And so we have another cardboard box to dispose of. We already have a HUUUGE box which Phil’s bike arrived in. Too big to fold into a sensible size, it is currently in the shed, waiting for the next paper and cardboard collection day. The bike arrived only a few hours after the last paper and cardboard collection, of course. Then there is a large box that the bike panniers came in. All over the country, as people do more online purchasing, there must be similarly huge amounts of paper and cardboard awaiting collection for recycling.
Smaller items arriving in boxes are usually padded out with loosely folded or crumpled brown paper to prevent them from rattling around too much in transit. I have saved and smoothed as much of this as is salvageable and in good condition. The plan is that some of my Christmas presents to friends and relations this year will be tastefully and trendily wrapped in brown paper with nicely coloured ribbon and bows to embellish them. Assuming, that is, that we manage to celebrate Christmas. Our dear leader assures us that we should have returned to normality (or normalty, without the “i”, as one newsreader last night insisted on saying!) by then. The other question is whether the new “normal” allows browsing around shops looking for gift ideas. We shall see!
The future of our educational establishments continues to be a topic for discussion. The general consensus is that all children will return to school in September. Our daughter has had a couple of visits to the primary school where she will eventually return to work after her now slightly extended maternity leave. There are notices on all classroom doors reminding everyone of who is allowed into the “bubble” of that particular room. Whole school assemblies will probably disappear and even staff meetings will be difficult to arrange. Of course, by then our dear leader may have decided in his wisdom that we no longer need to do social distancing. Interesting times?
Universities meanwhile are in quite dire financial straits and are seeking government bailouts to help them survive. Gavin Williamson has apparently announced that they will have to “demonstrate their commitment” to free speech in order to qualify for bailouts. Quite how they do that is anyone’s guess.
Despite sometimes heated discussions and fiercely determined expression of opinion about the wearing of face masks, here in the UK we have not quite come to blows about it yet. In the USA social media has clips of furious confrontations os the streets of some towns over that very issue. In Michigan a man stabbed someone in a convenience store who challenged him about not wearing a mask. My goodness! Is it usual to go shopping armed with a knife? Apparently so! The deputy sheriff then shot the knife wielder dead. Are they not trained to shoot to maim and disarm or is shoot to kill a,ways the default setting? Another of life’s mysteries!
Masks are also very much a political party matter. In Georgia, the Republican governor is reported to have sued the Democratic mayor of Atlanta for issuing a city-wide mask mandate. But the divide is reducing as outbreaks of Covid-19 continue. The percentage of Republicans saying they wear masks whenever they leave home rose 10 points to 45% in the first two weeks of July. Democrats are still ahead though with 78% of them reported doing so.
Yesterday afternoon my daughter and I went a long walk with her two smallest offspring and the surprise addition of one of the teenagers, her first time outside the house in several weeks. This trend for teenagers to stay indoors, indeed to stay in bed until late in the day is a matter of national concern. We are trying to buck the trend.
And so we walked up to Heights Church, a small, old and now closed church at a high point in the area, as its name suggests.
The teenager proceeded to take photos and to suggest the place as a project for a friend taking photography as a sixth form subject. Both the teenager and her small sister were quote delighted with our outing - eating snacks on the steps of the graveyard - and the small one declared it to be “byoodiful”, her pronunciation of beautiful adversely influenced by watching Disney films for small people, and said she wanted to live there. 
Here are some photos, including a shot of the door of the pub, also now closed unfortunately, not as a result of the pandemic but just because its remote location makes it hard to make it a going concern. 
After our long walk, the teenager told us she was exhausted ... but she did enjoy herself.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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