| Sun 1 | I don’t understand the guy next door to me. He doesn’t like the pigeons because they go “flappy flappy” flying away when he goes down his garden. And yet he persists in chucking old bread out on his garage roof for the birds – mostly pigeons, of course! |
| Mon 2 | A sad day. Returned from lunch to an email that my osteopath had died; he was only 72 although he did have failing kidneys. Over the years he’d become a friend as well as my osteopath. Because of lockdown I’d not seen him for 18 months. A true gentleman, remembered with great affection. |
| Tue 3 | Phew! Work of various sorts today from about 0930 to 2045, including two Zoom meetings. But I did achieve pretty much everything I set out to, and a lot else too. I’ll call that a result! |
| Wed 4 | Slept late, then had a day regrouping after yesterday, and clearing away some of the junk on my desk and in my in-box. |
| Thu 5 | Time to take in the wasp traps (see Thursday 29 July). Oh dear, I’ve caught nothing but a few very small flies. Fuller’s London Pride is obviously not to wasps’ taste. I’m not really surprised as I’ve seen hardly any wasps yet this summer, and the last week hasn’t been good flying weather. |
| Fri 6 | Managed to cock up defining a new website an installing WordPress. I hate having to get the hosting admins to fix it for me. |
| Sat 7 | Slept very late again; achieved little. |
| Sun 8 | Afternoon spent baking: rustic raspberry & blackberry tart; rustic tomato & onion tart; casseroled lamb shanks; stewed gooseberries; stewed blackcurrants. That should keep us fed for a bit. |
| Mon 9 | Spent a large part of the day tinkering around building a website. Why can you never get WordPress to do exactly what you want? |
| Tue 10 | When going out our cats are always told “Take care. See you later. No live prey please.” So what does Boy cat bring us in the middle of lunch? Live mouse. Which he then proceeds to lose in the study! |
| Wed 11 | Anyone who shares their home with a cat, knows they are perverse creatures. Ours, when offered chicken from your plate will tell you it’s their favourite food and ask for more. Today, when taking the meat off the chicken carcass I kept some scraps aside for the cats’ tea. Result: universal disdain from all three! |
| Thu 12 | Last night was supposed to be a peak for the Perseid meteor shower. Yet again, not a hope due to complete cloud cover. We never get to see these phenomena nowadays – just like we don’t get thunderstorms any more. |
| Fri 13 | Friday 13th is always an odd day. Luckily there’s only one this year, compared with 2 last year (March & November). And just one again next year (May). |
| Sat 14 | Last year’s 4 scotch bonnet chilli plants on the study windowsill were cut back in February. They’re being prolific. I’d already picked 15 fruit. Today I harvested 34 chillies, in sizes from “processed pea” to “large ping-pong ball”. They’ve been frozen whole, so small amounts of crushed chilli is easily available when needed. And there’s more to come! |
| Sun 15 | Whatever it was that was going to be done today, wasn’t. |
| Mon 16 | A lot of people are reporting their cats being ill after eating the new recipe Felix cat food; there’s a big group on Facebook, but it’s all anecdote and the manufacturers aren’t listening. So I spent some time drafting a survey to try to gather more reliable information which we can analyse. |
| Tue 17 | Awake and up really early, so I had almost the whole day working on my family history. Many years ago, my mother did a lot of her father’s line, but I think I’ve proven her mistaken about 250 years back. |
| Wed 18 | More work today on firming up yesterday’s family history work. And work on a website for the PPG, which is taking an age! |
| Thu 19 | Wide awake at 0530; shall I get up? Next I know it’s 0930; I’d better get up. Then the next I know it’s 1100; somehow I manage to get up. |
| Fri 20 | Sleep? What is this thing called sleep? Consequently feeling wrecked and the day went to Hell in a handcart. |
| Sat 21 | Was that a day? Up early again on too little sleep so felt out of it all day. Definitely out of it after wine with dinner. Hic! |
| Sun 22 | N picked 2 ice-cream tubs of blackberries from the front garden; it’s a really good, self-set and vigorous blackberry which almost always crops well. There’s also a big patch of large fungi by the wheelie bins; they’re not ordinary mushrooms and not deathcaps; trying to ID them. |
