Author: Kathy

Feest Isolation Days – 14 July

I hope you enjoyed my great nephew’s post as much as we did.  If you missed it, have a look at yesterday’s post, Day One Hundred and Twenty One.  Fun and insightful.  Excellent work for a twelve year old!

Well!  Our world is opening up! Yesterday we went further than we have since all this began.  We headed to Exeter and saw the family in the garden. No hugs, and we were all so careful to socially distance.  That didn’t matter. It was a joy to see them in their home and the sun shone.

We didn’t stop on the way there or back and the car parks at each service we passed were full to overflowing. Planning loo breaks has become an essential part of going beyond our home.  Apparently we are not alone.  This is an issue for many of us, and timings of drinks before leaving has become a crucial element of travel these days.  Who knew?

Next stop was Exmouth where we visited old friends.  They have a magnificent view of the sea beyond their flourishing gardens.  We needed the sun shade up as the sun was beating down on us while the seagulls squawked away. 

It’s been a very long time so you might not remember the story, but I take a little Teddy Bear when we travel and photograph him in the locations we visit. I then send this to my friend who lives on Cape Cod and no longer gets to travel far at all.  Even Teddy wore his mask!  What is Michael Gove thinking when he says everyone will do the right thing and that wearing masks in shops should not be mandatory. A day later and Boris says he thinks we all should wear masks in shops and he will explore in the next few days “whether or not tools of enforcement” are required. Is there any wonder people are confused about what they should and shouldn’t do?  I for one will see what Chris Whitty has to say.  Without regular Downing Street briefings, it is hard to find the latest from the Scientists. We will just have to trust Boris…or maybe our instincts.

Our friend took matters into his own hands when Ted took his mask off!

Lilies are currently out in our garden and they are a delight.  They might be my favorite flowers.  The only downside of a lily is the yellow stain that they can leave on clothes, tablecloths and other items where they may drop their stamens. If you have never learned the trick of dealing with this yellow menace, you are about to learn something that will have you praising my name when you next save your favorite cloth item.  Take a bunch of sticky tape and pat the yellow powdery stuff with the sticky side of the tape.  It will adhere to it and hey presto the cloth item no longer has anything yellow staining it. Whatever you do – don’t put water anywhere near it. Simple as that.  It’s like a magic trick that you will never forget once you have tried it.  Enjoy those lilies, and don’t forget to make sure you have some sticky tape in the house when you do.

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Where will you go when you head out into the world again?  If you are one of my kiwi friends, I’m not sure I want to know. You guys can go anywhere in your country.  And stay overnight. And go to concerts, and restaurants, and cafes and you don’t have to wear masks.  Am I envious? Of course!  And also delighted for you all. Enjoy New Zealand those lucky enough to be there.  For the rest of us, we will carry on enjoying our carefully planned travels.  Lockdown it would seem, is slightly easing. Stay safe.

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 13 July

My twelve year old Great Nephew lives in the States and I have asked him to give us all some insights to what the past months have been like for him living with this pandemic.  I think you’ll agree he has a way with words and I certainly have learned a few things!  I hope you do too!

Love

Kathy x

A young voice from America…

My name is Alex Ighemat and I am the author’s great nephew. This Covid pandemic was a very unprecedented time and this is a little bit about what my family did during the quarantine. I am a twelve-year-old boy living in Pennsylvania, USA. My family was lucky during this pandemic because we stayed safe during the period. My dad could work from home, my brother and I could learn online, and my mom’s business was closed so she stayed home as well. Finally, after 105 days of quarantine in Pennsylvania, we went green on June 26^th. This was the last stage in Pennsylvania’s reopening plan. This allowed non-essential businesses to open at reduced capacity and restaurants to open indoor seating.

I had to finish my sixth-grade year online because of the quarantine and I can tell you, it’s not the same as being  in the classroom. We definitely didn’t learn as much as we would have if we had been taught by a teacher right in front of the class. All hands-on experiences in class such as science experiments were cancelled. We were also supposed to study a stream nearby our school but that was cancelled as well. It was definitely a different experience than the normal year would have been if we were in school.

My family and I have been staying extremely careful, doing the best we can to keep the house clean, not to go out without a mask, clean the handles of doors and other high-touch areas, and even bleaching the grocery bags so as not to get the coronavirus. We wouldn’t go out unless it was completely necessary. We washed our hands until they shined and didn’t trust restaurants for a while. We definitely did a lot to stay safe from COVID 19.

I have started a comic strip about fruit during this pandemic and hope to get it in a newspaper someday. It’s a great feeling for me to make people laugh, so I hope this will help me achieve that.

Here is one of my strips:

This Summer is also lacking something that other Summers have and that is gatherings. We can’t gather at pools, have picnics, take walks, and do many other things unless it’s with close family. Of course, we’ve still found ways to have fun like running through the hose and playing basketball. I started a garden this year and have had somewhat of a harvest of green beans and sweet peppers. Hopefully I’ll get more vegetables soon. That’s what my family are doing to have fun this Summer.

We’ve just started gathering again with people but sadly, it seems that some parts of the US are going to have to go into isolation again in the near future. Hopefully people will make good choices and another lockdown will be averted. We must keep optimistic and hope for the best as only time will tell what happens next.

Alex Ighemat

Feest Isolation Days – 11 July

Some days you need to break out of the routines you’ve established and head out into the world. We did precisely that yesterday. A friend called round for coffee and we managed to find that sweet spot between the rain and the cool breeze to sit in the garden and chat and for a few moments – we even needed our sunglasses!

After he left and we finished a late lunch I suggested we went for a drive.  Off we went to Wales. The first time since March.  We went to Tintern Abby and enjoyed the ancient ruin all over again. It opened in May 1131.  There is something about seeing that sort of place that does wonders for the soul.

There were only a few cars there on a day that in normal times would have meant we couldn’t find a place to park. After a very short walk the rain returned and we drove into the forest which we’d walked in many times before. Today as it poured, we sat in the car and drank our cups of coffee from our flask and dunked our digestive biscuits into the milky warmth and felt grand. 

For the first time in weeks we had a store prepared meal, so cooking was a pop in the oven and an easy to put together salad.  Some days it’s good not to have to cook. Or do the washing up.

 We then binged on the last three episodes of the third series of a Bosch we’ve been watching. Huddling under our blankets we thought it was time to turn the heat back on as it got so cold again. Nevertheless as we watched the rainfall from inside our cosy warm house we decided it had been a delightful day. Sometimes life has to happen unannounced and unplanned. Sometimes you just need a break from routine and a step or two out in the world and life is okay again.

