Thunderstorms through the night. They are of the theatrical variety. Lots of gutter rattling thumps but gentle rain, no hail and only occasional lightning.
In the valley the cows are sitting on top of the bank to avoid the small muddy lake that's formed lower down. Sophie puts her head down and hurries past them. One cow looks at us ,the others ignore us. That's just fine by Sophie.
Second walk of the morning. The traffic on the lane is heavier than usual as lockdown restrictions are increasingly ignored. We wave at the man with anger management issues. He's off to work in a little Peugeot provided by the garage as a courtesy car. His Qashqai is in for its MoT which is taking longer than anticipated. ' They're waiting for a part ' he tells me through a crack in his window. Shortly after he's gone the young garagiste in the little black Citroen with the raspy exhaust passes. ' Changing my car. My wife's expecting next week ' he says from a suitably safe distance. I wish him well. ' Replacing this with a BMW ' he adds proudly . The BMW is to be a low mileage 3 series in metallic charcoal grey with air con. The joys of fatherhood.
The Moor Hens on the village pond are completely unbothered by our passage. Mother, father and the four little ones parade happily across the water lily leaves. If Angus had his i-Phone camera with him they would remain firmly hidden in the undergrowth.
Angus checks the local pandemic website. Our department has had 3 deaths and 14 folks hospitalized. Out here we're remote and unfashionable. Data from the US shows that counties with prisons or large care homes have much higher incidences than counties which lack these facilities. We have a large 'special needs' home 10 kilometres away. The government put it into strict quarantine in early March which seems to have done the trick. The poor matron has had an awaful time explaining why families can't see their relatives. A police car is often partked outside the main gate.
A sign of the times : https://www.foodandwine.com/news/1000-year-old-mill-reopens-flour-demand?utm_source=digg
6 comments:
You clearly have very smart animals in your neighborhood - Sophie, of course it goes without saying, but now the cows and even the moor hens who are able to detect that you don't have your phone. Very impressive.
It's still hard to have any confidence in the pandemic statistics for Japan. The reported numbers are quite low but at the same time there are warnings that the medical system is at risk of collapse. We are about to head into the Golden Week holiday period, when people typically travel. The government is trying very hard to persuade people they should really, really stay home this year, but there are no teeth in it, so we will see how it goes.
Many more people out here, too. I still haven't seen a gendarme controle.
Spoke to a relative who works in an ambulance in the middle of the U.S. When France announced confinement, he insisted the pandemic was a hoax by liberals to bring down Trump (even France and Italy were participating!). Two weeks later, he admitted it was serious and that an EMT friend had Covid-19, but he was sure the U.S.'s superior health system would quash it soon. Yesterday, there were 8 EMTs hospitalized and he was upset that schools and businesses were reopening, that people weren't realizing how serious it was. I hope his evolution is typical of other Trump voters.
OTOH, another relative, who voted for Trump but then soured on him, thinks it's outrageous to give unemployment benefits to people for sitting around their homes. They should get jobs as delivery people or at supermarkets, he says. His own job can be done from home, and the actual factory work was roboticized years ago.
I love the description of the old flour mills as "the kind of benignly historical site where groups of British schoolchildren are willing to display an interest in its circa-1611 construction and its souvenir tea towels if it means getting a day out." I remember well those sort of school outings!
So far, Grampian region has suffered from relatively few coronavirus cases. For once, being relatively remote from the county's centre of gravity, usually seen as a problem, is working to our advantage. But here too a weak spot has been the care homes. I desperately hope that protecting our elderly and vulnerable folk will rise up the list of the nation's priorities in the post-pandemic regime.
Hari OM
It's hard to not look at the numbers - but it also pays to remember that they will be anything but accurate. That doesn't mean that there aren't huge differences in areas; Lothian is faring rather well versus Glasgow/Inverclyde, which is by far the worst hit in Scotland. The country as a whole is hovering around 4-5% infection (per testing positive) of the whole UK figure, so, as Gail has said, there are some advantages to living north of the Border. The big issue is that a tiny fraction of the population has actually been tested. YAM xx
Interesting that in France there are many more people about, ignoring restrictions. My poolman was here this morning and said that one of his clients had arrived over the weekend, having driven all the way from Germany. We are still on lockdown here and can't travel further than the local supermarket or Farmacy, so wonder how he managed to avoid all the police roadblocks at all major junctions into town. We can only assume he came via backroads all the way!
We're starting to ease restrictions--to see how it goes. Most recent deaths have been from a nursing home, where a carer with sniffles did 6 shifts without realising it was C-19.
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