The UK are still under a lockdown - we are allowed out to buy food, to get fresh air (an hour a day) or to go to work (only if you are a keyworker). We have been off for 3.5 weeks now. We are half way through, what would have been, the second week of the Easter holidays.
Nobody knows when we will be returning to some form of normality. The kids have been great and have not complained about being home, they seem to be enjoying it. Tomorrow I want to try and help them get some school work completed so we can catch up ready for Monday - we have been a bit slack with it to be honest.
I have still been going to the supermarket (alone) once a week. The queue varies in length to get inside. We all stand 2 metres apart and wait to be ushered in. It is quiet inside, lots of people wear masks and gloves - I feel under-dressed.
There still seems to be a pasta and flour shortage but the toilet rolls were fully stocked. An area that was pretty depleted today was the boxes of hair dye!!
Staff will tell you which queue to join and where to stand to go and pay.
Empty buses drive past regularly, often with one person on, probably returning from work.
We have been taking it pretty easy. Taking time to clean and re-organise cupboards, de-cluttering.......
I take rules very literally, I have been on two walks in the last 3 weeks. One was a walk around the block, the other yesterday, with one daughter, up the road and into some woods. The sky is unbelievably blue, leaves are budding, the blossom is in bloom and the bluebells are out.
Under normal circumstances I would probably have a few days out planned over Easter, we often go and stay with my Dad by the sea.
We have baked a lot, we have picked wild plants and cooked with them. The dog is loving it, he has everybody here at the moment which means lots of attention. The cats are probably slightly confused by it all.
I am still working from home as I always did, in that sense not much has changed. I feel like we're on some sort of long-needed break.
I have ordered some prints and need to order some frames - I'm looking forward to these arriving and deciding where I will put them.
So far, the UK has lost around 12,000 people in hospitals to the virus. We seem to lose around 700-900 a day. I try to not watch the news too often.
These are strange times - and these little diary entries are for us to look back on.