| Mon 23 | Another Monday – at least I’m told it was Monday. And another itching collection of gnat bites. |
| Tue 24 | Got a magnificent book on fungi [Roger Phillips, Mushrooms (2006)] to try to ID the fungi in the front garden. I think they’re probably The Prince, Agaricus augustus. If so they’re supposedly good eating (they’re the same family as commercially grown mushrooms) but I wouldn’t dare risk it. |
| Wed 25 | Why is depression such a vicious spiral of inability to get out of one’s chair? Even on a nice summer’s day. |
| Thu 26 | A hard day’s work organising two very different sets of announcement material for 1 September. |
| Fri 27 | Another of those days where you’re busy all day but seem to have nothing to show for it; except perhaps fish pie for dinner. |
| Sat 28 | Put up the 2 wasp traps for round 2 of Big Wasp Survey. At the same time noticed that the woodland floor between the old apple tree and the pond is prolific with small brown puffballs, probably Scaly Earthball (Scleroderma verrucosum).  Wasp Trap (left) and 3cm diameter Puff Ball |
| Sun 29 | Awake just after 0630 this morning and looking out of the bedroom window. Suddenly in the ash tree outside a small sparrow-sized bird; looks odd; it’s not a sparrow; yes, a first for me: a juvenile Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Nice, as they’re now relatively rare due to loss of elm trees. Have now seen 3 of 4 native woodpeckers (all in the garden here); only missing Wryneck (and that’s very unlikely). It just shows what is around even in suburbia. |
| Mon 30 | A grey, breezy, not very warm August Bank Holiday. Well at least it isn’t raining this year. |
| Tue 31 | Had a couple of new season English apples today. It’s that time of year already. Discovery, an early variety. My memory was they’re not up to much, and it was right: they’re dry and only moderately sweet. A bit like the apple equivalent of a ship’s biscuit. But they do have pretty blush pink streaked flesh. |
Category Archives: personal
On Depression – VIII
It’s three years since I last wrote about depression.
That’s not only because my depression has gone away; there just doesn’t seem to have been anything much worth saying about depression.
The depression hasn’t gone away. If anything it’s got worse. I seem to have descended from “I just don’t want to do anything” … through “I just can’t make myself do anything” … to “why am I even bothering to do anything”.
The rationale (such as it is) for not bothering isn’t just a lack of visible results for my efforts – although that doesn’t help – but has been significantly impacted by the plague of the last 18 months and the ongoing need to stay isolated.
No, it goes deeper. I’ve reached my “three score years and ten” and I’m not going to be around here for very much longer – especially given my medical history etc. Obviously I want to make it to at least 80 in a reasonable state; if I do I shall consider it a result. However I’m not optimistic that I will make 80. Which seems to make anything I do even more pointless.
But then, as Noreen pointed out to me last night, I have loads of longevity genes on both sides of my family. If I look at my parents and their siblings (8 of them) their ages at death were:
Men: 86, 3 (severely handicapped), 93 (and still going)
Women: 90, 99, 99, 78, 89
[I’ve ignored my father’s three half-sisters as they’re only half related to me.]
And if I go back to my grandparents and their siblings (23 of them) their ages were:
Men: 54, 1, 61, 3, 80, <1, 84, 9, 82, 80, 62, 24 (WWI), 78, 73, <1
Women: 26, 84, <1, 72, 83, 40, 88, <1
Stretching a point and going back to my great-grandparents generation (another 60 people) of the 29 I know about we find ages of:
Men: 57, 96, 71, 57, 40, 54, 43, <1, <1, 91, 87, 37, 46, 6, 67, 3
Women: 57, 73, 71, 57, <1, 66, 79, <1, 81, 76, 46, 88, 75
This last isn’t so brilliant, but remember with my great-grandparents we are talking about people born in roughly the middle third of the 19th century.
In all this we also need to remember:
- We are not talking about wealthy people – even if my parents generation eventually became comfortable with advancing years.
- Until post-WWII medical care was fairly basic, and had to be paid for (no money; no doctor); and it was more basic the further back you go.
- Also pre-WWII child mortality was significant, and perinatal death not uncommon; again worse the further back you go.
- There was relatively little regard to health & safety in the workplace, so industrial accidents were more common.
