Woolly says – Life has changed for everyone, the deadliness of COVID19 has taken over the world and although mammoths are not susceptible to it, apparently I can’t go out on my own as I can’t be trusted, Jo’s words not mine!
There I was looking forward to moving into our new home in a lovely remote location on the outskirts of Welshpool, Jo and I had actually sought out an isolated place, little did we know how isolated things would get. Lets go back a bit, many of you will remember that we have been on a land search for over 4 years, travelling across France, England, Ireland and Wales in our search for somewhere off the beaten track where Jo can see the stars at night and I can guard my pistachios in peace and quiet. Although plenty of land exists we found numerous problems with everything we saw from the size, the location, the price or the ability to build anything on it, by November last year we had decided that enough was enough and to enable us to have some sort of life we needed a change of plan.
Sometimes my carer does amaze me and having gone to bed one night listening to the traffic outside and the noise from the pub below she woke the next morning with plan B. Plan B involved buying two static caravans, one to live in and one to rent out for holiday lets, a new search began.
Through December and January we headed out to places to see if the adverts lived up to our needs, our second trip took us into the hills on the outskirts of Welshpool, set on a small farm the site wasn’t large, provided plenty of walks….how grateful for that are we at the moment….and the static caravan was perfect. The deal was done and we headed back to the midlands to continue looking for the second part of the plan, one site had caught our attention in good old Aberystwyth, due to flooding ….boy is this country having a bad year… we tried twice to get through only to be turned back by inaccessible roads. Third time lucky saw us finally arrive at Clarach Bay and the second deal was signed and sealed within minutes. https://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/aberystwyth/12679154
With everything in place we set off to Turkey, which if you have been keeping up you will already know about, looking forward to returning to our new home and being able to go out and about as and when we choose to, well that didn’t turn out so well now did it!
Having caught one of the last flights back we had a decision to make, stay with Zoe and Dave in Dudley or head home to start our new life, at that moment it was an easy choice and the following day we loaded the car and set off. At this point we were very aware of the COVID19 virus and the situation in other countries, the UK although taking precautions was still going about it’s daily business, less than 24 hours after arriving and unpacking this changed and isolation and social distancing became the new by words.
Woolly says – Well we certainly got the remote and isolated part right in our living arrangements and to be fair, it could be a lot worse. As week three under the lockdown started we had got into a pattern of how each day will run, Jo brings me tea in bed each morning and we keep firmly under the covers until the van warms up a bit, while Jo tidies up….nothing to tidy but she seems to enjoy wandering round with a cloth wiping surfaces, humans are weird like that…she then showers which is another human trait that I find very peculiar and we meet in the dining area for breakfast.
Then we get to the exciting part of the day when we go for our daily exercise through the farm tacks and up to the fishing lakes or along the road and back through the fields, each day is a feast for our eyes as lambs keep appearing, spring buds are arriving and frog spawn is changing.
The first few days the small herd of sheep would race away at our approach by day six they barely acknowledged our presence and by day 21 you could almost see them rolling their eyes and going ‘haven’t you got anywhere else to be?!’
Our afternoons are spent in solitary pursuits whilst Jo reads, works on our website, messages friends and loved ones and does the occasional puzzle I find hours passing as I watch the birds on our birdy stand which we diligently fill every day and at the rate there all eating they won’t be flying anywhere soon.
Green finches, blue tits, starlings, sparrows and a lovely giant spotted woodpecker visit several times a day closely followed by the pheasants, squirrels and mistle thrushes.
A number of them are either Kamikaze birds or seem to have the wrong flight plan programmed in, crashing into the living room window making us jump before we rush out to see if there ok and put them back on their feet.
Our evenings are spent watching DVD’s or with more reading, if I’ve been good then Jo will read aloud to me, if I’ve not had the best day she will point at my books and indicate that I need to entertain myself.
As each day passes, I dream of places we had planned to go to this year, Russia will have to wait for another year, again. My extensive list of places within an hour’s drive is on hold as is meeting up with my bestie Sion Sheep, there seems little point in making plans as news tells us that travel could be restricted for a very long time to come. Our weekly highlight is our shopping trip although I’m not sure that my carer would agree with that.
Due to the media, press coverage and the police presence it makes me very anxious, not to mention trying to avoid people and keep to a 2 metre distance apart. Our supermarket isles are not wide enough to maintain this and each week I spend my time doing the supermarket dance whilst trying to keep to myself. Having read in the papers about people being attacked by locals I spend the journey into town checking for cars even though I’m not doing anything wrong and getting more anxious if someone appears to be following me on the route.
Woolly says – each day we read the papers online to hear about more deaths and huge rises in numbers of those who have the virus. No one is safe regardless of class, culture, religion or age, our Prime Minister is down, Prince Charles has recovered from it and each new article brings further doom and gloom for us and the rest of the world. Idiots breaking the lockdown seem to abound putting not just themselves at risk but everyone else, as well as bringing ever closer the need for higher levels of lockdown where even our daily walk might have to be abandoned. We count ourselves as lucky, we are in a lovely part of Wales, we have home comforts and food, we have each other.
Keep safe and we’ll see you on the other side.
