Lockdown Diaries 2020/21

I have a confession to make. I’m not all that fond of babies.   Shocking, isn’t it? Particularly from a benign old senior with three children of her own.    Obviously I find them cute and would gladly cuddle one when offered. But I’m not a big fan of all the helplessness and dependency that comes with the territory of the very, very young.   Human babies are pretty hopeless, it has to be said. Other animals are born with finely-tuned survival instincts and are able to walk – albeit unsteadily – to their food source practically from birth. But while human infants are born with all four limbs, they are powerless to use them for anything other than to flay them helplessly around. And when they do finally work out how to totter around and pick things up with their beautifully-engineered fingers and thumbs, they promptly fall over and drop things. And the onus is entirely on us to feed them with a breast, bottle or pap from a jar warmed to exactly the right temperature. N...

It’s like some sort of cruel joke. After months of lockdown when we were only allowed to see friends and family via a video screen, we’re now finally allowed to meet up with them in real life - provided we remain outdoors. And what do you know, the “new rules” announcement has coincided with a massive change in the weather. I went to see my friend Rhona last Thursday and the two of us sat in the garden as per Boris’ orders. It was okay for her – she was able to go inside and make the tea and potter around in her warm kitchen, whereas I could only press my blue nose up against the window waiting for her to come back out and talk to me. Honestly, you wouldn’t have left your least favourite dog out in weather like that. The same thing happened at the weekend when we had Sue round to play garden games. In the rain, as it turned out.  But Sue is made of stern stuff and she continued to play badminton and table tennis with us despite the increasingly adverse conditions....

The aim of this blog has been to record the extraordinary happenings of the past few months. Now that things are gradually opening up again, my musings have become less relevant and I actually thought I’d written my final post. But there are still many aspects of life that can only be described using that much-overworked word – unprecedented. The weather, for one, has been extraordinary. This was the sunniest spring on record; the fifth driest and the eighth warmest. Some springs are basically extensions of the winter when we gaze dolefully out the window at the gale-battered daffodils and the sodden foliage and think to ourselves: “Oh, well, there’s always summer”. But stuck at home as we were, our gardens (for those who had them) were a godsend as we wheeled out our barbecues, paddling pools and outdoor games. Meanwhile the parks, beaches and commons have been choc-a-bloc with people picnicking and sunbathing.  But the other unprecedented occurrence is the fact that we’r...