and staring, wide-eyed at his surroundings; Danielle cracked on and shot home to collect some shopping and a few bits and pieces, and planned meticulously for their trip to Jersey; and Michael worked hard all day and all evening and wasn’t sure if he was coming or going.

And me? I was just full of that feeling you get when you spend time with your family. Love. Fabulous.

After we’d eaten our evening meal, it was Quiz Time. We settled ourselves in the lounge, and joined in, a little late, on John’s laptop. William was asleep in the computer room so we weren’t keen to disturb him with our raucous laughter and shouting as we yelled the answers to each other across the airways. As always, we had fun. Poor Danielle had to watch ‘Downton’ on her phone perched at the breakfast bar in the kitchen.

We didn’t particularly think about the virus today as we stayed in, but the figures seem stable (812 people confirmed as infected today and 16 deaths in the community, with 7 deaths in a hospital setting on Monday) and Malcolm had reassuring tales to tell from a recent gathering of GPs. He did, however, remind us that every precaution still needs to be taken. OK – will do.

And so concludes another day for which I thank the Lord. Take care everyone – God bless.

Still not sure what I might entitle my daily diary, but thanks to those of you who offered helpful suggestions yesterday – much appreciated. Before I decide, in the meantime and today, I’m calling it the Daily Echo because that is all I seem to do. Holler the words into a void and they echo back at me. Ah, well. It’s the thought wot counts, as they say.

Today has been a lovely day – slow start but gathered pace once the Sutton Sleaths arrived at lunchtime. Michael is still trying to get his literary review sorted out and it’s proving to be as stubborn as an ass. It doesn’t help that he’s absolutely worn out with thinking about it, so his brain isn’t functioning quite as well as it might otherwise. I am at a loss as to know how to help other than look after the rest of the family for him. Prayers anyone?

We were up at a reasonable time today and wafted about this morning. I was kicking myself for not making the trip round to Pete and Dawn’s with birthday offerings – belated in Dawn’s case, and would-have-been-on-the-day in Pete’s case, but will now be late. Another case of, ah well, it’s the thought wot counts, I think….

John hasn’t felt quite so bright and breezy today, although he did spend a significant amount of time grovelling on the floor and grappling with the dishwasher. For some unfathomable reason (until today, that is) the dishwasher decided to ‘walk’. It’s perambulations meant that the door was sticking each time we tried to open it. Eeeh, dear, 21st century problems… poor us….

Anyway, it transpired that John needed to order a new part to rectify the situation. So, onto the computer he went, and spent a good while researching before he finally found the right thing to order – I think, anyway. I was too busy playing to take a fat lot of notice.

I was either dandling the baby or playing with William or petting the dog. All activities that I thoroughly enjoyed. After lunch, Thomas was popped into his pram for a nap when it was everyone’s nap-time. Similar scenario to the other day, when William was asleep, Danielle had nodded off and John was a-snoozing, too. This time, I was still awake, as was Thomas. Little monkey. He wasn’t fretting – he was just bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I know, I thought, I’ll take him for a walk in the pram and he’ll soon drop off to sleep. Ha! No chance. He was wide awake all the way round the Yellow Brick Road – almost grinning at me and challenging me as to who was in charge. Well, he was, of course.

Once we were home, I lifted him from his pram and wandered out into the garden to see if he’d fall asleep in my arms. Erm… no. Just taking it all in and gurgling at me. We had quite a conversation, all told. He still wasn’t asleep by the time William got up and had woken Danielle from her slumber. Sixth sense then, of course, when Mummy is awake. Food!!! So, he did start to fret a bit then and I handed him over, swapping one child for the next.

William and I had a lovely play in the garden with Chester as company. We played on the swing, down the slide, up the hill, by the pond and into the woods, where the blackberries were growing. The sun was shining, the air was warm and we were able to just relax at our leisure, wandering about, no deadlines, no essential thing to do – fabulous. Michael came out, taking a break from brain-fug and played ‘tig’ with William and it warmed my heart to hear them both giggling as they chased round the garden. Grandpa joined in as a spectator, too.

Meanwhile, Danielle was busy in the kitchen preparing the evening meal for us all. A delicious vegetarian moussaka. We all wolfed it down, but William decided ‘No, thank you,’ and pushed his plate away. No amount of trying to persuade him to eat worked so we left it, hoping he’d eat of his own accord. He didn’t, and didn’t eat anything else before he went to bed. I don’t think he was really hungry, because he wasn’t hankering after anything else at all. Aren’t kids unpredictable?

After we’d eaten, Michael went back to his studies, John had another snooze, Danielle put William to bed and I did bath and bedtime story with William. And that was the evening pretty much come and gone. Apart from the studying bit, I think it was a nice evening for everyone. Certainly helped to have had a Magnum each as our dessert today.