Although things are beginning to open up, many of us, especially we older folks are not obliging.  We will wait and see. It seems a safer bet.  Speaking of betting, when we were in Wales we passed the Chepstow racecourse. We watched a few horses on the track running around in the rain with no spectators in the empty stands. Trainers and jockeys were wandering around as were a few groundsmen but no other people.  There was one man on the outside of the fence looking into the track. He was up a ladder in the rain wearing his green mac and holding a huge umbrella trying to keep the Welsh misty rain away from his view.  He must have placed a whack of money on one of those horses! Either that or he, too, was having one of those days when you coast and let it happen. But on second thoughts, who carries ladders with them…

Hope you have a few of these sorts of moments yourself in the next few days.  We are heading to Exeter to see the kids one day this weekend.  See you again on Monday.

Have a brilliant and safe weekend. 

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 9 July

Whew! What a lot of choices for a Wednesday evening. The weather was wet and cold but the opportunities on Zoom were varied and all experiences were from the warm and cosy comfort of our lovely home.  We couldn’t have our nibbles and drinks with friends in the soaked garden, but there was song and exercise and plenty more on offer.

Zoom singing is great. It only took me a few goes to realise that I can be the star of the show!  I can sing along with the Soprano soloists! No one hears me sing (except for the husband and occasionally the neighbours) and its fun. Singing along with a soloist is as good a way as any to learn how to improve your singing I reckon and there is no danger of anyone spotting the wrong notes I hit as this is all done while muted and wearing headphones. Verdi’s Requiem is a stretch at the best of times but it gets the blood pumping.  A masterpiece of choral music. Sadly, I had to leave the choir for an hour to do my regular Wednesday evening Zoom Pilates.  This one on one with my lovely Simone from Auckland is a feature of my week that I won’t let go anytime soon.  After three bike rides in a row my back was feeling a bit sore, and within an hour I felt better.  Better enough to scoot back up the stairs to rejoin the sing through of the Verdi.  Thankfully, someone else was lost and asked what movement we were on, and what page!  I was back in full (ish) voice.

The other Zoom options were a Novel writing evening with a published novelist and a Playwriting Course normally held at the Bristol Old Vic – both of which I would have loved to do but music and Pilates won the day. Life’s always about prioritising even in lockdown.  Maybe especially in lockdown. 

Which shop am I willing to enter, am I happy to go away and stay somewhere else? What about restaurants?  Hmmm.  These decisions are beginning to be upon us.  The answer to the shops is easy.  Not many. A health food shop that sells flowers was safe, I’ll do that again. Staying away? Nope!  Restaurants?  Nope! These are a long way off yet.  Yesterday the Chancellor unveiled his money saving plans for people who head to eateries like Wagamama.  He surprised customers at a Waga in London by serving them.  Where’s your mask RIshi?  No mask.  Customers didn’t seem very far apart and none of them wore masks either.  Not a good advert for dining out in my book.

With great reluctance but with as much caution as I can muster, I plan to visit a hairdressers shop next week.  I’m sure I’ll be fine, but the thought of even worrying about this is weird.  It’s just a haircut! My long hair is thick and heavy and needs attention.  I know I can’t hold my breath the entire time, so a mask it will be.  And no talking.  Now that will be a challenge! 

I’ll let you know how it goes.

What are you willing to begin to do again?  Knowing what you will and won’t do as we ease into the new normal is useful.  It’s all about setting your priorities. 

Don’t forget your masks! Unless of course you’re in New Zealand.  To you fortunate folks, don’t forget to book your tickets for the next Symphony Concert.  I can’t wait until that can be on the top of my to do list! I wouldn’t mind not singing along one little bit.  Enjoy – you lucky people!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 9 July

I haven’t done much with words lately. Except of course for playing Words with Friends.  And another word game that I play on my own, Word Avalanche oh yes and the word game Terry and I play together – 3D Magic Words. We have played this for years now and it keeps our brains active and we only ever play it together.  We have played a gazillion games.   I also play Letter Pad and Word Solitaire.  I’m a woman who likes words. Words are powerful building blocks. They form the basis for a society to hold discussions and enables society to function in a democratic and inclusive way.  They express our feelings and our likes and dislikes. Words are how we communicate to each other and now that we can’t be together they are even more powerful. The non-verbal clues are not there to help us. We only have our words.

A newspaper editor at the New York Times employed a Republican to write an Op Ed. There was such uproar the editor had to resign! Resign?  What happened to open discourse?  

The same newspaper has stopped publishing political cartoons in its Global editions after a cartoon was offensive to some.  Something has gone wrong, in my view.

I’ve been troubled lately by the notion that a writer can’t write a character that is anything other than themselves. In novels these days, authors apparently have to be gay, or transsexual or black in order to write a character that is any or all of those things.  What has happened to the imagined world, true freedom of speech and the possibility of exploring other through a different lens?

 As a white middle class woman, I sometimes feel marginalised these days. There are often writing support schemes for people of colour or people who are poor, or identify as a member of a group that is other…whatever other that is. There is an ever expanding band wagon for marginalised people and it isn’t welcoming to anyone “other”. Dialogue and discussion seem to have flown out the window.

We were having dinner with friends (when that was still possible) and they had a guest visiting from Florida who joined us.   I was “warned” that the woman was a Trump voter.  Warned is the word. It made me cautious.  I was curious. The woman, who I ended up sitting across from at the table, was an intelligent professional lady married to a man of colour. Or should I say, from the BAME community? Or Non white?  Indian? I can’t even get that right anymore.  Anyway, I really was curious. Why did she think Trump was the man for her?  When my friend (being provocative I do believe!) asked her why she voted for Trump I was hoping for a thoughtful and interesting discussion. That didn’t happen. Her initial answer was that Trump  brought jobs and under his tenure employment had increased.  When I gently suggested – remember I was warned – that perhaps that might have had something to do with the previous administration, what else was there that hooked her, she shut down.  She  refused to speak. “Whatever I say you won’t accept it so there is no point in having a conversation.”   No matter what I said she refused to talk.  There was no discussion.  Facts were not welcome, nor was my curiosity.  No matter how carefully I tried to speak to her, she became quite hot under the collar. Finally, I withdrew from the conversation.  Whew.  That went well.  There was no discussion. 

