Sweet William

I had trouble going to sleep last night. First I heard the sound of Whatsapp pinging on my mobile in another room. Several messages were sent. Then the smoke alarm went off. It blasted my ears with four lots of three shrieks. I could not work it out. I drifted off to sleep and it did it again! Then it stopped. Mum slept through it all.

I asked Margaret (across the road) to bring flowers when she offered to shop yesterday. I did not need anything else, but you can't have flowers in your grocery order from Tesco and we usually have cut flowers in our house.

She chose a lovely bouquet with roses, gerberas and Sweet Williams. They remind me of frilly skirts. Not that I have ever been one to wear frilly things. I did not see the pollen until I had the image on screen.

Today has been cold and wet. I did not venture out of the house and hope for a walking day tomorrow.

I had a long phone call with my friend Maureen this morning. She is writing a book about the Walking Festival and I've seen some of the contents. It's going to be brilliant. Lots of regulars have sent in stories about their involvement. They range from very funny to very poignant.

Life in the Time of Covid 19
I had word today that a bond I possess will deliver 22% less than expected in it's biannual payment. Did I want to withdraw any of the money? Who knows what is best to do?

I am spending a lot of time thinking about the current racial tension. I fear that the toppling of statues will provide a distraction from the more important issues of racism in our society. I have more thoughts but they are not well formulated at the moment.

What can I do to make positive moves? I live in an almost completely white society in this part of Northumberland. We have one black person in our village and she is a very recent addition. At the moment my very modest contribution is to share information on Facebook.

I'm about to Facetime Julie to discuss a couple of things we have seen on TV and the web. That should help my thinking.