Thursday 28th May
I start the day with a dog walk around Croft Hill with a friend, her eight-year-old son, and their two dogs. The
four dogs run and play together, and we humans chat. For the last two days we have been collecting rubbish left on The Hill by people, who might be defined as “Youths”, gathering over the Bank Holiday weekend. The Hill is strewn with cans, glass and plastic bottles, disposable barbeques, waste food, and the small metal cannisters used by those recreationally using nitrous oxide. My friend’s son helps pick up the rubbish, but, after weeks of training, has now got the hang of social distancing, attempting to lob items of rubbish into the bag that I hold open, with variable success. Yesterday and again today I return home with two carrier bags of waste to be sorted into general rubbish and recyclable items. This evening I walk along the bottom of The Hill, and there seems to be fewer bottles strewn across the grassy field. Someone else is helping to clear up the mess. Tonight, Croft Hill is once again busy, and no doubt tomorrow I will be removing more bags of detritus.
Tonight, I have a church Zoom meeting booked for 2030 this evening to discuss precautions that we must take to maintain social distancing when we decide that services can be held again. “Head Office” has provided a risk-assessment template, which I have started to complete in readiness for this evenings meeting. I have concentrated on the precautions needed for Sunday services, but an assessment must be done for any future activities in the church buildings. I e-mail my risk assessment to all those meeting, and in return receive an agenda for the meeting at 10.30am. I look again at the original invitation, and realise that the meeting is at “2030am”, a hybrid of an appointment, a typo that has meant that I have missed the meeting. I receive a reply reassuring me that the risk assessment will still be useful.
I would like to see the weekly Food Bank resume at our church, but this would be a decision made by the Trussell Trust, the charity that co-ordinates the foodbanks. A limited number of foodbanks in the area have been kept open, some just providing deliveries. “Ours” was closed at the start of lockdown. This not only affects those who qualify to collect food, and who must now travel further if possible, but also reduces donations, much of which is left for sorting and redistribution, at the locations where the food bank is held. Local Supermarkets invite purchases to be made and donated to the Food Bank Charity using boxes located in store. When I remember I add items to my Co-op shopping to donate as I leave the store.
It is Thursday, it is 8pm, and for the tenth time we go outside to Make A Noise For The NHS, clapping and being generally rowdy with various kitchen implements. There are rumours that this might be the last national weekly event to thank NHS workers for their sacrifices during the Coronavirus crisis, because it has become “political”. It has not become political on out Lane, it is an opportunity for those on the Lane to gather socially, suitably distanced, to continue to make our appreciation known, in particular to the carers who visit a housebound neighbour on the Lane, and who are often present for the clapping. We’ll see what next week brings.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