There are a number of interesting things which pop out at me in this data (though I admit it is incomplete).
- Almost a quarter (14/60) don’t make their 10th birthday.
- If you make 10 then you have an evens chance (23/45) of making at least 75; a 40% chance of making 80; and a 1 in 8 chance of making 90.
- While I don’t know he cause of death for many of these people, only 3 of the 22 adult women could even plausibly have been perinatal deaths. That seems surprisingly few.
- Only one of the cohort was lost in WWI.
So all other things being equal – which of course they’re not; if it weren’t for modern medicine I’d likely not be here now – I must have a decent chance of having another 10 years.
What would be interesting is to know how much of my depression has a genetic basis, and how much is environmental (in the widest sense). My father had depression (largely unrecognised, except by him, and latterly me) and his father was also depressive (although that was ascribed to trench fever from WWI). How many others of my (recent) forebears suffered from depression we shall never know.
Does that make me feel any better? Well sadly, as a fully paid-up pessimist, it doesn’t. Most people would doubtless say it should; but depression doesn’t work that way. And despite all my efforts I’ve yet to find anything which will kick this “black dog” hard enough in the nuts; although the antidepressants do keep me mostly functioning.
To cap it all, I just can’t get my head round the thought of not being here, doing what I do. How can I not be here, leaving everything in limbo?! It just feels so wrong; so unlikely; so frustrating; and yes, even depressing. Which luckily means I’ve never had any serious thoughts of self-harm or suicide.
Wish me luck!
Eating 30-a-Week
A couple of years ago I wrote about how we should be eating at least 30 different plant foods a week. Research into this is continuing, especially by Prof. Tim Spector of King’s College, London. I’ll link to just two relevant items: Spector’s recent Top 5 Tips for a Healthier Gut Microbiome and this Mail+ article.
This prompted me to log how well I did against the 30-a-week target over four weeks starting on 5 July. Herere’s what I achieved.
W/C 5 July
|
W/C 12 July
|
W/C 19 July
|
W/C 26 July
|
[This excludes most condiments & pickles; tea; squash etc.]
That’s over 30 every week for four weeks, and is fairly typical of my normal diet – perhaps slightly better than average because of the availability of summer fruit. I really didn’t try especially to pick foods which would add to my total!
What’s more I make it 64 different foods over a four week period. Which is just plain crazy!
Could I do even better? Yes, probably; but apart from adding in winter vegetables I’d have to try fairly hard.
Unblogged July
Taking a leaf out of Diamond Geezer‘s book, I’ve decided to write a post each month of strange, interesting, unusual, or just tedious things that happened each day, but which I didn’t write about at the time.
So here are 31 things I didn’t blog about in July.
| Thu 1 | I bid for 2 paintings live, online at our local auction house. Didn’t get them; wasn’t prepared to pay more than £50 and they sold for £75. |
| Fri 2 | Waitrose new Fulfilment Centre near home made rather a mess of this week’s grocery order. Lots of items unavailable and an unusual number of errors. Unavailability of items possibly down to the shortfall of lorry drivers? |
| Sat 3 | Picked a good handful of chard & radish leaves for salad. Having removed everything slug eaten, I was left with enough for half a sandwich. But supplemented with some coriander, and a big bunch of mint and basil, it made a nice quantity of baby leaves. |
| Sun 4 | Having lost the last of our koi a couple of years ago, we still have at least 4 goldfish in the pond: one large pale one, and at least 3 orange/red ones of various sizes (one of which must be home grown). |
| Mon 5 | We’ve a couple of bags of date expired cashew nuts and have been feeding them to the birds in a wire peanut feeder. And are they appreciated! This evening for an hour, while eating dinner, there was a procession of great tits and blue tits (at least 5 birds altogether) feasting on the nuts; one, often two, on the feeder at all times in a perpetual relay. |
| Tue 6 | Trip to the optician to collect new glasses; will have to finish adjusting them myself. Then I filled in & filed both our tax returns. And all before lunch. |
| Wed 7 | Why is it that without an alarm set I seem unable to surface before 10am? |
| Thu 8 | Glad to be side-tracked this afternoon into doing maintenence on N’s PC, thus avoiding tedious work for the PPG. |
| Fri 9 | Had to do the work I avoided yesterday. One piece I can’t complete yet as I need input from others. The second, some data analysis, proved too much for today’s addled brain. |
| Sat 10 | Awoke to find a wondrously clean white plate in the garden. N had put out some lamb chop bones, fat topping from some paté, and a cracked egg. Mr Reynard clearly had a tasty buffet. Must see if they like banana. |
| Sun 11 | 40 years ago today we moved into this house. Saturday 11 July 1981 was hot & sunny. With the help of a colleague and a van we moved from our dingy rented flat into this house. I lost half a stone in the process. This latter needs to be repeated, many times over. |
| Mon 12 | Today’s thunderstorm was the nearest we’ve had to a decent one for some years. We used to have lots, but they seem to have dwindled in the last 10 years or so. |
| Tue 13 | Selection workshop for a local council community review panel. Don’t expect to get through as they’ve probably got too many white middle-class men of a certain age. |
| Wed 14 | One of those tedious days where nothing much happens and you don’t have much to show for it either. Although I did finish a couple of short articles for AP Soc Newsletter. |
| Thu 15 | Had to email friends and decline a dinner date. After much discussion we both still feel much too vulnerable in current Covid situation – much though we want to go back to socialising and these friends are the very top of the list. Hope they’re not too pissed off with us. |
| Fri 16 | Up early (for me) to a lovely sunny morning, and the squawks of next door’s African Grey parrot out on their veranda. |
| Sat 17 | Hottest day of the year so far. And far too hot and uncomfortable to do anything; so I didn’t. |
| Sun 18 | Waitrose new Fulfilment Centre near us is still not at the top of its game, and I’m fed up with talking to Customer Services about it; now in conversation with the John Lewis’s executive office. |
| Mon 19 | Freedom Day for some. But not for us. We’re still feeling just as vulnerable as ever thanks to our short-sighted government. |
| Tue 20 | I’m retired. So why did I spend almost the whole day working? |
| Wed 21 | Chaired the early morning meeting of GP’s patient group on Zoom. Poorly attended. At times you wonder why you bother! |
| Thu 22 | Contrary to expectations the local council have appointed me to their community review panel. They’ve clearly not twigged that I belong to The Awkward Squad. |
| Fri 23 | Extra meat rations today! As we were about to receive the supermarket delivery, Tilly the Cat presented us with a small freshly dead rat. |
| Sat 24 | Thunderstorms? What thunderstorms? It was touted to be heavy thundery rain all day today, but not a rumble of thunder, nor a single drop of rain – although it was dark like November. |
| Sun 25 | Well, after complaining yesterday, the fairies were moving the furniture around upstairs this afternoon, and finally after days of waiting, at teatime we got some good thundery rain. |
| Mon 26 | Mid-afternoon there’s a sudden, hard smack on the study window. Obviously a bird strike. Very dead wood pigeon later found on the patio below the window. |
| Tue 27 | N had moved yesterday’s dead pigeon onto the lawn. This morning it had disappeared, one suspects with an assist from Mr Reynard – later confirmed by the trail camera. |
| Wed 28 | Awake just before 0500hrs, I was alerted by a nearby security light. After a minute or so, a fox trotting briskly and purposefully up the road carrying something which in the half-light looked like it could be dead rat. |
| Thu 29 | I’m taking part in the Big Wasp Survey again this year (the 5th year), and today I set the first two wasp traps. BWS are doing two survey sessions this year, now and in late August. I’m not hopeful of this session as the weather looks rather iffy for flying. |
| Fri 30 | Not having got everything we wanted on today’s supermarket order, we tried a small delivery from Amazon Fresh. Although maybe not up to Waitrose quality, and one doesn’t like giving Amazon even more money, it certainly worked well as a stop-gap. |
| Sat 31 | It’s one thing being depressed, but it’s a bit much when you spend the night dreaming about being depressed. Especially as it leaves you even less inclined to do anything than before. |
So what will next month bring, I wonder?
Ancestral Byways
What did you do in the lockdown? I spent time with my ancestors!
There are always some unexpected places one gets taken by the ancestors and family history. This is one of those, and a connexion which I had never expected.