The news today continues to be focusing on the ‘A’ level results debacle and the lack of honour amongst thieves – sorry, sorry – politicians. It seems that nothing is a resignable offence these days. COVID-19 features in a more minor way and the hysteria has died down. That doesn’t mean to say it’s gone away, with 1,089 people confirmed as infected today, 12 deaths in the community and two in hospitals on Saturday.

Enjoy the remaining days of summer everyone. God bless.

I am not sure how to entitle my daily diary now. I am no longer chronicling John’s leukaemia, his treatment, his recovery, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the stay-at-home requirement or the shielding, as such. I am simply observing our activities from day-to-day. Admittedly, each of the day’s summaries includes all of the above but, at present, it’s not a specific blog. All I know is, that I am still counting the days since the beginning of lockdown in March.

And today, being Day 155 and a Monday, it felt just right to take the bull by the horns and walk up to the shops. I went to collect my prescription. A week ago, the pharmacy had notified me that it was ready but, instead of telephoning them to ask if they’d deliver, I spent all week plucking up courage to make the hop and a skip up the road. All good. I even called into Tesco Express to collect a box of eggs. I am expecting plaudits and a bravery award shortly.

Otherwise, we just spent the day at home, drifting about. The morning was taken up with a super, smashing Skype chat to Graham and Gail, for over two hours. We think we set a new record – Graham was referee and record verifier, refusing to let Gail nip to the loo until we’d reached over-the-two-hours cut-off point. Tee-hee.

Fabulous chit-chat, relaxed and happy to see each other but oh, damn it, forgot to ask Graham to write to Mum. Ah, well next time, maybe. Despite the stories of the virus spreading in Victoria, which Graham and Gail remind us is a very long way way from where they live, they are very well, getting out and about with friends, going out for meals and so on, as New South Wales is pretty free of the virus. Not only that, they seem to have a track and trace system in place. Great news and we are not jealous at all.

Shocker of the day was Gail sending us a photograph of her brother’s (who is younger than us) great-grandson. Crumbs, it made us feel very old. We’re still only just on the third generation, let alone the fourth.

Lunchtime came and went, and I have no idea what we did this afternoon. John spent some time on the computer ordering bits for the beloved Lotus, or chasing up bits that have not yet arrived. Where are they? In the post? Surely they should be here by now? Impatient? John? No…………. And me? I did nothing but addle my brain by watching day-time television.

I did, however, look into the situation with Mum’s carers. I checked the contract with the company before firing off what was going to be a pithy email, only to find, *red face*, that the attendance we agreed is 45 minutes, not an hour. However, there was still a shortfall in time paid for and time attended, so I did question that. But the email wasn’t quite so pithy as the one I had already drafted in my head…..

On another note: in a moment of madness, when I was researching ‘healthy foods’ for John’s diet, I had once bought a pack of dried seaweed, so I fished it out of the cupboard and re-hydrated some of it to put into our evening meal. The idea of it quite appealed. That is, until I poured the boiling hot water over it and a very strong seaside aroma reached my nostrils. I baulked. Whaddya reckon, John? Fancy the seaweed? Neither of us were sure, so in the end I only put a smattering of it into the casserole. Wasn’t too bad, actually. But I have got a lot of re-hydrated seaweed left. Anyone? Well, maybe John has chucked it out now. Fingers crossed. And I can’t for the life of me remember what the ‘health’ properties of the bloomin’ stuff is now, of course!!

Not a lot else to report, other than the brain-addling continued into this evening by watching lots more TV, and we watched three episodes of Line of Duty. Enjoying it but, watching three programmes back-to-back like that shows up the repeated behaviour of the characters, which seems to include an awful lot of eye-rolling, eye-swivelling and furtive glances at each other. It gave me eye-ache just watching it.

With regards to the virus here in England, the government has reported just three deaths, with its new system of calculating the COVID-19 related deaths, and 713 newly confirmed cases of infection today. The NHS is also on the bandwagon of revising its reporting, and I understand that there was still one death on Friday. Saturday, Sunday and today’s figures are yet to be published, I think. The reporting system now states that: ‘The Daily file contains only deaths from the latest reporting period, 4pm 2 days prior to publication until 4pm the day before publication.‘ Got that? Hmmm…..me too!

Ah, well, with smoke and mirrors, I am sure we’re all reassured, aren’t we? Anyone re-read Animal Farm lately?

Take care everyone, and peace be with you all in all you say and do.

There was uncertainty this morning as to what we were going to do today. We didn’t rush this morning so, after a slow start, I checked with the Sutton Sleaths how things were, and an excellent report came back, so we said we’d pop over to help out and do more on the ‘man-shed’.

