Dipping my toe back into blogging

The last time I updated this blog was 12 March 2020. We all know what happened after that. Covid. Lockdown. Stay at home. Wash Your Hands. Social Distancing. At a time when travel was impossible for most, I just didn’t have the heart to carry on writing. I had already decided to stop my weekly ‘Trish Takes Five’ column in our local paper as it was becoming too much of a commitment. Having a break from blogging was the next logical step.

It’s been a funny old year and a bit, hasn’t it. All our post-retirement plans went out the window. Instead we reconnected with our own garden and local area. Daily walks became a huge part of our lives and thankfully the fantastic weather last spring kept us from going crazy indoors.

Rory returned from Coventry to work from home back with his mum and dad. It was wonderful to have him living with us. Our little family was reunited in a way that we hadn’t experienced since the days before he’d left for university in 2014. We took turns at doing the Tesco shop. That was an eye-opener on the Rory shopping weeks, to see what treats he would buy us on his dad’s credit card.

Talking of Tesco, that was the venue for our 30th wedding anniversary celebrations last June. We pushed the boat out, shopping together (very naughty) but taking separate trolleys and meeting back at the car after our surreptitious saunter down the aisles.

When restrictions were eased last summer we had two trips away: a Scottish road trip in August and a short break to Harrogate in September. I didn’t write about either of them at the time, apart from Facebook updates. It felt more important for me to live in the moment with my family and I just couldn’t face staying inside to type up a blog post.

Lockdown 2 crept up on us as we lurched towards Christmas. In the winter months we discovered the joy and backache of jigsaws. We were addicts, tackling mainly Wasgij puzzles at an alarming rate. Rory, now back in Coventry in his own flat since the summer, would regularly return home as part of our bubble. We enjoyed more walks, built a hedgehog house, bought a wildlife camera and watched the night-time shenanigans of cats, birds, hogs and foxes.

This spring, we were visited by more hedgehogs and a trio of ducks. Birthday present binoculars have also allowed us to see hares leaping about in the field behind the house. A pair of collared doves began nesting in our front porch and we’ve had three chicks (or squabs I think they’re called) over the past couple of months.

The big supermarket shop still happens but lockdown has encouraged us to use smaller farm shops and our local market much more frequently. These are the very positive changes we’ve gradually introduced to our lives.

Hopefully I will feel the urge to carry on blogging but I don’t feel quite so pressured. If there are weeds in the borders to be tackled or coffee and cake to be had on the patio, then I know what’s more important now. Plus, we do have some travel plans. We’ve just returned from the Peak District and have some UK trips on the horizon.

Watch this space!