I have just acquired at auction a copy of A Display of Heraldrie by John Guillim; 4th edition from 1660; probably in its original binding (if not, it has been very carefully rebound).
John Guillim (c.1565–1621) was an antiquarian and officer of arms at the College of Arms. He was made Portsmouth Pursuivant Extraordinary in 1608, and Rouge Croix Pursuivant in 1618. Guillim’s A Display of Heraldry was first published in London in 1610, although there is some dispute about the original authorship. It was revised and reprinted a number of times up to 1724, with the fourth edition of 1660 generally considered to be the best of them. Samuel Pepys appears to have had a copy of the fifth edition in his library.
I’ve known this work for many years, having first seen a copy in Harrow School in the early 1980s (on a work visit!) – it was lying on a huge Cromwellian refectory table for anyone to browse. I’ve always coveted owning a copy. Somewhere around 20 years ago I acquired a fairly poor, rebound and damaged copy of the fourth edition, and have since been keeping my eyes open for a copy in good condition. At last I found one, and was very surprised to get it rather more cheaply than I expected.
And now we get to the family history bit, which I only discovered in the last couple of years!
As you’ll see on the title page the fourth edition is “Faithfully collected by FRANCIS NOWER Arms Painter (and Student in Heraldry) in Bartholomew Lane, London“.
There are two branches of the Nower (or Nowers) family. The senior branch is in Oxfordshire; the tomb of Sir George Nowers (died 1425), a companion of the Black Prince, is in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
The junior branch was centred around Pluckley, Kent, and it from them I am descended by way of a string of younger sons of younger sons. Francis Nower (1624-1670) was indeed a herald painter who died tragically with his two infant daughters in a house fire in Bartholomew Lane, London in 1670. He’s not a direct ancestor, but he is my first cousin 10 times removed – ie. the grandson of my 10x great-grandfather, Joshua Nower, Yeoman of Pluckley (c.1555-1618).
That was totally unexpected! I didn’t know I had Nower(s) ancestors until a handful of years ago, and only found out about Francis Nower during the first lockdown last year. Catherine Nowers (born 1820) married into my paternal grandmother’s line. Luckily the Pluckley Nower(s) are well documented at least back to the early 16th century. And to think that my Marshall line appears to be nothing more exciting than AgLabs all the way down.
And the moral is? It’s worth doing your family history, and following all the lines, not just your father’s father’s father’s line. And follow the lines as far back as you can. You never know what delights – or skeletons; we’ve all got some of them too! – you’ll find.
Horrible Times 22: Lockdown 450
In this instalment … Today, Saturday 19 June 2021, is day 450 of lockdown for us.
And still not a lot has really changed since I last reported on Day 400
So why don’t we get the “bad” news over first?
- In the last 50 days I’ve managed to get off the premises just twice. Once for part 2 of my annual diabetes check-up & shingles vaccination, and secondly for an optician’s appointment. That makes a grand total of just 9 “outings” in 450 days. Which is quite pathetic really, although rather understandable.
- I managed to miss the partial eclipse of the sun on 10 June. I don’t remember when we last had clear skies, at a sensible time, for any astronomical phenomenon.
- We’ve had two friends in hospital. One with heart problems, which have needed a pacemaker fitted; the other with a broken leg (luckily not a hip).
- In other medical news I got a talking to by my diabetic nurse for letting my blood glucose control slip somewhat over the last year, and not losing any weight. Moral 1: must try harder. Moral 2: the medical profession need to understand quality of life.
- And of course our pathetic government has delayed removing all Covid restrictions. I have to say I think this is the right decision, given the apparent extra transmissibility of the Covid delta variant. However it is entirely of the government’s own making: they could have nipped this in the bud by introducing travel restrictions to/from India in early April rather than waiting 3-4 weeks. But then this is entirely consistent with their whole approach.
In more positive news …
- We’ve had a mini heatwave, which is rather a nice change from the cold wet weather which preceded it.
- And the good weather has enabled us to get our runner beans planted, as well as a selection of salad leaf veggies. Nothing to harvest yet a while although I have harvested the first dozen chillies from last year’s plants (on the study windowsill) which I overwintered.