It was actually three hours later when we got there. What had we been doing? We have no idea whatsoever! It just took us that long to cook and eat our Sunday breakfast, gather together all sorts of foodstuffs and tools to take with us, and then collect the ‘clicked’ items from Screwfix on Torrington Avenue, before we were finally on our way.

That last bit was exciting. Mindful of the consultant’s advice, John was all systems go and champing at the bit, to buy bits and pieces for the work on the electrics to the ‘man-shed’. I reluctantly agreed he could ‘click and collect’. I think it was OK – although he had to wait in a slow queue for a while before he went in, and I was anxiously watching whether people were staying the requisite meterage apart and had donned their masks. All seemed well and, with the items collected, it was the sanitiser routine in the car and then we were finally on our way.

We didn’t do anything unusual this afternoon – although I did ride the rapids in the ‘river’ down by the side of the decking, and then transformed into a helicopter while William transformed into a boat. We both then transformed into aeroplanes and, wings out, flew down to the bottom of the garden to see how Grandpa was getting on. I also ate a lot of ‘chicken and chips’ and ‘hamburgers’ followed by ‘corn on the cob’ and drank ‘lashings of tea’.

In between times, Grandpa did lots of electrical things and William joined in, once again asking a lot of ‘Why?’ questions before coming back for more ‘river crossings’, fighting crocodiles and digging the silt out of the river. In the latter activity I had a leading role, having transformed into an excavator. I was charged with clearing a channel for the transformed ‘boat’ to sail through.

Michael studied. Danielle busied herself with sorting out the kids clothes ready for the holiday to Jersey next week. Thomas did a lot of sleeping. Of course, when he wasn’t sleeping, he was feeding and then being wide-eyed and alert to the general hubbub around him. Cuteness personified.

While Grandpa had hold of William, I cooked the Sunday roast. I did a lot of panic-mode cooking. Not having my familiar utensils in my hands and an unfamiliar oven which had a mind of its own, with a ghost hand changing the temperature every so often, I fought a battle with myself to get a decent meal onto the table. It was OK in the end, but this is what lock down has done to me. No faith or confidence in any of my own abilities any more. Aarghhh…….

Naturally, some days are better than others in the confidence stakes, so I just had a weird one today, but I wish I didn’t have such days. They are not nice.

Anyway, all’s well that ends well, and everyone was fed and watered. After we’d eaten, we played a bit more with the children and William used Michael and me as a climbing frame for a while. Michael was particularly impressive, doing press-ups with William on his back. Oh, to be young and strong again!!

We left Michael bathing William and Danielle feeding Thomas. Happy, contented family scenes. Long may they continue.

I only watched the news late on this evening and even then missed half of it, so I am not quite sure of the latest, other than there’s still a lot of anger about the ‘A’ level exam results, with people gearing up to be angry about the GCSE results later on this week. The reporting on the virus in the UK seemed not so prominent, which is probably a good thing as we are going to have to learn to live with it snaking its way through the population for a good while to come. The focus was on the high numbers in places like India, Brazil and Spain.

In England, the NHS reported one death yesterday from the virus, and the government reported 5 in the community, with 1,040 people confirmed as infected.

It’s Monday tomorrow – have a good week everyone!

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Our plan was to do a bit more on the ‘man-shed’ and some child care in Sutton today, but we erred on the cautious side and didn’t go, as Danielle had woken up with a bit of a sore throat. In all likelihood, it’s fatigue creating the problem with a troublesome wisdom tooth, but we thought we’d play safe.

It meant that I had a happy hour or two this morning, scrolling through lots of ‘lock down’ photos on my phone and arranging the ones I particularly liked into a photo book. The book is Book One, as the photos were from March to May. There’s still June to August to go. If the books turn out well, I shall put together the second book and enjoy flicking through the pages on winter nights to come. The photos show that it hasn’t been all bad during the lock down, after all.

John has spent the day on the front drive, scooping up the stones and shifting them into a very big pile. The sieving hasn’t started yet apparently…… He’s getting down to the hard core and then he’ll start. What a job. It feels like it’s going to take forever. But I think he’s enjoying it. There’s a sense of achievement with each shovelful and a sense of purpose as it’s piled up ready for sorting. Fingers crossed he gets through it all!!

In the meantime, my best intentions were just intentions. I never actually got around to doing many of the jobs I had set myself. Some time ago, Rona had asked me if I had watched the series ‘Flesh and Blood’, which I hadn’t. Just after lunch and before starting on my list of ‘things to do’, my plan was to delete a whole pile of programmes from the planner. We seem to have hundreds of programmes that we may not watch but I came across this series as one of the first things recorded on there. I thought I’d start it. Well, folks, I finished it. Just binge-watched the whole lot this afternoon. Great fun, but felt guilty then, as I hadn’t done any jobs. And I’d also demolished a whole bar of fruit and nut chocolate……

The guilty feeling soon went away as I began the task of putting away the shopping that had arrived. The ‘putting away’ also involved a pre-job – that of clearing out the fridge first. One of those tasks that I’d been putting off for a little while. It’s done now, and re-stocked with lovely food and drink, including a nice bottle of Prosecco just chillin’ and ready for me to drink.

