I’m sitting in the conservatory, heating on and listening to classic fm. I’m needing inspiration. It’s the beginning of another week and the weather forecast is awful from today until the weekend! We’re in a high risk Tier 2 Covid zone. This means we can’t socialise inside with anyone other than our immediate family or those who live in the same house.
So let me try and find some positives! My husband and I are relatively healthy. We can still dine out at our local pubs and restaurants, but just the two of us. We can meet up with friends but have to sit outside. Unfortunately it’s getting colder and wetter!
The garden still looks presentable but we have started to clear away the summer hostas, lillies and general ground cover. We’ve kept open the teak house, our heated gazebo at the bottom of the garden, in case we have friends over for drinks. All four sides are canvas and three stay open so there is plenty of through air! It’s just getting from the house to the gazebo carrying drinks in the pouring rain which is a bit of a deterrent!
If I was really into taking one day at a time and had managed to totally change the habit of a lifetime, I would wake up every day with a positive attitude. I would live in the moment and nothing would phase me. I’d fling open the curtains and take in the scene, the garden down below and the wood opposite. I’d automatically find beauty in whatever the weather was throwing at me. Currently the sun usually doesn’t have to work too hard but a grey, cold, windy, cloudy, wet day has to seriously pull out all the stops! And even then has virtually no chance of raising my spirits and bringing any kind of a smile to my face or a cheer to my heart!
Every morning my husband wouldn’t be bracing himself for the usual weather forecast. It’s given in either bland monotones if miserable or with a bit more enthusiasm if a hint of brightness shows up through the trees. Perhaps that is why he seldom answers and keeps his eyes tightly shut. Sometimes he whispers beneath the duvet that he’ll make up his own mind!
To get myself through this unnatural, weird world I soldier on trying to do something enjoyable every day. If I can get out for a walk it ticks a box. This isn’t always possible. So, on wet, really grotty days I have convinced my husband that we play scrabble over lunch. I did usually win but my husband gives competitiveness a whole new meaning! Any and every game is for winning! It’s never about just taking part!
But he is a clever man and soon began to learn the ropes and beat me, sometimes with embarrassingly high scores. So I have had to up my game significantly! I’m usually not too fussed about winning, but against my husband this had become my ‘raisin d’etre’!
So, this week, with the seriously wet, grey and grotty forecast, we will sometimes play scrabble over lunch. I can’t manage this every day, unfortunately, but every second or third day will see us extending our meal by a couple of hours! On the other wet days this week I have a hair appointment and we go to Leeds to clean my mother in law’s house and say our farewells to neighbours and friends. This takes up two days and we should get some walks in as well, fingers crossed! I have booked a meal for two on Friday evening and we are having friends over for a drink on Saturday. I have a zoom meeting with two good friends this afternoon. Other than the usual housework, I have something in my diary every day!
This is not taking each day as it comes, I realise that, but it just wouldn’t work for me! But perhaps I can have the best of both worlds! I can have double entries in my diary to cover all scenarios. Perhaps I’ll get two diaries, one for sunshine and one for rain! Alas, the weather is so changeable that I’d soon get very confused and have to combine them!
Or maybe I’ll just soldier on under these current circumstances and hope that the greater British public obey their tier rules and we can all get on with our lives! Or our clever scientists find a cure or a vaccine. Or perhaps I’ll just give in and go with the flow!
‘C’est la vie’? 👠
Jenny Burrell 