2021 April – Emerging from Lockdown

The United Kingdom began to emerge from Lockdown 3 on 29 March. We were blessed with some lovely weather as we were able to comply with the rule of 6 in gardens.
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We have already been able to see our UK based children and families apart from Martin and Louise. For some the weather was kind for others there was a flurry of snow but at least it was predominately dry for our walks together and coffee etc in the garden
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We continued with our daily walking and observed the horse chestnut trees bursting forth. It was quite something to watch the changes over just a few days after the first easing of lockdown.

On 12 April, with the next stage of lockdown easing, we were able to visit ‘non essential’ shops and enjoy food and drink at outdoor venues and the only immediate benefit for us was to be able to go swimming again which we did at 7am.
We actually hesitated about going as we awoke to snow! However, it was not much, and it had melted on contact with the road surface. It was lovely to get back into a (warm) swimming pool. After swimming we went for our daily walk from Eastleach to Southrop and return via Fyfield. Below are some of the scenes we encountered:

The next day was totally different with the sun shining, although not very warm, the same snow covered plants looked so much brighter.

We were able to sit in the garden (in our ‘bus shelter’) during the afternoon and although there is some colour in the garden we look forward to planting the summer plants in the next few weeks. In the evening neighbours joined us for a glass of wine and we only packed up when it got quite cold at about 8pm!

On our walk that day we both learned something that surprised us. We came across a chicken beside the road pecking at a dead mole. We had not realised that such carnivorous behaviour was normal.