In amongst the various goods I’d ordered were bits and pieces for Mum. Rather than fill my fridge with her things, I thought I’d drop them round to her flat before I cooked our evening meal. It’s actually a week since I called in, but I have been keeping tabs on her via the app that her carers use to report on their activities. She was, of course, pleased to see me, but she had a bit of a panic attack when we weren’t able to find her hearing aid batteries. She was as deaf as a post, with last week’s batteries having gone flat and, because I was wearing a mask, she couldn’t lip-read so hadn’t got a clue as to what I was saying.

We finally found the batteries in a box that I had carefully placed in the ‘cubby hole’. However, neither of us could remember where we’d put it at first, so a thorough search had to be made. Bit of a laugh when we found it though, and a relieved Mum when she could hear at last.

She was a bit miserable though today. I asked her about the girls who come in to look after her and she revealed that they don’t stay very long. Well, her memory isn’t great, so I wasn’t inclined to believe her. I explained that they are there for an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening. She shook her head and said, very firmly, that they didn’t stay an hour in the morning. I described the activities they are tasked to undertake and she shook her head and firmly said again, no, they weren’t doing them.

I have to confess I hadn’t looked at the detail of how long they were staying in the flat on the app. I was just checking whether she was happy, and they had left her safe and well. I did a check this evening and found that she is probably right. We’re paying for an hour, but they are only staying for half of that. I think the wires have got crossed somewhere and I shall have to follow it up. But she is safe and well despite feeling sorry for herself today.

I wore my mask when I visited Mum today, and can’t make up my mind whether it is necessary or not. Answers on a postcard? She tells me that not all the carers wear a mask and she doesn’t, so it seems a bit daft. Anyway, it’s precautionary at least for now.

COVID-19 related deaths are reported at an all-time low today, with just three on the government’s website and two confirmed for the Thursday on the NHS site. As at four o’clock today, I,012 people are confirmed as having been infected.

This seems like fairly good news to me. Take care everyone.

Shielding is a thing of the past. Well, sort of and mostly. We went to see John’s haematologist today, and we discussed what we mean by ‘shielding’ and what we can and can’t do, given John’s ‘vulnerable to infection’ state. Go for a daily walk, was the prescription. And yes, you can go to a shop (the motorist’s shop beckons) but not a crowded supermarket – choose wisely. Go somewhere where distancing is well -managed, partitions are up at the counters, there aren’t many people, and everyone is wearing masks. Put a review of the shop on Mr Google so that other vulnerable people are aware of its nuances and can choose to go there or not. Oh, and keep washing your hands, of course. Plus, all the other bits, like; do your physiotherapy exercises and don’t drink too much alcohol. Sermon over.

Well, that’s good news. It was also good news that all aspects of blood components reported on today – bar the neutrophils – are normal. Neutrophils? Just those little things you need to fight infection. John’s are low, and not likely to put up much of a fight should he get an infection. Otherwise, he’s good to go. So let’s go. Had we booked to go away anywhere? No. We were waiting on advice as to where we are with risk and so on. Sounds like we could plan to have a few days away, then.

It has been a long time since we met up with Dr Lovell, the consultant we saw today. Paneesha is on his hols, so, “Step in, John. Lovely to see you. Long time, no see. Fourteen years? Surely not?” Well, about that anyway. It was Dr Lovell whom John first saw, right at the beginning, but within a fairly short space of time, John had moved through the various clinics and became ‘an interesting case’ before landing in poor Paneesha’s lap. The consultation today was like old pals catching up. John was able to share all his recent successes and passion for the Lotus and exchange such pleasantries that cheered us all up before we each said a reluctant goodbye. It was John who brought the chat to a close, rather than Dr Lovell, who was revelling in hearing about the ‘project car’.

After we’d been to the hospital, we proceeded, on an almost-empty tank of petrol (sorry, diesel), to call in to Sutton to drop off paired socks. Lots and lots of pairing still to do – heaven knows where the other half of the pairs are – but I shall look forward to that little exercise sometime in the future. The Sutton Sleaths have strict instructions to drop the oddments into a bag and I’ll spend a happy hour ‘pairing up’. Very therapeutic.

We had a quick cup of tea and came home to amend my on-line shopping list, before the deadline expired, with one or two items I’d suddenly remembered as we drove to the hospital. I wonder why the hospital prompted the thoughts? Hmmm….. no idea. They were mostly to do with Mum!!