The atrocities of the past should not be air brushed out of history.  They happened.  They were awful.  Nothing excuses the dreadfulness of what has gone before.  Yet there still needs to be discussion. The dangers of a right wing world are clear to see. Ask the Hong Kong people what they think about the freedoms inherent in words. 

These thoughts have been swirling around my pretty little head lately as I try to understand how we got to where we are.  Some of us who consider ourselves liberal, democratic and open are being challenged at every turn.  And silenced. This recent article in Harpers signed by 150 people including J.K. Rowling voices these concerns well.

https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/

Words are what bring us together and pull us apart.  In our words we can have debates and examine the past, the present, and the future. We won’t always agree.  When we are silenced by whatever group, we are headed in a dangerous direction.  Oh yes and there’s a virus around.

A little levity to help….Michael Macintyre at the Dentist…when words are changed by anaesthetic…

Enjoy!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –  8 July

There are just some days that you feel miserable. Not deep down miserable just fed up and oh no not another grey sky and a weather report to thwart our plans for socialising with nibbles and drinks in the garden tomorrow! When the lousy weather keeps at it and the cancellations keep coming, it’s probably healthy to feel a bit miserable. Wednesday is house cleaning day and that ALWAYS makes me feel grumpy so I decided I’d kill two birds with one stone and feel miserable while I cleaned today.  Who knows tomorrow might be a better day.  At least the house will be all bright and shiny and smell of polish!

Actually I feel better now that I’ve made the house hum and it’s not pouring at the moment so I can go outside before it does and enjoy the garden for a bit.  The frolicking puppy next door and the little gold crest darting in and out remind me that there is no need to feel anything but positive.  Life is playing tricks on us but it still goes on and we still have lives to lead.  Phew.  Glad that’s passed.  And that’s the thing.  These funny strange times give us funny strange feelings sometimes.  I’m not sure we’d be human if at some point we didn’t get a teeny weeny little bit annoyed! No point in yelling at the virus or the weather though, or anything or anybody really.  Deep breaths and find a good book to read. Or some gorgeous music to listen to or something else that might inspire you back to feeling just fine. Or go for a bike ride. You never know what you might see. This is always on my route and it makes me smile.  The weather has meant I’ve never seen anyone splashing in it but that needs a big…yet.

There were three pubs that closed already following the big opening on Saturday.  They all had served customers who informed them they had tested positive two days after being in the pub.  One bright spark lady landlord in Burnham on Sea decided she’d phone all of her customers.  Ninety people were on her list and they were all informed by her personally of the situation. Now that is what I call service.  She said she felt it was her duty and wanted to make sure that her customers were all told as quickly as possible.  Apparently they don’t all have to isolate, or get tested but that seems strange to me.  Why not?  I sometimes don’t understand the latest thinking on this.

Meantime in poor old Melbourne, Oz, the entire city is firmly locked down once more after 191 people tested positive.  They authorities are concerned and have said that the lock down will carry on for six weeks. 

It will be ages before this thing goes away!  Those baby steps we take go backward as well as forward it seems.

Fish for dinner tonight…the fisherman of the household is out catching fish.  Some things thankfully do change. He’s had a spell of not catching so will be in a much better mood tonight.  Four trout returned with him from the Lake!

The trout don’t care that there is a virus around. They won’t even notice when it’s gone.  Lucky old trout.

Stay safe.

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 7 July

After the gales and rain and shockingly cold weather for the past while, the sun has finally appeared this afternoon.  What a welcome and wondrous sight it is too.  For the first time in days, I’ve been outside on my bike rather than on the stationary one sitting in the garden room.  Much more fun being out in the world a bit!  Biking means you see people doing all sorts, and hear snippets of conversations that are intriguing and tell stories in a sentence.  There was a man on one of the greens who had strung a sort of ribbon like length of material between two trees and was practicing his tight rope skills.  I didn’t hang around for long but he seemed fairly confident and competent.  A little further on, a little boy wearing his school uniform, walking hand and hand with his mother said, “Do you remember Mummy before the bad virus came and we used to go to Ben’s house to play after school?” That was a bit of a heart breaker.

The city is a mixed bag of lots of people queuing at food shops, and much less traffic than normal. There are also the usual idiots about who make you take extra care when biking in traffic.  I had stopped and was standing next to my bike waiting to cross the road at a blind spot and a guy nearly hit me.  He was way too far over nearly on the verge. He yelled out the window, “that wasn’t very clever was it”? I retorted, “no it wasn’t terribly clever of you”! He clearly wasn’t good at accepting a driving mistake.  Just as well I was stood far enough away from the road not to be mowed down.

The rich tapestry of life.  Sometimes we forget that there is a pandemic around – but not for long.  A friend came for a cuppa and cake in the garden this morning and it was bliss to see her. We talked about the tiny steps we are all taking to move back into the world.  Carefully.  We are in a book group together and will try and have our next group in the garden socially distancing of course.  Zoom is okay in a pinch but we all so prefer seeing each other in person.  Fingers crossed that the weather turns back toward summer at the end of the month.

Boris Johnson has said people “overwhelmingly” followed the coronavirus rules during the easing of the lockdown in England over the weekend. When he was asked if social distancing mixes with alcohol, he said,  “I think they can mix if people are sensible. Actually my evidence I’ve seen is yes there have been some places where people have been imprudent and you can see there’s been some people who have been getting it wrong. But actually, overwhelmingly, over the weekend I think the people of this country did the right thing. If we can keep it up, if we can keep going in the way we are, maintain discipline, enjoy ourselves but enjoy ourselves safely, then we will continue to drive down this virus and we will be able to get back to life as close to normal as possible as fast as possible.”

We live in hope. The World Health Organisation thinks we will have another spike because we aren’t following the rules.  We shall see.

Life is so often about perspective isn’t it?  I have a little gem of a short Oscar winning video to remind you of just that.  Watch it to the end. It’s a goody.

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 6 July

The 4^th of July dawned grey and dreary.  It was the first day of easing lockdown and we decided to go out for brunch.  We went to a new place for us.  Under the magnificent beech tree at the bottom of the garden!  Just as we began to eat, the rain arrived.  Terry got out our old patio umbrella which has broken, and placed it in a vice so it could stand tall above us and keep off the light misty shower.  It worked!  The umbrella kept us dry and we enjoyed a new spot for brunch.  It wasn’t “out” out, but it was different and they say a change is as good as a rest! We were pleased we spent our first day of easing time “out” under the tree in the gentle rain, because from about noon the heavens opened and didn’t stop for the rest of the day.  Soggy Britain! 

