Our house and sheep - and a bit of a rant

These Gabriel Oaks sheep are in the field in front of our house. I think they might be Hampshires but they do make me think of Alan Bates puncturing their stomachs to get the gas out.

As expected another U turn by our incompetent government. We are locked down. On Sunday he was saying schools must remain open - and the next day saying they’ll be closed. No doubt “Alas with a heavy heart!” All that preparation they insisted schools must have to Covid test exam year pupils before they went back unnecessary.

Our grandchildren were in school yesterday and came on FaceTime last night to tell me what a brilliant day they’d had. Ella has a new teacher and says it’s all going to be so interesting. On Friday she’ll have a turn at choosing a country on the big globe and say good morning in that language. We discussed which country she’d chose. She has a huge map on her wall with markers put in all the countries I have visited so she decided on Iran. I reminded her that her other Grandad’s wife is from there so she could help with the Farsi. How silly Granny is. That won’t be necessary - didn’t Granny know about searching the Internet? She’s going to be very disappointed to find out this morning that she won’t be at school after all.

Nathaniel showed me all the Lego he’d built. The most interesting thing that happened in school was someone was sick on the floor. So we had a discussion about all the various sick we’d seen.

Although their Mum is a key worker they won’t can go to school as there’s no room unless both parents are key workers. #3 daughter was quite tearful for her Year 11 and 13 pupils. It’s been announced there won’t be exams after all (the other nations cancelled theirs weeks ago) but they haven’t said what going to be put in place instead. How can a government be so incompetent that it doesn’t have contingency plans for anything? Now she is teaching on line and supposed to hone school a 6 and 8 year old.

#2 daughter will work from home but the boys’ school takes children with one key worker as a parent. (Son in law works in a hospital.)

We were due to meet friends in the next valley for a walk but we are staying put. I had been going to drop some wool and needles in for Chris with the broken leg, staying with a friend in the next valley, but now won’t. It would be 16 miles return over the moors to walk. Just too far for me just now especially with all the ice.

Things are awful for so many people. So many cases, so many deaths, so much poverty. We are lucky I have to keep reminding myself. We won’t be booking any ferries anytime soon

Oh the PM says “with a fair wind behind us” all the Over 70s will have the vaccine by mid-February. I’m not counting on that.

Rant over. Felt better once I’d delivered cake to some friends over the other side of the village