Back home, John decided he’d tackle the front drive. A job he’s been itching to do for a while. “I’ll just do a bit to see if I can manage it and whether it’s worthwhile,” he said. The job? Shovel up the stones, along with very large quantities of the silt that’s built up between and underneath them over the years, then sieve the soil out to refresh the stones. Rather him than me. There’s acres of the stuff to sieve. I think what he’s done so far has been very successful though. Except he did come in looking a bit dishevelled, so it was probably hard work.

I tidied up a bit and finally decided to wrestle with the ironing, which has been glowering at me all week, before sitting down to watch a bit more ‘Line of Duty’. Couldn’t quite find the brain power to read over Michael’s PhD work this evening…..

And that’s our day. Nothing unusual happening, but it was unexpectedly exciting, nonetheless.

And, back to earth with a bump when I read the figures for COVID-19 infections and deaths. Virus-related deaths are down (but they did change the parameters of counting) – just 11 today in community settings and one yesterday in a hospital. However, infection rates are startlingly high, with 1,441 confirmed infections. That means, if we are going to be out and about, we will need to be alert……

Stay with it, folks. Peace be with you all.

I was pleased that I had got out of bed early and made a start on the day betimes today. Why? Well, late last night both John and I separately offered a continuance of our support for the Sutton Sleaths, but because it was late, we hadn’t had a reply. Early morning (well, eight o’clock anyway) and they’d texted to say they’d spend the day at our house. By nine o’clock they were walking through the front door. Glad I wasn’t still in bed!

Fortunately, no dog today, so no cat-chasing by him, just cat-chasing by William who roared through the cat flap at Shadow sitting outside. Shadow blinked a weary eye at him and turned his head in disdain. No, that roar didn’t bother him in the least, and he was brave enough to saunter about the house all day despite les enfants.

Cups of tea dispensed and pains aux raisins in the oven for elevenses later, saw Michael disappear into the dining room to settle into his work, Danielle settle into the lounge on the settee, and William running in to the rummage through the toys. “Come on, Grandma/Grandpa, (apparently we are now known as a pair) come and play with me,” says William, and we oblige.

The weather was still warm mid-morning with no real hint of rain, so we packed a little backpack for William, full of nice things to eat, and we set off on a ‘Bear Hunt’. We just went round the Yellow Brick Road, but I saw it in a new light as Danielle brought to life all the things to look for on a Bear Hunt. “Look, William, can you see the bear’s paw prints in the mud?” These? Dog prints in the molehills. “See, William, where the bear has leaned on a tree to scratch his back?” This? Two or three trees skewed over by the wind. “Oh, wow! Just look at that, William. The bear has been sharpening his claws on the tree.” This one? The striated bark on several trees. I thoroughly enjoyed my bear hunt – and so did William, of course. Only thing was, we didn’t actually find any bears, which was disappointing for both of us. Next time, maybe.

What we did find on the walk, though, were blackberries. Yes, I know you are all probably yawning and saying, yea, yea, we know all about them, but for me the volume of ripened fruit was a thrill in the middle of August. We grabbed a little bag and picked them. “Not the ones low down though, William…..” you know the rest….. So, we brought our haul home for our tea and made a delicious apple and blackberry crumble with custard. Lush.

We sat awhile on a bench for our snack, and then turned our footsteps home, William chattering all the way. Once home, elevenses were demolished, and it was soon lunchtime, then nap-time.

Michael emerged for his lunch and then took William upstairs to bed. William was soon snoozing away, having expended a fair bit of energy on the walk. Hmmm, snoozing ……. funny that. After lunch, so was I. And Danielle. And Thomas. And John (although he had no excuse, as he hadn’t been on the walk). Michael, apparently, had taken a break from work at one point for a bit of a chat, only to find that every single member of the household was fast asleep. Well, someone’s got to earn the money, haven’t they?

After our naps, it was playtime once more and then, with time vanishing fast, it was time to prepare an evening meal. Crikey! Where’d the day go?

Thomas, bless him, was once more as good as gold. Waking up to be fed, as pleasant as can be while awake, and grinning at us now. I reckon he’s going to be a cheeky boy!! I didn’t do much dandling today, but what I did was lovely. Thomas was asleep a lot of the time, or just awake in his bouncy chair or on the play mat, watching the world go by. “He must be growing with all that sleep,” said Danielle. He sure is. If you stretched him out, I don’t think he’d fit in his pram for much longer. Fortunately, he likes to curl his legs up and snuggle to the bottom of the pram, so I think we’ll be OK for a while yet.

We waved goodbye to them all as Michael pulled the car off the drive, only for him to screech to halt. What? What have they forgotten? Danielle, sheepish, leapt out of the car and retrieved her phone…. which she had left on the roof of the car. Phew. That was a close one. Bye! Bye! Bye then!! See you all soon.