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Unlocking has its benefits but there are still some areas of the economy that cannot unlock.  I ran into a neighbour today who has a great idea for a concert in an empty club with tickets sold on something like Zoom. She’s been told it goes against the rules!  Argggg! Performers need some unlocking support. Performers and the arts are in total disarray and there seems to be little understanding or help for them from any quarter.  We need our cultural events and performances. How will this happen?

This virus seems to be economically dreadful for the young, and physically dreadful for the old.  We oldies have the better deal I think.  Our younger friends and families are still struggling with so much. There remain millions of people who can’t work anymore no matter what profession they are in.  Law courts are nearly silent with huge backlogs, the hospitality industry is making redundancies daily, the aerospace industry is cutting jobs; no sector seems to be safe.  Except perhaps for key workers in caring professions or delivery people.

Today we had a socially distanced tea and cake time with daughter Naomi and family. Wonderful to see them all.   This seemed easier than the first time we did it with the other kids because we knew what we were in for.  We nearly froze as we sat huddled under sweaters, coats and blankets in the wind at the bottom of the garden.  But hey!  We saw each other and chatted and all agreed this pandemic isn’t anywhere near over yet.  We still maintain more than the rules, as all of the members of our family are.  No restaurants, no pub visits, no holidays or hotel nights away yet for the Feest clan.  We will all watch and wait a bit and see what happens. 

Our next door neighbours have a new puppy which is very sweet and I can watch it frolic in their garden from my study window. Adorable. For some reason it reminded me of Pavlov’s Dog…and Eddie Izzard and Pavlov’s Cat.  Enjoy!

With love

Kathy x

Stop Press

I wrote my blog before I went to bed last night and this morning woke to amazing news!  

The government has provided 1.57 BILLION dollars for Arts and Culture.  Oliver Dowden the Culture Minister says the package is all “new money” which intends to support  “crown jewel” venues like the Royal Albert Hall and the National Galleries but also will help local groups  across the UK.  The scheme includes grants and loans and those bodies applying will have to provide evidence as to how they will contribute to wider economic growth

This can only be good news for the beleaguered arts and cultural institutions large and small in this country. Mr. Dowden has done an excellent job that sees funding set at the higher end than was expected by some working in our arts institutions.

It wasn’t a dream!  The Arts have finally been included in recovery plans.  Hurrah!    Well done minister.  

Feest Isolation Days –3 July

After my walk in the woods earlier in the week, I  keep thinking about how much better I feel after being among the tall and luscious trees. New Zealand kauri trees have always brought a very special mood to the forests. I can feel a kauri tree before I see it.  The quiet ancient presence is pervasive.  The British trees exert a wonderful feeling too, but like different genres of music, some is excellent cool jazz and other trees are more like wonderful violin concertos.  But all trees seem to have a voice. According to the ecologist Suzanne Simard, not only do trees speak but they do so over long distances. Her work of over thirty years is like a song itself.  An uplifting few moments to be found on her much viewed Ted talk.

Sometimes people talk too much and say stupid things.  You wish you could just silence them.  One of those people who says stupid things most of the time is the current President. After weeks of saying wearing facemasks during the pandemic wasn’t something he endorsed, he finally did a big U turn.  Now he says, face masks are okay. But he reiterated that he did not think making face-coverings mandatory across the US was needed, because there are “many places in the country where people stay very long distance If people feel good about it they should do it.”

He says when he wears a mask it makes him look like the Lone Ranger.  He didn’t seem to notice that the Lone Ranger didn’t cover his mouth and nose but his eyes.  You can just see Trump’s followers wearing black eye patches instead of the appropriate gear, if they bother at all.

The virus, if it could speak just cheered! Not so the 50,000 plus people in the States who were tested positive with the disease yesterday.

Then there is true leadership.  Governor Cuomo of New York, noticing that too many people were not wearing their face coverings properly showed people how it’s done. “Don’t wear a chin guard wear a face mask,” He says. It’s the law.  He demonstrates the proper use of a facemask including making a self deprecating remark about his own nose and it sure made me smile.  What a guy!

 You are all very special.  Look after yourself!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 2 July

It’s the small steps that you take that get you back into the world. Some days there are breakthroughs. Without especially planning it but letting it flow, I went for a walk and for the first time in over three months, I went into a shop.  I always said the first thing I would buy was going to be flowers.  And there they were. The Better Foods health food shop on Whiteladies Road, not far from our house keep flowers on the sidewalk.  Or pavement. Sometimes I can’t remember – American or British which is it sidewalk or pavement?  There were gorgeous, glorious lilies outside the door of the shop and I couldn’t resist.  They were forty per cent off the original price and I took the plunge. I picked up the lilies and went into the shop to pay for them. There were arrows on the floor telling me which direction I should walk and there was no one else in the shop.  The Perspex between the man at the till and me was comprehensive.  I hadn’t paid for anything out in the world for such a long time I had to stop and think how contactless payments worked.  Did I need my PIN number?  Oh dear what’s my PIN number?  No I didn’t need it. Contactless. The clue is in the word. You don’t have to touch the machine with your card to pay.  The lilies were only ten pounds. I told the nice young man behind the counter that it was the first shop I’d been in since March and he said he was delighted that I found such pretty flowers. He told me they looked like they were cut especially for me.  It was a strange and wonderful experience. Tiny steps. 

The rate of infection in Bristol is so minimal we must begin to ease our lockdown.  There have only been10 cases in the past week.  These tiny steps are continuing. We are going to have dinner with friends in their house in the next few weeks. Like us, they have been scrupulous.  We will socially distance and be cautious. But we will soon be together. In a home. With great friends.

After a socially distanced walk with a friend in Ashton Court, a lovely wooded area of Bristol, we went to the outside café which was serving drinks and small items of wrapped food. I bought a cup of tea.  There were marks on the ground telling customers where we should stand, hand sanitizer before we went to the window to order and collect, and a large Perspex window between the woman who made my tea and me.  Again, contactless payment meant we never touched.  Drinking the tea sitting on the grass as my friend and I chatted away felt so utterly and completely normal.  A woman  passed us by with a much older woman and the younger woman called out “Mother! Avoid these people, go further away.”  Her mother hadn’t got the idea of socially distancing, but she was in good hands. Her daughter sorted her out. 

