Lock Down

We may be country folk but we live near the junction of two busy roads and traffic noise is continuous. At least it used to be- under the old dispensation. Now it's getting quieter by the day.

I stop to listen. I can hear the hum of the electrics. I can hear birds carrying on. Every so often I can hear a car changing gear as it goes up and down the mini-hills on the Maidstone Road. But the background roar has gone.

Talking about birds, we now have three pheasants coming to the feeders. First there was a single male, then he was joined by a younger (or at least thinner) male. Then yesterday a female showed up. Mr P, Mr P Jr, Mrs P...

And now we're in lockdown. The PM says so- after having been badgered for days to bring in Continental-style restrictions. It's as Ailz said to me a week or two back: politicians don't lead, they follow.

It will be interesting to see who and what will still be standing or capable of being revived when the restrictions are lifted. A lot of businesses are bound to go under, including some big ones. We've been worrying over the future of the High Street for decades- and now- pretty much overnight- the High Street (all of the High Streets in every city, town and village) has ceased to exist. No shops and no shopping for the foreseeable future...

The Black Death in the 14th century broke the feudal system. (Which wasn't, when you think about it, such a bad outcome.) So what will coronavirus do?

It has come upon us so fast. Yes, I know, it has been around for months, but we Brits only really woke up to it as a thing that was going to impinge on us a month ago. Less than a month ago. Before then all we could talk about was floods.

And before the floods it was Brexit. Remember Brexit, anyone?

Notes For Future Reference

We went to our favourite farm shop. It sits on the edge of a village, on the main road- and has won prizes for what it does and is. A staff member was stood at the door- with a clipboard in her hand- admitting customers six at a time. She was cheery. We were cheery. The sun was cheery.

There were two, three people ahead of us in the queue- but we only waited a couple of minutes. It's an advantage of being a vegan in times like these that people don't panic-buy the sort of things we eat- and we got everything we wanted- apart from oat milk.

One of these days someone will want to write an historical epic or perhaps a sitcom about life during the great shut-down of 2020 and it's with them in mind that I'm making these notes...