Month: December 2020

‘It’s like the Last Supper,’ Spanish John said behind his mask as he passed our table at a safe distance. We’d booked into the Lush Places pub at the last minute for a meal yesterday after hearing the Prime Minister’s announcement that by midnight, Dorset would be moved up from Tier 2 to Tier 3,…… Continue reading Happy New Tier

In those in-between days, the days in that week between Christmas and New Year, nothing much happens. The virus romps along like a puppy on roller skates, acquiring new powers from the Acme store on the corner as it continues its Looney Tunes journey at an ever-increasing pace. A Brexit deal is done but is…… Continue reading Time to put my head in order

If Lush Places in Lockdown were a film or a book, this would have been its finale. With so many Christmas plans in tatters, thanks to coronavirus and an eleventh hour decision by the government, it was just what the village needed to bring us all together in seasonal song and celebration, physically distant but…… Continue reading Merry Christmas Everybody

As we hurtle towards spreading good Covid this Christmas (I wish we’d had no relaxation of the coronavirus rules over the festive period but there you go, these decisions are taken by people on a much higher pay grade than me) and run with open arms, headlong into the cheer of Brexit (don’t get me…… Continue reading In my dreams

The dream was turning into a nightmare. Not only was I working in a rabbit warren office with narrow corridors radiating from one central hub, which was lined with desks of dark brown wood, and sitting in between twins I remembered from school who were accusing me of copying, there was the malign presence of…… Continue reading Office politics

There’s a crisp frost on the grass this morning. It reminds me of brilliant white sheets on a line, rigid as a board, caught in silent protest at being left out overnight. Up on the hill, there is a mist in the valley through the trees as the sun begins its ascent into a winter…… Continue reading Blue skies and winter days

And as the raindrops gripped on for dear life to the underside of the gate, the distant hill brooding and unapproachable in the biting wind, something began to happen. Snow. Big blobs of it fell on to the soggy ground, desperate to take hold but failing miserably, until the fields became a sea of slush.…… Continue reading On the move

So that’s it, that’s the last Sound of Music Through The Square Window. Unless we have another lockdown. I hope we don’t, not just because I don’t think I can stomach Julie Andrews for much longer but because I fear the relaxing of rules over Christmas will lead to a pretty dismal start to 2021.…… Continue reading Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow