Monday 13th April 2020, 12.35pm (day 3,154)
Some forms of exercise can still be taken out of the house, but not Clare’s weekly ballet class. That’s gone online, and into the bathroom, on this latest public holiday-that-was-not-a-holiday.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
An invasion of Russia
Sunday 12th April 2020, 2.50pm (day 3,153)
I imagine that, worldwide, a few board games are being dragged from the dusty corners of cupboards where they have resided for some years. Or in the case of this Campaign game, decades.
Permitted exercise
Saturday 11th April 2020, 11.05am (day 3,152)
This family are doing the sensible thing, as was I this morning. Our overall physical and mental health is vital and needs care. No social distancing guidelines have been violated in the creation of this photograph. And yes, it’d probably be nicer if the shrub wasn’t there, but you can’t have everything.
Squirrel portrait
Friday 10th April 2020, 2.05pm (day 3,151)
More fauna: it came down to a choice between this rodent and a butterfly today, as nature gets on with its stuff while we’re all stuck at home. I like this squirrel’s happy little face — it looks a bit like the way aliens are often depicted, with its big eyes and pointy nose.
Joe welcomes the new arrival
Thursday 9th April 2020, 12.45pm (day 3,150)
When in prison, the arrival of the mail is always a big event. Joe gets his major input of the day with the delivery of the latest in a series of information processing devices. Well, there’s not much else to spend money on at the moment.
Plum blossom
Wednesday 8th April 2020, 3.20pm (day 3,149)
One thing to be thankful for at the moment is that we have a garden, and now, the fact that it is a few minutes’ walk from the house is a boon rather than a burden. The plum tree has blossomed well: maybe this will be one of its glut years.
Stuck inside
Tuesday 7th April 2020, 1.20pm (day 3,148)
The media narrative is that however safely we behave, we are not to be allowed outdoors. Like this new sprig of kale we are condemned to watch spring unfold outside, from behind glass. On the other hand this plant is probably more likely than us to get out before May: assuming we are permitted to take it up to the garden and transplant it, anyway.
I’m trying on here not to sound too bitter, but it’s not easy. These are bad times. If anyone in the future feels like looking back on this last month (and the month, at least, which is surely to come) with any kind of nostalgia or wistfulness then they will deserve all the contempt they receive.
King of his castle
Monday 6th April 2020, 3.35pm (day 3,147)
Happily, the sun has come out. Sadly, the people have not. So here is more birdlife: there is little else to bring variety at this time. This jackdaw was determined to get the best vantage point in his immediate area, and seems to have succeeded.
Equus
Sunday 5th April 2020, 1.10pm (day 3,146)
Amongst the ways we are passing the time at home is to watch a movie each evening, and last night’s happened to be Equus, the worthy and very good 1970s play about a boy who worships horses, and the psychiatrist who starts thinking that maybe he has a point. I too think that horses know more than they let on to us. This one virtually galloped up to me this afternoon as I walked past and demanded that I do its close-ups.
Today’s statutorily permitted ‘one piece of exercise’ got me over into Luddenden, a valley that is next-door, but definitively not ‘Hebden Bridge’. So HB’s run of consecutive shots ends at 14, not quite giving it the blog record which therefore remains Brisbane’s 15 pictures in a row in 2013. But no one’s going anywhere very far in the next month or so, I imagine, so we’ll give it another try, starting tomorrow…
This place be ours now
Saturday 4th April 2020, 11.15am (day 3,145)
That ominous crumbling, shattering sound you hear from behind closed doors is your local economy. This square, on a Saturday morning, should not be inhabited only by ducks. And even they’re missing their usual benefits. These two were responding to a rumour that bread was being handed out by the old bridge.
Being 42 