Social gatherings -newstyle. Out and about. Reactions to news reporting.

I looked out into the garden yesterday afternoon and found it strewn with almost the whole of the family next door together with a couple of visitors, probably a friend of the daughter of the family with her small boy. Ours looks like a communal garden. On the deeds to the two houses there is actually a demarcation line between our property and the neighbouring property. We could put up a fence or a wall but it would not really benefit either party. So we jog along with a much bigger space available to all of us. As a rule I tend to sit out in “our” bit of the garden although when the grandchildren come around, which hasn’t happened for a while, of course, we tend to run races, play catch, play football, fly paper aeroplanes or whatever all over the area.

So there they were, the neighbours, plus visitors, spread evenly over the whole garden, nicely spaced out. I had been planning to sit outside to read but somehow I did not feel I could butt in on a family gathering. And besides, who knew what germs they were carrying? A little later Phil also looked out of the window, planning to go out and cut the grass, which has grown considerably, but he also decided against asking everyone to break up their social gathering. (Yes, he cuts all the grass. We have been known to comment wryly when we return from a few weeks away that nobody has bothered to cut the grass. So it goes!)

Outdoor meetings may be becoming the norm. One of the neighbouring families has fairly regular grandchildren visits in their garden. My daughter-in-law told me about my son going off to a local park with his cans of beer to have a socially distanced drink and chat with his best friend. Lots of other pairs of people were there doing the same thing. Will benches - equipped with some kind of barrier to prevent people from sitting too close together - appear on streets and corners to enable people to meet and chat? A new way of life!

Later in the afternoon, unable to carry out our planned activities, Phil and I took ourselves off up Lark Hill, a local steep lane up to a vantage point for good views.

Later still, after our evening meal, we ventured forth again to enjoy the evening air. We did not see the space rocket that was supposedly going to be visible over the UK during the evening.

I do appreciate these long evenings, at least while the sun has been shining and the evenings remain fine. I cannot say that I feel the same about the early morning brightness. Being woken at about 4.30 to the sound of the raucous squawks of rooks and crows is not really to my liking.

On the radio news they have been discussing the tracking and tracing system which is supposed to be going live today. One of the employees was expressing her surprise that she only found out it was beginning today when she heard it on a news bulletin yesterday. That sounds efficient! Let’s hope it gets going properly.

As expected, there was some adverse reaction to Emily Maitlis’s Tuesday evening introduction to Newsnight, in which she stated in no uncertain terms that Dominic Cummings had broken lockdown rules and shocked the nation by doing so. The story was that she was removed from last night’s broadcast and replaced by another newswoman. This looked rather like a punishment of sorts but today Emily Maitlis herself has seemingly said that she chose to have a night off. Is she placating her bosses? Hmmm!

On the radio news I have just heard that police have said that if they had stopped Dominic Cummings when he was out and about in or on his way to Barnard Castle and if he had taken their advice to return to his place of residence, then they would have taken no further action. So they are taking no further action now, However, they say that he DID break the law, contrary to the government’s declaration that Mr Cummings’ actions were WITHIN the guidelines. Oops! It rumbles on!

As I have possibly mentioned already, right now we should be in Sicily. Last year on a similar cultural visit there we went round the Villa Romana del Casale, admiring the beautifully preserved mosaic floors. Now I have read about the discovery, or the uncovering perhaps, of a similar ancient Roman mosaic floor near Verona in mainland Italy. The site of the villa was discovered in 1922 but mostly left abandoned until digging began again last year. The coronavirus lockdown caused excavation to be suspended but now it has begun again. Exciting stuff?

There we go!

 Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!