These easing moments are all so special. They make it seem as though  life is slowly beginning to return to something we recognise and remember. Let’s hope there are many more moments like this.  We aren’t there yet, but we are getting somewhere. 

Things will open up – but until then… Be safe, socially distance, wash your hands, and enjoy!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –1 July

Pointless. That’s the game show on the BBC at the time we used to watch the Downing Street press briefings. Now why does that make me snicker?

Leicester is being locked down again. Shops that were intending to open on Saturday will remain closed. A hairdressers with five weeks of bookings will have to stay shut.  The city is responsible for ten per cent of the current cases in England.  The virus spike there is apparently being carried by children as well as adults so the schools are closed to all but key workers. 

Once more there are suggestions from some quarters that the government took too long to respond.  Boris and his boys must have been polishing up their Whack a Mole hammers.  When Boris told us he was easing lockdown he said we were moving into whack a mole…hit the virus wherever it appeared.  In the commons, the Shadow Health Secretary said “those areas that do see flare-ups will need greater speed in the response, otherwise we risk no moles getting whacked.”  Doesn’t that analogy fill you with confidence?

The weather continues to pretend it’s winter outside and we pull on sweaters and turn the heat back on as the wind blows and the rain lashes down intermittently. The dark skies are not fun.  I can’t imagine how we are going to manage living with this virus in the winter. Will we not have anyone in the house for months to come?  It’s hard to imagine so we won’t do any worrying about that now. The sun will come out again and we have a good chance of a lot more summer to come before we have to think about that.

Terry is meant to be fishing but the weather doesn’t seem to be obliging so it looks like we will have to make do with the fish cakes that are in the freezer which are the leftovers from last week’s catch.

I need something witty and timely today to help me make fun of the craziness in the world…Step up step up Randy Rainbow!  Enjoy….

🎶Don't spread droplets all over the place, just cover your freakin' face🎶 #CoverYourFreakinFace #WearAMask 😷🙄 pic.twitter.com/KsdLbrkRkj

— Randy Rainbow (@RandyRainbow) June 29, 2020

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –30 June

The weather has been blowing a gale!  Maybe it will blow the virus away and out of the world!  Wishing sadly won’t make that so, instead we find the joy and delight in the moments where we can. 

My eighty eight year old neighbour receives a socially distanced doorstep visit from me each week along with a little posy and something nice to eat. This week when she came to the door she was most apologetic but very excited and said she was  sorry but she couldn’t stop because she was in the middle of a zoom call!  This woman didn’t own a mobile phone or any other device a few weeks ago. Later she phoned me and said a friend had set her up with a tablet and showed her how to zoom.  She now has an email address and is learning the ins and outs of her new found technology.  Brilliant!  Her enthusiasm and excitement were like that of a little girl at Christmas. A sheer delight. She made my day.

Something that didn’t make my day was a drip drip drip in the main spare bedroom.  I’d left the window open as it had been so hot and when the arctic air arrived along with the rain I went in to close the window.  The drip is from an old leak in the roof above the bed that we’ve had repaired quite frequently.  The last time was only last year and involved scaffolding.  The repair men will be back soon again it would seem!  Just as well our expected visitors couldn’t come this weekend.  Silver linings and all of that.

My dear husband was able to put a smile on my face as well this weekend.  He called me downstairs and when I arrived there was my shiny new bike with its new kickstand!  I had been moaning about the bike not having one; and without saying anything he ordered it, and put it on my bike.  A star!  Now my bike experience will be much easier when I want to park up – as soon as the rain and wind stop I will get to try it out. I’m hoping for sooner rather than later.  The exercise bike indoors is not as much fun that’s for sure.

These helpful little moments do help to combat the malaise that sometimes sets in during these lock down times. I’m sure you have them too. Both the helpful little moments and the malaise.  Here’s hoping the first outdoes the second for you this week! 

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –29 June

The kids are coming next weekend, and of course that’s a day when there is a stay and sing planned, and a Zoom dinner party! Why does everything always come in threes?

It’s been a crazy time with crowds continuing to flock to beaches, and Liverpool fans thrilled with their teams win as the Champions of the Football League celebrating and throwing caution to the wind romping all over the streets of Liverpool.

It’s as though none of this has happened and many people still seem to think it’s all over!  But it just isn’t.  We are managing to find our way through it all as many of our friends are as well. I suspect that some people can’t stand being cooped up anymore and without any true leadership they are rebelling.  There are parties in London and in Bristol and the police seem to be unable to stop many of them from happening.  Boris is not giving a lead. Instead, he is allowing deceit and complicity in his Cabinet.  When he doesn’t want to talk about something, like the widely reported instance of Robert Jenrick abusing his office, he simply says, “the matter is closed”.  Why aren’t the Daily Briefings at least weekly?  People seem to think the government has given up so why shouldn’t they?  The Dominic Cummings effect continues to be wide and deep.

Who knows what will happen after the 4^th of July when things really do begin to unlock.  From the 6^th of July, travel around Europe is beginning again.

Not for this household!  We haven’t even ventured to a shop so we certainly aren’t heading into the world beyond these shores. We will wait another three weeks after the unlocking proper and see what happens to the infection rate before we make any further decisions on what we can and can’t do.  I suspect our little steps will continue for a time.  I could do with a haircut though!  We shall see when that will occur…

Thankfully the wind and rain arrived over the weekend which paused the movement of so many people.

The numbers of infection worldwide have reached ten million with half a million deaths so far.  Across the pond, America is in a mess. The cases are mounting and the response is not what it needs to be in many places.  Arizona and Florida have finally begun to stop the opening up of their States, but in a half-hearted kind of way.  The projection of people carrying the disease in the States is high.  We watch in sadness as the Arizona hospitals become filled to capacity and no real leadership emerges.

In other American news, in New York, Milton Glaser, the man who came up with the iconic “I love New York” logo, died at the age of ninety one. In 1977 he designed the artwork on an envelope while in the back of a New York taxi. His remit was to promote tourism in the city.  When Milton was a young boy, an older cousin drew a bird on the side of a paper bag to amuse him, He says of the experience, “Suddenly, I almost fainted with the realization that you could create life with a pencil. And at that moment, I decided that’s how I was going to spend my life.”

Not a bad decision!  If you want to know more about this wonderful man’s work, you can read his very uplifting obituary in the New York Times here.

Thank you and well done that man. Rest in peace.

