Tenth week ...

We were out walking through our favourite farmland (safely on the road, never fear) this afternoon when I had a text from our shopping angel, telling me that this would be the 10th week in which she's done our shopping for us. She said she couldn't believe it - she seems not to mind that early scouring of Morrison's for our needs - and I recalled that we were operating our own lockdown as soon as it was suggested, as opposed to being enforced. Indeed, as I pointed out to my pal during our daily coffee break FaceTime chat, for a long time now we've operated the kind of social distancing that is now normal: any time we'd a concert coming up, or an important trip, I've treated the supermarket as a pest-house, using hand sanitiser before driving home and washing my hands as soon as I'd unloaded the messages into the kitchen. 

And that took me back to the other probably annoying things I did in my last decade or so of teaching, when I'd snarl at sniffling kids that they should be at home infecting their families and not me, and told colleagues who were coughing heroically in school to keep well away from me if they weren't going to stay at home till they were better. Clearly I was ahead of my time: I hear now that we're all going to have to behave differently when we're suffering from infections, staying well away from others till we're better, but I must have been a right pain ...

Blipping the pond at Knockdow house, where the water lilies are coming into bloom. I feared the new owners had perhaps cleared the pond of all life when they dragged out all the old reeds and foliage, but it's back with a vengeance and looking rather marvellous. And because I hear there are going to be strong winds at the weekend, I'm going to add an extra of my lilac tree before all its rather splendid flowers are blown off. My back garden is all pink and purple just now and I love it.

Oh - and I coloured my own hair today. Not as Pentecostal as my hairdresser achieves, but not bad for a first attempt. Messy business, though ...