Unfurling

Another gap for yesterday, as Pete and I spent the morning with Molly and Trev, trying to explain what actions they needed to take over the next three months to stay safe, and checking how we could help. I think they understood what they needed to be doing, and they are well stocked up with food at the moment. Molly found it hard to accept that she should no longer go to church - however I think that the church has now cancelled services so at least that is taken out of her hands. 

By the time we got home it was dark and cloudy, and my photographic mojo was missing. Instead, I spent the rest of the afternoon cancelling all the field trips I was supposed to be leading between now and the end of June and responding to an email cancelling my usual stint at Leeds University, as there is no face-to-face teaching until September.. I can't remember the last time I had such a quiet diary...

We've had more or less continuous steady rain today - a soft day. The highlight of the day was the kind response from the owner of the Cyprus villa we should have been renting in April  who refunded our money immediately, with no hassle at all. I hope that we might be able to visit the island next year and I will definitely book with her again through HomeAway. Ryanair is proving a different kettle of fish, with an obtuse and intractable website, though I think they are completely overwhelmed at the moment, and am sure we will be refunded in due course.

By the end of the afternoon I had to get out of the house, so had a lone walk round Thorpe Wood which was drippy and dank. But the leaves of hazel and hawthorn are now emerging, and the woodland floor was studded with creamy bowls of primroses, starry celandines, drooping wood anemones and purple violets. Spring moves on regardless.