The day dawned bright but I had no real hopes that it would continue. It has though. It's continued enough for me to sit in the garden with my dear friend. And we chatted quite frankly about what might be ahead. But we also spoke of happier things and happy memories. I think she's being very courageous. She's only going to look at one day at a time. It was good to sit in the garden. It almost felt like old times. Even though we were at least 2 m apart and she had to bring her own flask of coffee!
Our conversation was sporadically interrupted by some tree felling from my next door neighbours. Not my neighbours themselves but they hired a couple of chaps with very noisy chainsaws to do it. Fortunately it wasn't the oak tree that suffered today it was the leylandii, the conifers. But that inspired me to power up the battery for my cordless hedge trimmer and attack the dogwood. It's another benefit of lockdown to be perfectly honest. This time last year I probably wouldn't have attempted such a thing. Didn't even know whether the damn thing would still work as it's several years since I last used it. But it did.
The racism protests continue. I'm afraid that to a degree it's as if people are looking for a diversion from coronavirus and they've decided upon this path. But I wonder how much of it is real commitment. People are doing such silly things. They fail to look at things in context. What happened hundreds of years ago can't be changed. And the people who perpetuated it then probably would not do the same thing today with the knowledge and understanding that we have now. But no one seems to get that. There's even some shenanigans with Yorkshire tea and PG tips.
Quote from the BBC website.
'Tea brands Yorkshire Tea and PG Tips have voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) after boycott threats from right-wing critics.
It began when Laura Towler, a right-wing vlogger based in Yorkshire, praised her local brand for not having voiced support for the movement.
Yorkshire Tea said it had not yet commented on the BLM protests as it had been "taking time to educate" itself.
It tweeted: "Please don't buy our tea again."
In recent days, brands across the world have shown their support for Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd, the black man who died while being restrained by a Minnesota police officer.
Yorkshire Tea, which is owned by Taylors of Harrogate, said: "We stand against racism."
PG Tips, which is owned by consumer goods giant Unilever, soon lent its support to its rival as right-wing commentators urged a boycott on Twitter.
"If you are boycotting teas that stand against racism, you're going to have to find two new brands now #blacklivesmatter #solidaritea," the brand tweeted.
It prompted a flurry of support online, with some saying the brands had made them feel proud to be British.
There were also calls for other big tea brands, such as Twinings and Tetley, to show their support of BLM.'
The other big news is that the opening of primary schools has been ditched by the government. Doesn't look like they'll be back until September now. And of course that's met with mixed reactions. But what people do fail to realise is that schools have never actually closed! They stayed open for the children of key workers. Teachers haven't been sitting on their backsides doing nothing. The actual implementation of teaching children with social distancing and sanitisation in place is currently untenable. I can only presume that those children who have gone back will continue to do so and that secondary school children will be returning at some point. But this whole easing of the lockdown is one great big buggers muddle. I'm staying in lockdown for the foreseeable future. I may have the occasional visitor to my garden but that will be it.
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