Deserted

Monday 15th March, 2021

It seems that some restrictions are being lessened up here in Scotland but there have been so many choppings and changings and decrees and interpretations and rules and tiers of infection and sensationalised news and ghastly commentary and opposing views on all that one is not quite sure what the state of play is with regard to Covid 19.

The car park was almost empty, the streets and roads with few vehicles except once again I saw 8 Amazon vans!

Once back I put together the material and got it ready for the post. I then went off on my daily walk via the post box and with my intrepid litter grabber. Slowly the sun disappeared and the wind got stronger and colder but I kept the pace going so kept warm. I noted that the library was open. One cannot go in to it but one can ask for books and return books over a barrier. I will take mine back tomorrow...I have 12 all now overdue. I went up in to the hills and through the farm and passed the sheep and the multiplying lamb population. A farm hand came passed on his quad bike and waved cheerily. As I rounded a corner by a copse I saw him again with a black pheasant running along beside his bike. He slowed down and picked the cock pheasant up. As I came up to him I asked if the bird was ok. He laughed and said every time he comes round the particular bend the bird is waiting for him and does an attack on the bike. It was, he thought, a male bird aggression as the season gets closer to mating. The bird was defending his terror and his wives! The farm hand was charming and I felt he knew his land and the animals and plants. He put the pheasant back in the nearby copse and dashed to the quad bike and roared away as the pheasant flew after him but then desisted presumably feeling he had won and had defended his territory.

To my surprise there was quite a lot of litter even though I had picked up only 48 hours before. On reaching home I put out some stale bread and within a minute gulls galore appeared. It must be becoming a routine.

Kindness continues with my flat arrangements. Friends are offering furniture and so on and so forth. The bank lady who dealt with me said she had learned the value of her family, had experienced loneliness, had been anxious for her grand daughter who was missing her friends and had learned to value everything that previously she had taken for granted, even a cup of coffee in a cafe with a friend which had been routine before. I noted on the BBC website a video showing Yo-Yo Ma a world famous cellist playing an impromptu concert at a vaccine centre in America. The music was hauntingly lovely and the cheer and clapping when he finished so heart felt.

Please God we learn good things from all this.