We collapsed into the sofas and surveyed the room. Had we been burgled? Was it a war zone? No, just a visit from the grand kids!! Tee-hee-hee!

A touch of telly to relax, a nice cuppa, and the day strolled to an end. Lovely. So nice to be able to ignore all the horrible goings-on in the world and just envelope ourselves with love and laughter every day just now. Too soon we will be agonising over exam results for our youngsters, no doubt, just as they are doing today.

Let us hope that by then we will no longer be agonising over the COVID-19 death and infection rates. The government has published figures today on the new basis of deaths ‘within 28 days of a positive test’. 18 today, with 1,009 cases of people confirmed as infected – same number as yesterday. The NHS reports one death yesterday from the virus.

And there we have it – another ‘day in the life of village folk‘. A beautiful, gentle rhythm at the moment for which we are eternally grateful, thank the Lord. Take care everyone and God bless.

I am wondering whether to stop counting the days. I mean, our ‘shielding’ days in the very strictest sense seem to be behind us. We are ‘bubbling’ with the Sutton Sleaths and, weather permitting, garden partying with our friends and other family members (fingers crossed we see Andrew soon). And we are enjoying the socialisation. It has made a huge difference to both of us. We are lighter in spirit, even though we are not yet lighter in body weight. We are both looking forward to events in the future. For example, we are (ever hopeful) planning a week away next Easter with the family, if anyone can make it. I am even contemplating suggesting a socially-distanced picnic in a park with friends. It sounds to me like a quite a good little social life. A far cry from the days of chivvying Mum to get out of bed.

However, Day 150 it is. And we are still ‘washing the shopping’, wearing masks, sanitising or washing our hands at every contact with anyone else and standing well back from others. And other than me Mum, the Sutton Sleaths and little Freddie, we have had no-one inside the house. Oh, apart from the plumber early on and the District Nurses, of course. So, I am wondering how different that is from everyone else now. Being a ‘deltiologist’, (a new word that I learnt today – look it up, people) answers on a postcard, please.

It being Day 150, I slept some more. Those of you who read yesterday’s instalment will have noted that I whiled away a good few hours yesterday afternoon inspecting the back of my eyelids. This morning was no exception. I thought they deserved a little more inspection. I finally got out of bed, trundled to the bathroom, drank the (now cold) fruit tea John had lovingly placed by my bedside, picked up my phone, had a go at an e-jigsaw puzzle I am fond of doing and then looked at the time. Crikey!!! It was already 11.25 and we had promised to be over in Sutton by noon. I quickly got dressed and shot downstairs to see if John was ready for the trip. Nope. He was concentrating very hard on being Quiz Master and setting the questions for this evening. “It’s nearly twenty to twelve,” I told him. He looked up, startled. “Already? Best get going then.” We gathered our things pronto and set off.

Had a lovely afternoon with Danielle, William and Thomas. All were as good as gold. Even Danielle behaved……… tee-hee!! Michael wasn’t there, having had to actually go to work. Yes. I mean, physically, go to work. What a shocker. He was back by about three-ish with more work to do, of course, via Zoom and teleconferencing. But he did mention that he hadn’t been missing the two-hour commute every day…….. I wonder if we will change our ways of working, or whether we will forget very quickly that beautiful balance we found at one point during lock down?

John spent the afternoon on the roof of the ‘man shed’ and I spent the afternoon having a quick tidy round. One job I thought I could do to be helpful, was to tear up all of the cardboard boxes that had accumulated in the last week, and were nestling in the porch, and then slot them into the recycling bin. Oooh, it was so satisfying. All that tearing and trashing – brilliant. And not only that, at the end of it all, the porch was cleared. No more cardboard glowering at the residents on the way in or out of the house.

William and I played Pirates on Mummy and Daddy’s bed this afternoon, at the same time as Danielle and I folded all the children’s clothes and snuggled them away into their respective homes. I had a pillow for my steering wheel, and William had one too, for his control panel. There were sharks in the water and we had to be rescued more than once. We found treasure and leapt ashore onto dry land before the sharks got us. Great, great fun.

I dandled Thomas and rocked him in his pram and he smiled and gurgled at me. He was talking to me, making eye contact and telling me all about it. He is such a bonny boy.

Once home, we laughed at a video Paul had sent us, showing Freddie freezing, but determined to stay, in the paddling pool in their holiday garden. Freddie, being a ‘contrary Mary’ told Paul that the water was warm and why didn’t Daddy join him? Paul had a good excuse. He was overseeing the barbecue. Man’s work.

Honestly, these boys, Freddie, William and Thomas, are beautiful and have a great start in life.

