Blue skies again

Another beautiful day, blue skies and quite warm. Although there was still a bit of frost early this morning, and I believe it is going to be quite cold again from Sunday. The gorse was looking lovely against the blue sky today. My photos are going to be very limited during this period of lockdown as I am only walking in one place every day.

We live very close to the woods but I usually drive there to walk Xena so she can have maximum time in the woods rather than some of that time spent walking there. There has been quite a bit of 'lockdown shaming' going on the Facebook dog group I belong to, and it seems we are not allowed to drive somewhere to go for our walk or exercise, it has to be from our front door. I never knew that, the guidelines were not clear - so today I walked up to the woods and it was not a great walk as Xena pulls on the lead (she is off the lead in the woods). The no driving rule is in case of an accident so as not to put further pressure on the NHS, which makes complete sense - yet cyclists are still allowed out on the roads for exercise and we know how risky that can be with hitting potholes etc.

South Africa goes into lockdown from tomorrow, and so today I spoke to my sister about it. They seem to have some very sensible rules there like only shopping baskets allowed in Woolworths (like our M&S), and once lockdown commences they are not allowed to walk anywhere but have to drive with only one person in the car. So no daily walks, dog walks or exercise outside for them. Necessary businesses that have to stay open have to apply for permits and of course there is now a backlog to get those approved. But worst of all - she works for a small company and her 21 days lockdown period has to be taken as annual leave! Can you imagine the uproar if that was the case in the UK.

I am feeling very tired today as yesterday Xena had a bit of an upset tummy so last night at 3am she woke up barking like mad as she needed to go out. She never wakes up at night, so I knew something was wrong when I heard her barking. She did not settle again afterwards as she thought it was now time to play!

Have you see this Covid-19 visualiser - very sobering.

Regarding driving to where you wish to exercise/walk your dog, I have just seen this. This seems to be the opposite of what the police in Somerset and Avon are saying, how are we meant to know what to do with such inconsistencies.