Day 11 of Coronavirus Lockdown

Thursday today. Important to mention as it is easy to lose track of the days. It started out sunny so I took a short walk into the village to the post office to post a package. It was very pleasant. Hardly anybody out, very few cars. The lady in the post office said that she had been expecting people to get angry if they had to queue as she was working on her own there, but everybody had been very cheerful. I guess it is just nice to get out of the house so a short wait just means you get more time to admire the things for sale in the PO.

Walking back I decided to go up Sandy Lane, rather than the road. This is a very old byway open to all traffic (actually, just pedestrians) that runs up the hill, past the old sandpit area parallel to the road, with a number of footpaths connecting it to the road, some with quirky houses. It was a good choice. The air smelled really fresh, and there were flowering daffodils that I could smell as I walked past. I've heard that the reduction in vehicles and planes is doing great things for our carbon emissions. Am I imagining it, or does the air smell fresher and cleaner?  It always is pretty clean here due to all the trees surrounding us.

I've got lots to do. I have my crochet - I've done two of 9 squares and have decided to have a go at a hexagon. Excitement! 
I've also got a big sack of compost - they were selling it in Costco where we went yesterday for some provisions. Keeping trips to the supermarket down to 1 per week, less if we can manage it. So I have lots of seed planning and planting to do. At least the postal service is still working so I can order seeds. There is much news about nurseries  and farms who will have to destroy plants and crops unless they can get them to an open garden centre, in the case of the nurseries, or get skilled labourers to harvest the crops in the case of the farmers. We may well be relying on my broad beans!

I have had a paper accepted for publication with what they call major revisions - they aren't really major, but will take a bit of thoughtful implementation. I have until 30th April. I made a start last week, but was struggling to concentrate. This week feels better, but I'm still resisting. To be honest, I'd rather be practising one of my musical instruments, or doing some crochet or tending to my chickens. I even found myself sorting the measuring spoons in the kitchen drawer in descending order of size!

Even blogging has its attractions! I'm supposed to be amending the paper as I sit here. 

The death toll continues to rise.  today we have had 2,352 deaths, an increase of 563 on yesterday and, as always, the biggest daily increase yet. The govenment talk about maybe increasing the restrictions, but I'm not sure that would be warranted. Any impact from the restrictions would take two or three weeks to show up in a reduction of cases. We are currently faced with a shortage of tests, so many NHS workers are in self-isolation due to having contact with somebody with COVID-19, when in fact they might be perfectly well. There are big testing centres being set up, e.g. at Ikea in Wembly, but there seem to be delays in doing the tests, with some NHS workers having been sent away yesterday because they didn't have the right paperwork. Hopefully they will get this sorted. The government were definitely slow to act in the early days, when ordering test kits and instituting distancing protocols would have had the strongest effect. To shift the blame onto the population now by implying that the lockdown restrictions need to be increased because we aren't adhering to it properly would be, I think, a wrong call. 

Must get back to that paper!