Lockdown day 75

Hi everyone,

It is inconceivable that we are on Lockdown Day 75 today - when we went in to lockdown on 23rd March 2020 & we all had the notion that it would be the three weeks initially. I think if we were told it would be 75 days & counting, we would have all taken fright at the prospect.

However, the deadlines have come & gone, been extended, regulations have changed &  yet our death toll is over a sobering 40 200 souls. However, the only way to do these unprecedented times is to take it day by day & to keep focusing on the things you can control & to practice gratitude for the things you do not have i.e  the Covid-19 virus.

My great grandfather was born in a little rural Shropshire village near the town of Bishops Castle in 1810.

I found this on the Bishop’s Castle Heritage Resource Centre site about a previous plague in 1665 & how they dealt with it:

Bishop’s Castle Plague

One of our research volunteers recently came across this in the BC Borough Minute Book for 7th August 1665.

With limited knowledge we’ve roughly transcribed it. It is incredibly familiar in terms of the measures being ordered-keeping strangers and travellers out of the town ordering a

‘Continual watch and Ward had and held at the several entrances to the town’...., appointing ‘Inhabitants of the town’ to new posts to provide it and even imposing fines of ‘two Shillings’ on those appointed if they fail in their duties.

But it is more draconian still in relation to the hospitality industry ordering that... ‘no Innholder or Victualler or any other person whatsoever do presume to Receive into their Houses any Stranger or Traveller coming from any place or Country Infected or supposed to be Infected within the Realm upon pains of the Sum of Twenty Shillings’.....

[Basically the whole town is being quarantined. It would be interesting to know how quickly this measure was introduced, once news came through about the pandemic. Certainly it is evidence of the fact that though we live in strange times, they are not ‘unprecedented’, even in this quiet corner of the country.]

What struck me about the transcription of the account of the plague more than 350 years ago, is that they understood how to protect the population by quarantining the town. It also surprises me how strict the fines were & that they understood how easily it could spread & therefore the actions they needed to take. 

We have the benefit of all the modern conveniences to keep us safe, of grocery home deliveries & broadband to keep in easy contact with our loved ones. We in the UK have not had the tough regulations many other countries have; we have largely appealed to people’s sense of community to keep themselves & others safe by shielding our vulnerable, yet some have flaunted the guidelines with no thought to the NHS staff who would have to nurse them in the worst case scenario. 

Many of us have embraced the sense of calm, peace & the luxury of time to just keep busy, we have embraced the sense of neighbourliness by looking out for each other, the sense of community as a coping strategy. Many of us have become so used to our own spaces that we almost have Stockholm Syndrome where we are comfortable in our lockdown & the prospect of leaving it is not appealing. 

Lockdown has changed many of our lives quite dramatically - I have become an unemployed, self employed person. However, I am fortunate to have many hobbies, skills, talents & the ‘b’ word (bored) is never, ever in my vocabulary. 

Lockdown has also made many of us aware of how hectic life had become,  the glorification of being busy have has been lost & I think we have returned to a simpler time, without the need for commercialisation of our time. 

We have seen a return to food gardening with many growing vegetables & fruit for the first time - realising that we need to become more self reliant in future so if / when we have another such event, we will be better equipped to deal with it.  We are in the same storm, not in the same boat, we all face our own challenges that have been foisted upon us. 

Every morning we get a chance to be different, a chance to change, a chance to be better, a chance to keep calm & carry on.

Thank you for stopping by,  I hope you are weathering your own storm in these trying times,

Dee ~💕~

Living with social distancing & uncertainty ...

Hi everyone 

We are all in the same boat - that sounds supportive & encompassing  & perhaps that is how we should think of this crisis times

We in the UK have watched the scenes across China & Europe with sadness, fear & then disbelief at how quickly it has gripped all our nations.  Last week, there was an air of foreboding lurking in the shadows - a feeling that we were in the lull before the storm & then suddenly this week, the Covid19 storm caught up with us & we are being tossed around in its turmoil. 

I have been a self employed Elective Home Education Tutor for the last 16 years, working with families who have opted out of mainstream education. Some of my 32 students have come to me for all their education from the time they were 5 years old- they know no other teacher & they are mortified that students change teachers each year. Others have joined me at various times in the primary education, while others have only joined me for their secondary school years. I work in their home so I know the whole family - siblings, nieces, cousins, grandparents, aunts & uncles etc & because most stay with me for years, I know my students very well.  

Because I know their whole families too, I know those who are ill, who have compromised immune systems like one of my lads who overcame cancer after almost 4 years as I worked with him through his treatments ... 

This week I had to take the drastic & painful step to suspend all my lessons because I could not have social distancing in my work & I did not want to inadvertently carry anything to the community I work in. The parents all responded so sympathetically - many phoning back to send wishes to my own family for all our safe keeping.  My 2019 -2020 academic diary is not needed now as our schools will be shut to the summer break in July, so I will probably only resume lessons in September. 

We are awaiting the arrival of our first grandchild in a month so we have to self isolate to have any chance of meeting the little one with this virus circling us all; the expectant Mum is already in self isolation so we are living in interesting times. 

This is such a HUGE step for me to postpone my work - I have worked from the time I graduated as a teacher - at times in mainstream education; in a nursery school (my own & another) when my girls were young; training rural early years teachers & drawing up a new scheme of work in the rurals of the Kingdom of Lesotho when we lived there for 5 years; helping to raise funds for building & equipping a new school in Ethiopia  for the 5 and a half years we spent there, working in a university library between educational jobs & then the last 16 years in EHE.  I have never had to suspend my lessons so this feels surreal to not know when it will resume. Being without a job or funding is not something I like. 

However, I am realistic & on reflection I realise that we are all in unchartered waters - we have all collectively had our lives changed in mere days - the new reality is something that we do not know or understand - it feels as if things are not going to be the same, as if reality has been warped by something we don’t know. 

However, it is time to take stock of life, to reflect,  revise & reaffirm what is important - one feels that there is a shift in life that has come quietly yet resolutely, a quiet acceptance amid the panic that has gripped some people. We have lived in remote communities for extended times so we are well prepared to face it resolutely without panic. 

When we lived in remote communities in Ethiopia,  we shopped at the local markets & whatever was available there, that was what we cooked - it was interesting going back with really random vegetables & then having to make meals out of that with just basic stock tins or various flours on hand. It taught me to be adaptable & resourceful.  The panic buying here has seen silly scenes & I am not sure why certain things have been stripped from all the shelves. However, the upside is that more people will be cooking  & cleaning (judging by the empty cleaning product aisles) so that can only be a good thing. 

With us all in the same boat, let us all support each other emotionally so that we emerge from this crisis as kinder people - this looks different for all of us but all our realities are valid as they reflect our own priorities. 

I will be using this time to unwind, to catch up on the many things we put off & to just readjust again so when life resumes (and it will) we will all be better for it.

Take care, practice social distancing, kindness & keep tabs on people. Please share ideas here on how we can all support each other through this challenging time ... 

Thank you for stopping by, I look forward to your company & comments, 

Dee ~💕~