This evening we quizzed. Despite the fact that John thought it might be a relatively ‘easy’ quiz, we puzzled over quite a few of the questions and decided it hadn’t been quite so easy after all. It was, as always though, exceedingly enjoyable and we spent a good while afterwards just chatting. Loved it. So grateful that we have this wonderful evening among friends.

This beautiful life – I’d like to live it without the virus lurking in the background, but we can’t, so we have to make the most of it. For 77 people in the community yesterday that wasn’t possible, as they lost their lives to COVID-19, and 1,009 were confirmed as infected. One person died in a hospital setting, too.

Counting people who have died due to the virus is now a game of ‘shove ha’penny’, it seems to me, as the rules are changing on who to count in, and who to count out. Overnight, we have lost 5,000 on the data tracking as these people had been recorded as COVID-19 infected more than 28 days ago. I do not know the rights and wrongs of the count, but it strikes me that the new figures seem to count out any death due to the effects of ‘long COVID’. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Whatever it is, look after yourselves and try not to be a statistic. Blessings to you all.

Well, weren’t we lucky with the weather today? The forecast predicted thunderstorms, including heavy rainfall, but we were spared all of that until this evening. We were especially pleased that the weather was clement because we had agreed to drive to George and Sue’s, just outside Northampton, to meet up with them and Dave and Chris. An experimental first since lock down: a barbecue in their garden, socially distanced? Oh, yes please.

I had intended to get up about eight o’clock this morning to prepare some salads as accompaniment to the barbecued meat, but what I hadn’t bargained on was a rude awakening. Just after 7.30, I could hear a yowling sound dripping into my consciousness. Over and over again. It sounded very familiar but, for a moment, I wasn’t able to place it. Then bingo! It’s a cat yowling. I leaped out of bed and looked out of the window. Yep, sure enough, there was Rio sitting at the bottom of the garden, looking very affronted, with the intruder sat before him, swishing his tail. I knew what that meant. Two seconds later, fur was flying and high-pitched yelling from both cats pierced my eardrums.

I hot-footed it downstairs, unlocked the house and belted out into the garden. That was enough to see the black cat intruder off the premises. Rio was sat, crouching under a wheelbarrow, unhurt, but with much of his fur adorning the path. He was OK but didn’t resist when I offered to pick him up and take him for his breakfast, which he wolfed down, so clearly there was no lasting damage.

Honestly, it’s been a ‘cat-o-three-tales’ in the last few days! I’m hoping the tales don’t soon add up to nine…. can’t take any more!

Anyway, drama over, I got on with sorting out the salads, chilling a bottle of Prosecco and preparing some fruit to take with us on our adventure to the far-distant lands of East Northants. Not long before take-off, however, coming in from watering the garden, I heard the landline ringing. One ring too short, I’d missed the call. A few seconds later, my mobile rang. It was George. “Did you get my message?” he asked. “Erm, no…..I’ve been in the garden,” I said, apologetically. “Ah, well. Dave and Chris can’t make it. They’re feeling iffy, so don’t want to risk coming. Do you still want to go ahead?” What a daft question. Of course, we still want to go ahead. Obviously, we’ll miss seeing Dave and Chris and are sorry they are feeling poorly, but we certainly didn’t want to miss out on seeing George and Sue, too. So off we went.

But boy, it was HOT. We didn’t check the actual temperature, but even at 8.30 tonight as we drove home in the ‘cool’ of the evening, it was still 30 degrees! We sheltered under the shade of the gazebo and followed its shadow round as the sun tracked its course in the sky. The Prosecco tasted good in the heat, but one glass was soon followed by several glasses of thirst-quenching, re-hydrating water. No-one was keen on too much alcohol today.

After we’d eaten delicious chicken, marinaded Chinese-style, and succulent sausages, and we’d exhausted the available shade under the gazebo, we moved up towards the house and sat in the shadow of the next-door neighbour’s hedge, jealously listening to them splashing in their garden pool. Feeling exceedingly hot, I borrowed one of Sue’s cotton T-shirts, replacing the nylon top I’d foolishly put on this morning. I settled into my chair. Ooh, it reclines. I’ll do a bit of that then. Everyone was chatting; John had lots to say today; George encouraged him and soon, I was soothed by the sonorous sound of John’s voice and my eyelids drooped. I fell asleep. For hours.

How very embarrassing. Yet, George and Sue were so kind and said it didn’t matter, and that they were pleased I felt relaxed enough at their home to be able to take a nap. John teased me of course, said I’d snored a lot and that he’d made an outrageous suggestion to which I’d agreed – and how come I didn’t remember? I did remember waking up once, though, when Sue offered me a Magnum – two in two days(!!) – which I ate, and then promptly fell asleep again after I’d eaten it.

