Last week I had a birthday. A big one! I am now the grand old age of forty! 😛 And although I can no longer describe myself as a ‘young’ lady, and will now have to tick the middle age box on official forms… I am beyond elated to be entering my fifth decade. It’s … More Reaching 40
It’s Thursday. In life before lockdown, it was just another evening. Maybe a game, maybe some cleaning, maybe catching up with the box. But for the past seventeen weeks, ever since the coronavirus forced us all to stay in to safe safe, Thursday has become ‘Theatre Night’! Drinks and snacks and rushing to get seated … More Life In Lockdown
For the past five months, a handmade poster has been blue-tacked to my front door. Throughout March and April and May and June and July, it has stood like a sentry on the threshold of my castle. Greeting visitors, thanking visitors, advising visitors we won’t be answering the door. We. Are. Shielding. The colours are … More The End Of Shielding
It was the last place on earth I wanted to be during a pandemic. The last place. After four months of shielding, of staying home, of seeing no one. After 16 weeks of washing my shopping, quarantining my mail, not answering the door. After 113 days of doing everything I could do to keep myself … More Going Into The Lion’s Den
It was early. The sun hadn’t yet broken through the hazy clouds. The grass was still damp from the overnight dew. The birds were in full chorus welcoming in the new day. And that is when we spotted them. Two little deer, just ahead of us in the field. Their ears pricked up and their … More An Illicit Adventure
The fridge is looking a little empty, the wine has run out and I’ve been craving ice cream all week. But even though Mr Tesco is delivering us some indulgent chocolate Haagan-Dazs later this afternoon… we’ll have to resist it for another couple of days. And it will have to be thoroughly washed in soapy … More Trying To Keep Safe
Fifty days ago I’d never used Zoom before. In fact I’d never heard of it. I’d also never bought flour from a local miller, never washed my lettuce in soapy water, and never quarantined my mail. Fifty days ago, I’d not met the kind stranger who delivered my medicines today, not made coconut milk from … More Finding A New Normal
At the start of March, on the night that Phil and I started shielding ourselves from the world, we wrote a ‘Corona Bucket List’. Eighteen jobs and tasks and ‘one-day-when-we-have-time’ fun projects that we hoped to achieve during the upcoming months of self-isolation. With the prospect of many many weeks at home, I needed a … More Redrawing My Picture Of Self-Isolation
On the day the first UK case of Coronavirus was announced on the news, the birds moved in. A troop of tiny, chirping, colorful feathered creatures took roost in my head. My own personal town-criers. For the past month or so, they’ve been constant -unwanted- companions. Reminding me of what to worry about, who to … More The Chirping Birds
And so it is official. It has begun. I am now one of the 1.5 million folks that have been ordered to stay at home for at least the next twelve weeks. And although I’ve already been self-isolating for a while, although I knew this was coming, it feels quite scary now it has eventually … More Shielded From The World
