Blog Feed – Page 19 – New day – New Photo challenge

April 9th – Holidays….

As I sit here in this new world of social distancing / self isolating, I wonder how long it will be before this craziness is over and people start to go on holidays again.

It seems very strange not to see planes flying over taking people on holiday, but better that than more people getting seriously ill or dying. We’ve got a couple of trips over the summer planned, but it is looking doubtful that we’ll be able to take them, so today’s post looks back on a trip 5 years ago.

Even on this trip we came across a guy self isolating, sitting on the coast looking out to sea. It is a very peaceful image, and hopefully will make you smile. I hope you are all getting some time to chill. Stay safe

April 8th – More memories

So no amazing photos from today, and so I dug through some old photos. This photo was taken at East Woodlands 10 years ago. It is a favourite walk of ours, especially at this time of the year, with Bluebells everywhere.

They may well be over by the time the lock down has lifted, but things need to be kept in perspective. OK, we’ll miss a lovely walk in countryside on the Somerset / Wiltshire border but we may be saving human lives, and relieving the strain from those poor souls working so hard in our wonderful health service.

Looking back at this photo brings back memories, and we will put something in the diary for next year.

Stay safe folks x

April 7th – More help in the garden

Another fabulous day weather wise and so we carried on with some chores around the garden.

One of our lovely neighbours had started a bonfire and had asked if we had any rubbish that we needed to get rid of as all of the recycling centres are closed due to Corona Virus (keeping a safe distance obviously). We gratefully accepted, and started to drag the hedge trimmings to the fire, but Alfie had other ideas.

He offered his own kind of help as you can see in today’s photo. It would have been fine if he pulled in the same direction, but that would have been no fun for Alfie, instead it turned into a giant tug of war.

He is such a numpty, causing jobs to take a lot longer than it should with him around but we love him and the benefit of the laughter far outweighs the extra effort.

April 6th – Dusting off old photos

Following on from previous posts about what to do whilst having additional time on your hands, plus running out of ideas of what to shoot due to not leaving the house, tonight’s photo / post revisits some old shots.

I’m not sure about you, but it is rare to look through old photo’s and reminisce now that everything is stored digitally.

When I was growing up, people took far less photo’s and printed them, and so a photo album was often flicked through where 60 photo’s stuck in the book would span a couple of years. Some people take 60 in day on the phones these days, but why, if we don’t revisit them now and again.

This particular shot was taken at Mells Manor during the Mells Daffodil show in 2015. It is always held on Easter Monday, but obviously that won’t be happening this year.

It was taken from a low angle on a beautiful day. The aim was to capture the variety of springtime plants and colours. I hope you like it. I certainly enjoyed looking through a range of old photo’s looking for this photo.

April 5th – The wife’s trimming her bush…

The sun is shining and as we are all restricted in our movement, we are trying to distract ourselves by keeping busy.

We appreciate that we are really lucky to have a garden, especially if the Government tightens the rules and bans all movement outside of our homes due to a few people that are ignoring the current guidelines.

Distracting our minds from the current crisis is really important for all of our mental health. As mentioned in previous posts, I encourage everyone to use this additional time and keep busy, to get things done, learn new skills and plan things to do when restrictions lift.

When I was working we had a little saying…. “Fail to plan – Plan to fail”. Use this time wisely x

April 4th – Help?

Whilst on lock-down we have been doing quite a bit of gardening, and today’s photo is of one of the helpers, Velvet, now 10 and a half.

Whilst we dug, sweated, heaved and pulled thorns from our fingers, she calmly sat and watched and looked after the pick, meanwhile Alfie decided he would help be taking any stick that was put in the bag out again and shred it (all over the lawn).

Callie helped by marking the spot where we needed to dig by placing her ball in that exact spot, and by the time we had thrown it away and picked up the spade she had the ball back in place.

Alfie then decided he wanted to run around the garden with Denise’s gardening glove in his mouth, and tried to shake it to death.

I feel sorry for our neighbours, as they must have had quite an entertaining commentary.

Well, gardening is a good work-out, and it was good to be out in the sun, and fresh air, whilst complying with the governments rule of staying at home.

We are very fortunate, and feel very sorry for anyone that hasn’t got a garden in these weird times, but even if you haven’t got a garden, why not grow a few herbs on the window sill. Stay safe people – #Stayathome

April 3rd – Dog Pooh….

I went on a great walk today with the 4 legged children. It was great to get out during these weird days of social isolation, with lovely spring flowers and blue skies. But whilst wandering, I couldn’t help noticing Dog pooh.

As a dog owner I feel saddened that I may be thought of as being responsible for this mess by others seeing walking or cycling.

I pick up when our dogs need to do their business whether it’s on a path or in a field.

Why? I hear you ask.

Well, when on a path I obviously don’t want to have people have dog mess on the shoes. In fields, dog faeces can cause either Neosporosis cause abortions in cattle and Sarcocystosis which can cause neurological disease and death in sheep.

What I can’t understand is why people go to the trouble of picking up and bagging but then leaving on the path, or worse still throwing the bag in a hedge or tree.

April 2nd – Books

Following on from yesterday’s post re boredom, today’s post is about books.

We love travel, and as we have time on on hands, yet not permitted to travel, I have been looking through some books and doing some planning for places to go when the current restrictions lift.

But whatever you’re interested in, why not use this additional time to research on the internet or read some books if you have them. When this crisis finishes (and it will), everyone will be back, busier than ever.

This is a great opportunity to take some to for yourself, even for 20 minutes.

Stay safe guys

Did you notice the book not about travel?

April 1st – What’s mum doing?

How are you filling your days? Well, if you’re not a key worker, I’m guessing you have more time on your hands than normal.

I’ve seen quite a few posts about people being bored, and so my posts over the next few days will attempt to give a few suggestions, that most people should be able to do.

The 4 legged children are looking up at ‘Mum’ who was baking. She is a bit of an expert, and so I don’t do much in the kitchen, but when I do I really enjoy it.

Why not look through you cupboards, fridge, freezer if you have them and go such out some new recipes on the internet (or cook books if you have any) that use the ingredients you have available. Try something new, get partners or kids engaged.

Our 4 legged children would love to help unwrapping the ingredients, but I doubt there wouldn’t be much left for the recipe, but they sometimes do a pre-wash of utensils.

March 31st – First car journey???

OK!! Calm down…. 🙂

We ventured out today to enable Denise to donate some blood (considered essential travel for the NHS). But this was a tough decision, as on one hand we have been self isolating as she is an asthmatic and so the decision to go into a public place to donate needed to be weighed up against the requirement of blood (especially B negative which only 2% of the population has) for the NHS.

After a phone call to ensure that our recent travels wouldn’t prevent her donating, and a few questions on precautions being taken to minimise the risk of catching the Corona Virus, she decided to go ahead.

There were good 2 meter marks on the floor, queuing outside was well ordered, chairs were well spaced, hand sanitisers were available, staff had masks, and you needed an appointment as opposed to drop in, so numbers were less than normal.

Well done to the donors and staff collecting. People still vital need surgery during these testing times and stocks of blood are lower than normal so if you can donate, please contact them (details here)