Stay safe!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –26 June

Okay! Enough is enough. Time for thinking about something other than THAT virus! A friend dropped by for coffee and brought her own drink…okay I can see why it’s hard not to let THAT intrude into positively everything we do, so how can we tame it a little?

I guess taming it means quieting our over anxious minds and returning to basics. At one hundred and four days maybe now would be a good time to stop and reflect once more about all this.  When I say all this I guess I mean life in a pandemic.  Picked an easy topic for myself today didn’t I?

Over the years I have had coaching, counselling, mentoring, friendships (that fulfilled  all those roles) and a lot of love.  What I’ve learned is that identifying what is troubling you is the first step in sorting out how you feel. And life is all about how we feel don’t you know.  And in order to find out what is troubling you, or even what is making you feel great –  it’s a really good idea to remind yourself what you consider to be your core values.  We all have plenty of time at the moment and reminding ourselves of what we truly value in life is never a bad thing to refresh.

So here goes.  No I’m not going to share mine with you, but I am going to offer you the opportunity to think about what your core values are.  This is not a bad way to spend a sweltering afternoon! And it might help you reboot your feelings about where you are at the moment.  Certainly helped me!

Here is  the link: https://www.cmu.edu/career/documents/my-career-path-activities/values-exercise.pdf

Sophie Hannah who’s a gazillion selling author and runs a great coaching course for writers gave me this idea. She’s got more ideas and books here…https://sophiehannah.com/about-sophie-2/

Now that we’ve got that all sorted out it must be time for some fun! The country does seem to be going mad with the heat and the beaches are overwhelmed in Brighton and Bournemouth.  Half a million people have descended on Dorset.  Leadership required! Please stay away from the crowds…have a go at this it might fill a few minutes.

Geography quiz questions and answers to follow (thanks to the Radio Times who have plenty more of this sort of thing if it’s of interest!)

Questions

1. What is the largest landlocked country in the world by size?
2. Which US state was Donald Trump born in?
3. If you completed the Three Peaks challenge, which three UK mountains would you have climbed?
4. Which UK city is situated further west – Bristol or Edinburgh?
5. How many countries are there in the region of Europe? (Recognised by the United Nations)
6. What is the capital of Finland?
7. What is the currency of Vietnam?
8. What language is spoken in Brazil?
9. What do the French call the English Channel?
10. How many permanent members are there on the UN security council?

For the answers, please click here!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –25 June

The hottest day of the year so far! It was a glorious day and we are promised lovely weather for a few more days.  It does help.  Sounds of children paddling in their pools in their back gardens has returned.  Summer!  Holidays will be mostly in the UK this year, staycations have become the new normal.  Apparently, all Devon Air B and B’s are already booked!  A combination of people hanging onto their bookings in hope, and speedy folks getting the first available dates as soon as the easing of lockdown was announced. Let’s just hope when the time comes, the weather is still with us.

We will not be heading out just yet.  The plan is to wait and see what happens after the 4^th of July when the big easing occurs.  We hope it doesn’t make us uneasy!

The daily briefings have now stopped so we have to search a little bit more for the information that is coming out of Downing Street.  Professor Chris Whitty has a twitter feed and he shares papers and other documents with his followers there.  A man that can be trusted who will be followed!

This week is the fourth “anniversary” of the Brexit referendum. Britain has left the EU but there is still no answer to the question of will we have a hard Brexit or will there be a deal. The government has until the end of the year to finalise the plans with our former EU partners.  Perhaps it is time to get a move on.  While this household was firmly in the “remain in the EU” camp, now that we have left it would be good if the government organised a decent deal.  We wait and see.

It’s a bit like waiting for the Coronavirus vaccine.  The disease is still here, but when will the solution arrive?  There does seem to be some good news from the UK on that front!  Around the world, there are 120 different vaccine trials going on as I write.  In Britain there are two groups already at Stage Two of clinical trials.  The Oxford group has been working closely with Astra Zeneca and if their vaccine is successful, Alok Sharma the Business secretary said earlier this week that  thirty million doses will be available for use in the UK by the end of September. Matt Hancock explained this earlier in the  month and it seems that the plans for manufacture are still on track…if it works. The vaccine has a name… ZD1222 Vaccine. The Oxford team have said they will know in six weeks whether it will be effective.

The Imperial College vaccine is based on the genetic material of the disease itself.  Clinical trials started on this today and if successful, the Imperial team will move to further trials by October. 

All I want for Christmas this year is a Coronavirus Vaccine!  Let’s hope the scientists who are working on this can act like Santa and deliver us all that much needed present by then! I have no idea how they do what they do but am SO glad they are doing it!

I don’t understand this one either…if you do please let me know!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –24 June

“They think it’s all over…well it is now!”  For some that famous football sentiment will be ringing loud and clear.  But the fact is, it ISN’T all over even though the new rules make it seem like it kind of is. 

There was a summer solstice party in Bristol and the Police apologised the next day for not stopping it before it was in full swing. Hundreds of people gathered as loud music blared into the night, revellers peed on peoples lawns and doorsteps.  And this was BEFORE the unlocking measures announced yesterday.  Kids will be kids I suppose, but doesn’t that mean the adults have to look after them? When the adults act like kids it does make it tricky.  The Police have a lot to answer for there, instead of apologising, perhaps it would have been better to uphold the law.

And now the laws have changed. Again. Or they will do from the 4^th of July. Or are they rules? Or suggestions? Or measures?  Such clarity! Other news from the government yesterday, there will be no more Press Briefings!  It must be all over…

The death rate and the infection rate both seem to imply that the worst is indeed over. Why do my fingers hover over the keys that type…for now?  This isn’t over. It is a new phase.  When does risk outweigh benefits?  And when will we be happy to oblige these new measures?  Before we make pronouncements on our plans, it’s useful to set the new rules out.

These “measures” will all begin from the 4^th of July. Fitting that in one corner of the world (America!) the 4^th is called Independence Day! The wittiest thing my first husband ever said to me when I woke one 4^th of July and suggested we go for a picnic, was “lie back down woman, you’ve been captured by the enemy!” These days the biggest enemy is a virus called corona and it’s still here.  

Okay are you ready for new easing measures? It’s a wild ride!

1) Pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will open again! – if Covid secure (see below).

2) People can visit each other one family at a time in each other’s homes but maintain social distancing but you can stay overnight! (how does that work?)

3) Hotels, holiday apartments, campsites and caravan parks open but shared facilities must be cleaned properly. (they weren’t before?)

