This time last year the UK went into a lockdown that lasted three months. However, my family went into lockdown nearly teo weeks before that. I knew I was vulnerable, with severe asthma (I’m now in the early stages of COPD, despite not having smoked since I was 22 years old!) and several other chronic health conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, hypothyroidism, and a plethora of digestive problems. So when it became clear that a new and deadly respiratory virus was spreading in the UK, I asked my husband to start working from home instead of going to his company’s offices in Leeds, and I asked my boys to start studying from home too. Their school and college were both very understanding. Though I thought it possible that we would soon have a lockdown (Italy had gone into lockdown, and I strongly believed that the UK should follow suit) I had no idea then that a year later the UK would be in its third national lockdown, that I would have hardly seen any of my family other than my husband and sons in the meantime, and that I would have lost my mother. It has been a very tough year.
Happily on Friday I finally got my first dose of a Covid vaccine, my husband had his yesterday, my twin-sister also had hers on Friday, and her husband had his a week ago. We are very much looking forward to Easter Sunday when, according to the UK’s current plans for easing restrictions, our two households should be able to meet for an Easter barbecue in my garden. We plan to have an Easter egg hunt, a tradition our youngsters still enjoy, even though they are well beyond the age that Easter egg hunts hunts are normally intended for.
And I don’t have to wait until then to see my sister. At present two people are allowed to meet outdoors in a public place for exercise. So today Marie and I went for a walk in Cromwell Bottom nature reserve, which is next to the river about a mile from my house. I am very glad that I remembered to take my binoculars, because we saw many birds, including to my delight a tiny wren that was hopping about in a reed bed. We also saw a goldfinch, chaffinch, bullfinch, blackcap, great tit, nuthatch, moorhen, mallards, and a delightful pair of robins.
Alas I didn’t get photos of the birds. I did get photos of the pussy willow though, which was in evidence everywhere. The journey there and back was also heart lifting, as there were lambs, daffodils, crocus and blossom to be seen in every direction. Spring is very much springing, there are signs of new life all around me, and I too am finding it.