- The good weather has also brought the roses into bloom. The garden is a riot of roses at the moment, including a dog rose flowering right at the top of our mature silver birch tree. Walking down the garden there is a heavy scent of roses.
- Having found a very dead Rose Chafer on the patio table, I was finally impelled to buy a macro lens for my camera so I can take more/better close-ups. So far this has mostly meant flowers.
- As well as splashing out money on a new lens I also bought two paintings by Adrian Daintrey at auction. For security reasons I’m obviously not going to post them here, but members of the Anthony Powell Society will find out more in due course (as Daintrey was a friend of Powell’s).
- And finally, I’ve been doing quite a bit of work on my family history. I’ve especially been trying to unravel the Marshalls back in the late 17th and early 18th centuries around the Weald of Kent. I have a brick wall there in my father’s line; I’m sure there are connexions between all those I’ve found, but currently I’m unable to prove it – or satisfactorily work out exactly who is related to who. It doesn’t help that the men are all called Stephen, Thomas or William. The one guy with an easily identifiable name, Reynolds Marshall, seems to parachute in from nowhere in the late 17th century. It’s a tangled web which should be solvable, but for the fact that back then parish records were patchy and often haven’t survived. And along the way you get diverted down some (usually irrelevant) rabbit holes – so just who was the rather improbably named Samuel Drawbridge? Such are the joys of family history!
So what happens next? Well who knows. By the time of my next report at day 500 we’ll either have had all restrictions lifted and told we can go back to (some approximation to) normality, or we’ll be deep in another wave of Covid cases. Or, the pessimistic side of me suggests it might be both of those.
We’re not even in the lap of the gods, but the whim of our government. Gawdelpus!
The Village. VIII.
The Village – A Story in Eight Pieces
VIII. King George’s Oak
Abundant the Acorns, cached by the Jay,
While well furrowed Bark keeps fungus at bay.
Cork’s from an oak, it’s preserving our wine,
The Dove’s in her nest, a love bird divine.
Look there’s our Ellen, snuggling her swain,
Ripe for the Fuck, that they’ll soon entertain.
Old Billy Goat’s browsing anything low,
Turning Herbs to manure, and helping things grow.
Ever green is the Ivy, hiding a drey,
While the old Jay’s still caching away.
Katt is the cat who’s stalking the Jay,
While thousands of Larvae are munching all day.
Growing the Moths which make food for the Bat,
And leaving the Nuts which make Squirrel all fat.
Over the Orchard, grow apples to munch,
By agéd Piers Ploughman, who’s eating his lunch.
Pretty’s the Quince, with pink flowers in Spring,
While later a Robin Christmas greetings will bring.
Slyly the Stoat’s on the lookout for prey,
While circles of Toadstools, grow in the hay.
Shady the Umbra, we all sit beneath,
Not knowing the Vixen’s her den underneath.
Wispy the Wool, from the sheep of the croft,
While woody old Xylem, sends water aloft.
Here there’s a Yew, that great tree of old,
Protecting our Zzzzleeps, more precious than gold.
Well I hope you’ve enjoyed this little drollery. Watch this space in case there are further developments.
The Village. VII.
The Village – A Story in Eight Pieces
VII. More Village People
First there is Alice, whose surname is King,
her husband is Bert, who can mend any thing.
Clive is the one who tends to our hair,
He’s living with Dana, exceedingly fair.
Starchy is Ellie, she’s really a prude,
While Fanny relaxes, sunbathing nude.
Gary and Greg live as husband and wife,
And then there is Hannah, the vicar’s young wife.
There’s Arthur’s girl, Izzy, living alone,
With twins Jane and Jemima, father unknown.
Here is Nurse Karen, who tends to our ails,
And lazy old Leslie, who lodges at Gail’s.
We all love Matilda, a Master of Wine,
But no-one likes Norman, a breeder of swine.
There goes Orlena, who lives by her snatch,
While Pete the Policeman watches our patch.
Quaintly old Queenie lives down The Streete,
And Robin the farmer, grows barley and wheat.
Susy the sculptor carves objects in wood,
Her Toby’s a terror, mostly up to no good.
Doctor Umberto’s an expert on soils,
He lives next to Vikki, a painter in oils.
Old Walter’s a wonder, he’s still mending clocks,
Next to Miss Xandra, a stitcher of frocks.
