Breakdown! A general slowing down! And drying up!

There has been quite a lot in the news about the toll the lockdown, and indeed the whole crisis, is taking on people’s mental health. This morning, walking to the market in Uppermill, I saw an example. As I walked down a slope from one bridle path to another, a cycle came zooming down. I dodged to one side, as did a dog walker a few yards ahead of me. At the bottom of the slope another dog walker, who had just let her little dog off his lead, held up her hand to the cyclist and screamed at him to stop. He slowed, clearly puzzled, as she yelled at him, “Stop! You might run over my f*****g dog! He’s all I’ve got. My f*****g mother is dying. Don’t run over my f*****g dog!” The cyclist replied in kind, “I’m not running over your f*****g dog!”, and went on his way. The dog walker turned off onto another path. About half way down the slope she sat down on the step and wailed and sobbed, absolutely distraught. Under more normal circumstances I would have followed her down the slope and maybe put an arm round her shoulder to reassure her that she was not alone. All I could do today was call down to ask if she was all right. A more subdued bit of swearing ensued as she told me she would be fine and I went on my way.

Uppermill was moderately quiet, with short, orderly queues outside the few shops that remain open. Maybe it’s grinding to a halt. I had planned to buy oranges from the Italian greengrocery but there was a notice on the door saying that they would not open until 11.00. Last week they opened at 10.00. So no oranges today, despite the fact that their oranges have been by far superior to those available elsewhere, but I had no intention of hanging around for the better part of an hour on the off-chance that they would still have those good oranges. Perhaps I will walk in again another day.

The market continues in its diminished state but I don’t know for how long it will continue. The fruit and veg man seems to be reduced to potatoes, carrots, cabbage, leeks and tomatoes. Oh, and eggs. And I bought the last of his rhubarb - champagne rhubarb, he told me it was. And he still had a whole lot of bedding plants. People stood in the queue with little boxes of spring flower plants in their hands, so gardens are obviously being cared for.

I replenished my supply of nice bread from the bakery and from the delicatessen, where I also picked up semi-dried tomatoes and a mix of olives. After getting a few more essentials from the co-op, I set off for home with my rucksack and a cloth bag over my shoulder. We continue to manage to get our supplies! Some of the bread has gone straight into the freezer, from which some of the ingredients for this evening’s meal have been taken out.

En route for home, I had a socially distanced chat with a lady who was looking disconsolately at the mud-patch which until recently was a busy waterway. She, like me, had watched the frogs busily procreating and had admired the vast amount of frogspawn produced. What, we both wondered, had happened to those tadpoles now that the waterway was a just a soggy mud-patch? On the radio weather forecast I have just heard a weather lady talking about April having been a quiet month so far! I think that is supposed to mean that it has been mostly dry and often mild and sunny. Hence the mud-patch!

I also just heard a quite surprising piece of news. Charter flights, I heard, are bringing farm workers in from Rumania tomorrow to prevent crops from rotting in our farmers’ fields. So the idea of employing students and workers on furlough has not totally worked, it seems. The workers will undergo health checks before setting off. I bet Priti Patel is squirming at having to allow that to happen!

The other day I read about Chicago, which has been in lockdown, with restaurants, bars, stores and its celebrated lakefront closed down. What has not closed down, apparently, is the rate of violence. Crime overall has gone down but shootings and murders have remained consistently high, March 2020 figures even exceeding numbers for the same period last year.

Now, our granddaughter, who works for the Crown Prosecution Service, tells us that here in Greater Manchester burglaries carry on apace, despite the lockdown. Houses are being broken into even though the occupants are presumably in the house somewhere.

It would seem that thieves and villains are not respecting social distancing!! How odd!!

On the menu today is a some hummus and olives (from the deli mentioned above), quiche lorraine and some spicy potatoes, with the inevitable salad.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!