Reluctantly, we said our farewells to our dear friends and set off home. The sky was exciting, with the sunset spilling through the wispy clouds, and then we spied one very large cloud, rising like a mushroom plume. Oooh, does that look like it might turn into a thundercloud? We didn’t know it then, but it certainly did. The nearer we got to home, the larger and darker the cloud became until at last, the thunderstorm broke spectacularly at about ten o’clock.

On the way home, Paul FaceTimed us but we were driving so we waited until we got home for a long chat. It was so lovely to see him, sitting outside with a beer just chillin’ on his holidays. They’d all been to ‘Go Ape!’ today and had had fun so I was delighted to see him looking so relaxed. Nice.

Not so nice are the figures being reported on the virus – 102 deaths as of 5 p.m. yesterday in all settings and 1,148 lab-confirmed cases. Hotting up? We’ll see.

In the meantime, I am hoping that this hot, sticky weather doesn’t make life too difficult for you and that your days are peaceful and contented. God bless.

The weather was so wonderful today that, despite a long list of other things to do, we spent the day out in the garden. I started off with breakfast on the patio surveying our ‘estate’ and marvelling at our amazing good fortune to be able to live here. My raised beds are looking fine and I have hazelnuts on my tree. Few apples and plums, mind you, having had a glut last year, but still.

John had a good, long lie-in this morning to get over his exertions of the last few days but, once he was up, he really got to it. There’s no stopping him when he’s got the bit between his teeth.

I had started on weeding, dead-heading and generally tidying up the flowerbeds before moving on to heaving a very heavy bag of wood chips onto the lawn, so that I could dress a little area in front of the rockery. I wondered if I should carry on round to the rose bed? Yes, John confirmed, but, before you do, let’s just get the edging finished first. Well, rather him than me. It was too hot for that caper in my book. John grabbed the sledgehammer, garden spade and fork, a kneeling mat and the edging and away he went.

He wondered why he was out of breath and exhausted. He was convinced that this time last year he was better. Erm….. no? This time last year he was struggling to find any energy to do anything and wondering why he was even alive. Fast forward to now and he’s got the gumph to lift a sledgehammer and actually finish the edging job. Applause all round, I say!! He was clearly having a good day.

So, I weeded out the rose bed and filled it up with wood chips while John finished the edging. It looks rather smart and we’re both pleased with our efforts today. Afterwards, I toddled off for a shower as John put the tools away – and then the thunder started. We didn’t make a special effort to look out for the lightening and didn’t really see any from indoors as I prepped the evening meal, but it was a marvellous rumbling, like African drums, that went on and on. Then huge raindrops fell and stirred up Petrichor (thanks to Susie Dent of Countdown fame for this wonderful word) – that evocative, earthy smell of when rain falls onto dry soil. Heady, heady scent – I loved it.

Mid-afternoon, we had stopped, of course, for refreshments under the gazebo – it was too hot to keep going. It was Magnum time. Such decadence and what a pleasure. We sat together enjoying the twenty-minute respite in the shade before we set to again. I might have said this before…. but we are so delighted with our new gazebo. It really is just the ticket.

We are never satisfied, though, are we? We’re sitting, enjoying the rest, appreciative of the refreshments on offer, delighting in the shade offered by the gazebo – and what do we concentrate on? The lawn. It’s not looking good we say to ourselves. We must get some weed ‘n treat stuff for it. We must water it, get rid of the moss, trim the edges etc etc….. I laughed. I reminded John that, when we first got married we had a book entitled, ‘How to Cheat at Gardening’ and the suggestion was to make the lawn just green and not to worry whether it was a grass or some other plant that made it so. In those days, we had scoffed at people who cared about having the perfect lawn. Oh, how the mighty are fallen….. now we’re fretting about it! Who’d a thought it, eh?

We decided we deserved an evening in front of the TV after our toiling in the heat today, so we carried on watching ‘Line of Duty’. John had watched some of the series before, and I had caught one or two programmes but, because we can, we thought we’d watch the whole lot – not all at one go though, you understand – and see if we can follow it. Ha! Ha! Ha! I don’t know how many times I have turned to John to ask, “Do you know what’s going on?” or “I don’t get it, why is he/she…..?”I am sure all will be revealed. Or will it? No matter, we’re enjoying it anyway.

We did catch a bit of the news today and I am struck by the reaction of people to the refugees arriving on our coast. The reports seem to suggest that we have lost all compassion for our fellow human beings and are just out for punitive action. I mean, the idea that we would just turn any arriving dinghy round, and point it back in the direction from whence it came, is madness to me. Perhaps it is because we are still experiencing deaths and infections from COVID-19 that makes people retract a hand of kindness.

With regard to the virus, there have been 21 deaths in all settings today and 2 in a hospital setting yesterday. However, the infection rate is still high, with 816 people confirmed as infected today. So it’s still around and catching us unawares.

God bless, and peace be with you in all you do and say.