Well, the light is on at the end of the tunnel.
We are through the Solstice, the daylight hours are increasing, we have survived Christmas, we have survived Brexit, we have survived Hogmanay and there is seemingly even a Covid19 vaccination that gives protection (starting a couple of weeks after the inoculation) enabling us to survive exposure to Covid19 unscathed.
During the lockdown I have been restricted to house and garden with the occasional discussion with neighbours “over the garden fence”. It’s been a strange time and I’ve had to adopt survival techniques that I thought were only for television reality shows. (It’s amazing how many meals and part meals one can get from a chicken quarter and its bones.) Supermarket delivery and click & collect services have become essential lifelines. And with only myself for company I’ve learnt again to read books (delivered by a well-known delivery service) and played solitaire (courtesy of Google & Microsoft) more times that I thought possible, all to keep the old little grey cells working. I have read Google avidly and now know a more about Australian and American politics than I did or ever wanted to before. To prevent weight gain I have avoided comfort foods as much as possible and I have yet to open a large Christmas present tin of shortbread biscuits. I have succumbed to the occasional tit bit from the Quality Street container (that’s a lot easier to do than when having the sweets in an open dish). I have exercised up and down the garden many times, and sawn and chopped logs to keep my muscle tone up to scratch and to keep my weight under control. But I shudder to think what the gas bill for the heating will be this time round through being at home for most of the day.
Despite all this I believe that things are on the up. In the garden primroses have been cheering me up since before Christmas (I know that they shouldn’t be in flower but they are), their bright yellow faces are a real tonic and now walking down the garden and into the “orchard” I can spot the signs that things are stirring. The snowdrops are almost in flower, the daffodils/narcissus are 6” (15cm) high and the rosettes of the cowslips are getting ready to push upwards, The buds on the fruit trees are swelling indicating that blossom time is not that far away and the birds are definitely getting ready to mate and to build nests. New life is coming.
So nuts to Nostradamus and his dire predictions: let’s hope that the vaccines prove suitable for all variations of Covid19 and that although 2021 will be the shortest recorded sidereal year in 50yrs (the earth is spinning at its fastest rate in 50yrs), let’s just keep smiling and whistling under all difficulties and things will be back to “normal” by Christmas. Yes 2021 is ours for the taking, enjoy.
Scrivener