4) Theatres and music halls can open but not allowed to hold live performances ( !)

5) Libraries, community centres, bingo halls, cinemas and museums, galleries, theme parks, skating rinks (do they know its June??) may open.

6) Zoos,safari parks wildlife centres, model villages, aquariums will all open

7) Places of worship can open but no singing. Weddings with up to thirty guests are now possible (don’t sing!)

All of the above must have in place Covid Secure measures. If you want to know more…here’s a good place to start!

Swimming pools and Gyms remain in the list of establishments that cannot open along with nightclubs and casinos.  But the government is working on it!

Social distancing is still important.  This now means stay one meter plus apart. What they mean is two metres is recommended but where that is not possible one metre with mitigation should become the norm.  Mitigation includes things like wearing face masks, using Perspex shields, sitting side by side, and not singing!

I sort of had a meltdown after all of these announcements. I was upset because the reality is we aren’t going to manage to do many of these things!  Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance both stressed that the plans were not risk free.  Could we just have the kids stay over for a normal visit?  No.  We can’t.  Not yet.

The economy needs to keep going, and besides all of the openings announced, people were asked to continue to work from home where they can. This is all tricky business. It will be interesting to see how many people return to the places they can now visit.

The headline news this morning is that ministers were warned by health leaders urgent action is needed to prevent further loss of life. The Presidents of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons, GPs, Nursing, and Physicians all signed a letter published in the BMJ seeking a cross party examination of how to move forward with the preparations for a second wave of virus.  They think it’s coming and who knows it might even be at a cinema near you now!

We won’t be going to any restaurants, pubs, hotels or shops just yet.  We won’t be taking public transportation. Seeing the animals in the zoo will have to wait. 

In short, we will be doing more or less what we have been since the beginning of lockdown. Our toe in the water (that we can’t yet swim in) will be to see friends in the garden for a socially distanced meal together. If the weather holds. Other than that, we don’t have any plans to make use of these many new freedoms. If we were younger and not financially secure, we would probably take a different view. But we are where we are. 

We will have an “in house” review in three to four weeks after all these measures are in place and see how the virus is doing.  It isn’t all over…no matter how much we wish it was! Good luck!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –23 June

People who have been shielding are beginning to be able to move out of their houses and cautiously back into the world.  Yesterday’s announcement is the first in what promises to be a big week.  Later today, the government will let us know the plans for the next stage of unlock. The Monday death figures are the lowest since lockdown began with “only” fifteen deaths from Coronavirus.  These figures, together with the number of new cases below one thousand after nearly 140,000, tests are all moving in the right direction.  Maybe we could begin to think about the first things we might do out in the world?  Hand washing, socially distancing, mask wearing, non touching of surfaces will obviously still apply. 

I suspect that the first shop I will go into will be to buy cut flowers for the house.  While Reg the Veg have very kindly supplied us weekly with a posy chosen by them, and our lovely neighbour has popped roses and even lilies round a few times, I want to choose my own bouquets.  We always have fresh flowers in the hall and the drawing room.  They have become a feature of our lives and our home.  Some women buy shoes, or handbags, I buy flowers!

If you have missed the news from America, Trump’s first rally in Oklahoma was not a success.  He was expecting over a million people to attend, thanks to teenagers on tiktok apparently who pre booked tickets.  They built up his expectations, but there was always going to be plenty of room for his supporters.  But they didn’t come.  The Fire Department in Tulsa said there were 6200 people at the event that could seat 19,000.  I’ve never seen the man look so dejected.  Maybe he’ll throw in the towel?

The walk of shame. pic.twitter.com/u0GRFnnKeY

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 21, 2020

Here, the day has been windy and wild and the promised heat wave doesn’t begin until tomorrow.  When it arrives though it is supposed to be very very warm. Up to something like thirty degrees!  Whew.  Too hot to do much at all.  Let’s hope that the beaches don’t fill up with people who aren’t socially distancing as happened during the last heat wave during the pandemic in May. I’m not sure what the ramifications were from that, but I suspect the scientists do!

Hard to imagine everyone being sensible in that sort of heat though.  We’ve passed the longest day so a bit of summer warmth is welcome but so is a good bit of common sense. The weather will no doubt change at the weekend in time for the outside garden visits to and from the kids.  I’d put money on it.

There’s no point in stressing about the weather though, it will be what it will be.  There may be some areas we can control in our life, but not ever the weather! Stress levels might be increasing over the next weeks as the country tries to move back into the world with tiny baby steps.  Enter Ted Talks to give us a bit of help. I don’t know where you stand on Ted Talks, but I’ve found many of them to be deeply appealing over the years.  Two are relevant to now and I thought I’d share them both with you.  They are brief yet pack a helpful punch.  The first one is all about making stress your friend. Who doesn’t want to understand stress better? A friend? You’ll have to watch to see how that works.

The second talk promises to increase the life of the participants by seven and a half minutes.  If you follow the full advice, ten years more might be coming your way.  Certainly interesting work!  And who couldn’t use an extra seven and a half minutes? Or ten years!

Even more time to smell the flowers I’d say!

The lilies in the garden are certainly lovely at this time of year.  Enjoy!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 22 June

Yesterday was Fathers’ Day! It’s been fourteen weeks since we’ve seen any family and yesterday we finally spent real face to face time, not Facetime or Zoom or any other new media, with four of the grandkids and their fabulous parents.  It was wonderful to SEE and be with them! 

We cleaned and cooked and sorted garden furniture and made everything ready before they arrived for lunch in the garden.  It was an exhausting pleasure!  Normal!  We included chocolates and Pringles and diet coke and the lemonade they like on the food order from Mr. Sainsbury. We had corn on the cob and chicken and baked potatoes,  I baked a cake – Terry made a special only ever made at Christmas and big celebrations pudding. They were more than delighted.

Wonderful to see them! And yet…

When they left we were both feeling a bit flat as we were reminded once more of what the new normal is.  Social distancing.  There were no hugs. There were no stomping feet on the stairs, no kids voices yelling up and down. Minimal clicks of pool balls in their games room down in the basement.  The kids and their parents didn’t come into the house except through their door into the basement to use the downstairs loo. We won’t head down there for three days. 

Since when did our family become people we can’t touch, can’t hug, can’t sit next to?  Since this damn virus arrived!  I can’t imagine what it must have been like for families to send their ill folk off to hospital and never see them again. This isn’t remotely like that and it still hurts.

