Lock Down - settling in to Life in Devon

Mike arrived on Wednesday 18th March - and we have been living in Devon ever since.  I can hardly believe my luck!  I have loved every minute of it.  Every morning I wake up and pinch myself that I am actually living here (I have blanked out the thought that one day it will all end and I will have to go back to London).  I love walking to the High Street with my shopping trolley and buying a few bits and pieces.

This blog does not contain a day by day account - rather a record of how we passed the time and survived lock down.  There are separate pages listed across the top for a more detailed account.

Lorraine moved into our house the day before Mike left - and was able to help him load the car with the handbike etc. 

Mike worked from home during the day.  He occupied himself otherwise with jigsaws, playing the organ, various jobs around the house and garden, and getting out and about on his handbike.  He built a ramp for the back door, painted the shed, and restored and painted the porch, the clothes horse and the clothes airer.  He also tackled some of the brambles in the garden.  

The ramp

Using the shed to do the carpentry etc

I had various projects on the go  - cross stitch, Middx peals database, scanning in old photos etc.  In addition I planned to get to grips with my knitting machine and learn to play the organ using the 6 tutorial books I have.  I also had a lot of computer stuff to catch up with - my blog, my household accounts ledger, and other bits and pieces I had been neglecting since he beginning of the year. We got Jack and Mary's old photos and slides down from the loft and I scanned in the photos.  Mike gave us a slide show of the slides - first time I had seen him as a baby! And I had the Middlesex Annual Report to produce - which occupied most of my time for the first month.  

I was so pleased to have my new laptop - it was invaluable in making good use of technology to participate in video calls etc.  So much easier and effective with up to date Windows 10 and hi specs.

The weather was absolutely fantastic until the beginning of June - incredibly hot and sunny.  I spent a lot of time sitting in the garden - and bought a couple of new sun shade parasols and stands as the old one was so rusted and rotten it snapped, breaking the old stand in the process.

Thank goodness for Amazon during this time - we were able to order almost anything we needed and have it delivered to the door.  

We also got delicious frozen food from Seafresh.  The High Street always seemed to have the basics we needed and the shops quickly got themselves well organised with shields at the tills and 2m spacing inside and outside the store.  Tesco were really good at this - Spar and Co-op not so good.  

We couldn't get an online delivery slot for groceries at all, but I quite enjoyed shopping in the High Street, and Mike did the shopping a few times too.

Our life settled into a routine that was everything I have wanted for a long time - living in Devon, no socialising, no bellringing (although I missed my handbell ringing), no going to the pub, no shaking hands at The Peace!  I felt very guilty that I was enjoying life so much when so many people were facing hardship in many ways.

Jayne was stuck in India for a while, but eventually got a repatriation flight back to Heathrow and came straight down by train (she had the whole carriage to herself). I picked her up at Newton Abbot station.  She went back to work after 3 weeks as a cleaner in a local care home.  I was a bit apprehensive about the risk of catching the virus, after being safe and isolated for 6 weeks, but it all worked out ok and so far none of us have any symptoms.

St Nicholas streamed a Eucharist service every Sunday morning on Facebook - although we were unable to watch live, we were able to watch a video without joining Facebook.

I got into the habit of watching Tipping Point every day!  We also watched the National Theatre at Home streaming each week - a good chance to have some free "culture" although just occasionally we turned it off when it was just not our cup of tea.  But plenty of Shakespeare tragedies, and occasional gems such as Frankenstein, or  The Madness of King George. Later we watched lots more Shakespeare from the RSC offerings on iPlayer.

Friends and family kept in touch via WhatsApp and Zoom, and several online ringing platforms were developed - we tended to use Ringing Room.   Mike also did a Chiswick Choir practice via Zoom every Tuesday evening - and I joined for the "pub" zoom session afterwards.

We responded to a plea from a local brewery for people to buy their beer - and got a good supply in to keep us going during lock down!!