Yanko is ancient – he came in the war,
and lastly there’s Zoe, our expert on law.
Piece VIII will appear on Tuesday 18 May.
The Village. VI.
The Village – A Story in Eight Pieces
VI. The Duck Pond
Andy the Angler, is trying his luck,
While bumble-y Bees, at the flowers they suck.
Cunning the Carp – a fish cannot drown,
Unlike the Ducks, all dabbling down.
There is Old Eb, who sits on the bench,
He’s watching the Fox, just seen jumping the fence.
There’s gaggles of Geese, they’re just flying sheep,
And then there’s old Heron, who’s off with a leap.
Winter brings Ice – see the skating is free,
Surprising the Jogger who stops for a pee.
Look! – a Kingfisher – just flashes of blue,
Zips past the Log we use as a pew.
Merry the Mermaid, we never have seen,
But here is a Newt – this one’s called Jean!
O are the ripples caused by a rock,
Thrown by the Parson, ignoring his flock.
A Quern Stone has made a step at the edge
Of the tall Rushes right next to the hedge.
A babbling Stream, with its water so clean,
Houses the Toad, all swarthy and green.
Running, the Urchin’s evading his Mum,
Ignoring a Vandal, fly-tipping – the scum!
Wet was the Witch they once ducked in the pond,
But saucy young Xena swims the millpond.
Yo, there’s a Yob, forever a pest,
To even the Zephyr which blows from the west.
Piece VII will appear on Tuesday 11 May.
Horrible Times 21: Lockdown 400
Today, Friday 30 April 2021, is our 400th day of Covid-19 Lockdown. And not a lot has changed since my last report on day 365.
- In 400 days I’ve been off the premises just seven times: three to the dentist (one just to have some paperwork signed), for a flu jab, twice for vaccination, and one for blood tests. It really has been all the fun of the fair!
- Noreen and I have now had both our injections of the Pfizer vaccine. Noreen went again to the Town Hall, whereas I went to the centre in deepest Southall. My experience was that this was not as well run as the Town Hall, and I seemed to spend most of the time moving from one queue to the next. Even so I was in and out in about 30 minutes. And Southall itself was grid-locked (well it was some Sikh holy day) and still the same dump that it always was. We now just await out booster in the autumn.
- In less good news, I’ve had a really annoying bladder infection (I know, TMI already!). Yet again I’ve been impressed with our GPs’ being able to work with patients over the phone rather than face-to-face. This infection has resulted in two rounds of antibiotics (turns out the nasty little organism was resistant to the first antibiotic I was given), three rounds of urine tests and a visit to Ealing Hospital for an armful of blood tests (most of which were overdue for my annual diabetic check-up anyway). Amazingly most of the blood tests turned out to be OK.
Ealing Hospital is the same appalling place it always was: a dismal ’70s concrete bunker which was never fit for purpose; badly signposted; and apparently staffed by the downtrodden. I hate the place and avoid it if at all possible; I just hope I never have to be treated there for anything serious. - Along the way I’ve also has two (different) Covid tests; both for research studies I’m signed up to. Luckily both were negative. Noreen has done one as well.
- In good news the days are lighter, brighter and with longer daylight and the fruit trees and lilac are in flower. We’ve even had some warm sunshine, although it is still rather chilly unless the sun is out. The downside of this is that we’ve again suffered the daftness of changing the clocks. The garden was looking very ragged, but is coming under control now our friend Tom is allowed entry again and has done after several days work – although nothing much has been pruned over the winter.
- Meanwhile the country continues to go to Hell in a handcart as our increasingly despicable government lies its way from one pathetic charade to the next. They keep getting caught out lying but seem not to care when any self-respecting government would have resigned long since and been banished.
Who knows what happens next?
I suspect the government will continue to ease the restrictions (regardless of the data) and I fear we’ll see a further spike in Covid cases over the summer and/or autumn when the great unwashed return from Costa Plenti. I can’t see us being clear of social distancing and mask-wearing this year. And we might even have another Christmas in lockdown – although I sincerely hope we don’t.
One tries to remain optimistic and cheerful through all the gloom, but as my father would have said “it’s hard to be optimistic with a misty optic”!