The visit WAS special and yet we are reminded what we still face as we move further afield into life as it is now. What will happen in the winter when we can’t sit outside and there is still no treatment or vaccine?   What will happen when the world tries to unlock and the two metre distance for socially distancing is slashed to one metre? These are still questions that are with us and once again we need to adjust our expectations and try to live with the virus as it still circulates.

Normally when the kids are here everyone helps serve and wash up and that  camaraderie is an important part of the visit. Part of being with grandparents is the impromptu conversations with the grandkids without the parents around when you’re clearing the table or taking the rubbish outside together.  Our home is a place for parents to let go while we sort out the kids and they watch a football match or read a magazine and generally retreat from their ups and downs of life. Our home is usually a sanctuary from all that is unpleasant and we couldn’t offer that yesterday. Not anymore. Not now. All of these simple pleasures that we hardly ever noticed before are now coronadashed.  This damn virus!

One hundred days today and it’s transition time…again! We WILL see the kids and the grandkids again and next time we will be ready for the new normal. Being outside for the next few months together is going to be different of course, but we will adjust. There will be new ideas for the next visits, as we all get used to this new normal. Strange times!

Transition periods offer us time to think and plan differently and just as there are changes to our family life my musings will change a bit as well.  As weekends are going to be busier from now on with family visiting us or our travelling to see them, socially distancing in their gardens, my writing will continue – but not daily. I’m not going away just yet, but I am going to ease my foot off the throttle a wee bit.  The government stopped doing Downing Street Press Briefings awhile back on the weekends, and I am going to follow suit as I end my weekend writing.  Monday through Friday I’ll continue my daily musings, but from next weekend, my weekends will be family centred. Nice! We must be getting somewhere- even if we aren’t there yet.

The next phase of our lives  will not be the same as the last and who knows what tomorrow will feel like and be like?  Stay tuned for the weekday thoughts from this corner of the world. 

It was the most unusual Sunday, yet one we won’t soon forget.  It felt wonderful being together yet strange that we still had to remain apart.  As life continues to change, we hope that there are systems put in place that work to keep everyone safe as they move further into the world once more.

We hope that over the coming weeks and months the kids can get back to University and resume their lives, the little ones can get back to school, those needing jobs can find them and one day soon we can have those all important hugs. 

Until then, it’s time to get back to our routine, alter it slightly as the world we find ourselves in alters, and carry on.

We are not over this thing yet.  Not by a long chalk.

Kisses, hugs and tremendous amounts of love. And to all you Fathers out there, feeding your babies is a great thing to do! Happy (belated) Fathers Day. Enjoy!

Do take care, we are.

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –21 June

The alert level is DOWN!  We have moved from level four to level three!  Hurrah!  So just what does that mean? Covid is still here.  It’s circulating in the community but not to the degree it was back in March and April and May.

The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) is an organisation that uses various tests to identify changes in infection rates around the country and feeds in environmental and workplace data to their statisticians before advising the Chief Medical Officers who in turn advise the Ministers. Where is SAGE in all of this?

Tom Hurd (Douglas Hurds son) and a pal of Boris’s – they were at Eton and Oxford together – set up the JBC.  Tom is a specialist in anti terrorism. The JBC is now run by Dr. Claire Gardener, and according to the Financial Times, Dr. Gardener is a “Senior Spy”.

Dr. Gardener has a research background in medical statistics and epidemiology at least, but since when was Covid 19 something that spies needed to get involved with? The virus isn’t going to change how it functions or come up with neat ways of bypassing computers! Clair was working as the Head of Cyber Resilience and Strategy at the National Cyber Security Centre — a branch of signals intelligence agency – GCHQ.

I guess she is a spy!  All I wanted to do was find out what Level Three meant and low and behold, it would seem that I have stumbled across something quite unexpected.  A bit of a mismatch between stopping a virus and stopping terrorists don’t you think?

Hopefully Professor Whitty will be at a briefing soon and can tell us what he thinks. He is a trustworthy and sensible man. Thank heaven he’s the CMO.

So I ask again, what now as we are at Level Three? Much the same for this household as Level Four.  We don’t plan to go into shops or anywhere else until we are at Level Two. 

Zoom dinner parties to continue then!  I wonder if anyone will be listening to us as we chat away and mention the word spy…I doubt it!

Let’s hope that while all this intrigue carries on, most people continue to socially distance and wash their hands…

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –20 June

When a vaccine becomes available there will be two groups of people who will top the list of those who can access it.  The first group of course will be those working in the Health and Social Care fields.  The next group was somewhat surprising.  All those people over fifty will be given the vaccine.  This means that both members of this household will be eligible.  We had wondered if they might begin with over seventies first, but that isn’t the plan announced today by Matt Hancock the Health Secretary. 

Fingers crossed and thumbs pressed in hope that the Oxford group has a vaccine that works and is effective soon. No one knows where the fingers crossed came from exactly, but it is a Christian sign for luck.  If you find yourself in Vietnam (lucky you!) don’t cross your fingers as it’s a rude gesture, a bit like giving someone the finger here.  In Germany, Poland and other Slavic countries, pressed thumbs does the trick! 

Astra Zeneca have already started production on the Oxford vaccine just in case it works. It seems to me that they wouldn’t spend money on making doses already unless they were fairly confident that the trials will be successful.  A further two hundred vaccines are being trialled around the globe. If at first you don’t succeed try try again? 

Reports seem to be optimistic at the moment and this has to be good news!  My hope is that it becomes available worldwide sometime in November.  That would stop Trump from claiming he solved the world’s problem before the American election.  And of course he would say that.  The man is a disgrace in every way. 

The birds are quiet again today as the rain has not stopped.  The usual happy chortle outside our window is a little peep. Jenny wren clearly doesn’t do rain.  Can’t say I blame her.  It’s grey and wet.  We will need an umbrella again today to head down the garden for our morning tea.  We will however sit on the swing without our devices with cups in hand and chat as though we haven’t seen each other so constantly for day upon day.  I suspect that’s what happens when you have a really good relationship.  It never becomes tired even when everything else wears a bit thin.

Terry made apple spread yesterday. Jars and jars worth. Let’s hope the vaccine is found before he makes the next batch!  We can only eat so much apple spread on our toast in the morning!.

 In the meantime we keep talking and we keep moving. Indoor exercise bike, Pilates on Zoom and mat work. We dance occasionally too.   Not quite as much as the couple below who are in their 90s –  but we live in hope! 

With love,

Kathy x