Recently, I had my second AZ jab at the Devizes Corn Exchange (used for the significant scene in the old version of Far From the Madding Crowd). As last time it was splendidly arranged with no waiting around and no reaction afterwards. But I was really pleased to find that I was being jabbed by the Royal Navy. I spotted the doctor in his summer uniform but wasn't put in his queue. The young orderly in mine was wearing what looked like a blue tee-shirt under his PPE and around his neck a lanyard saying HMS Raleigh. He was really surprised to come across someone who knew what that meant (it's a training establishment near Plymouth) and who had worked for the Navy. He was even more surprised to find someone as ancient as me was still working, and now for the US Navy. He got really interested and we fell to talking. For him a welcome break from what must have been a very boring day. A little bit of a queue built up (two people waiting not one) so we parted with mutual expressions of esteem. Afterwards I celebrated with a cappucino and almond croissant at an outside table at Caffe Nero, before some necessary shopping. Marvellous. My first for months.
The shopping had more mixed success. You cannot get Kenco Duo cappucino packets for love or money in Devizes, nor Black ink cartridges for HP printers. So one guesses from that what an awful lot of people have been doing in the lock-down. On the HP web they are 'out of stock' too. Roll on normality, whenever that comes is what I say. What this - and my second jab- means for my prospective return to Newport if only to close down the operation and recover /dispose of the car load of stuff I have in the garage of the Carriage House, I still can't say. I certainly don't fancy the six hour wait they talk about at Heathrow - and Heaven only knows what the Boston situation is. I'm hoping for greater clarification in a couple of weeks.
Otherwise, continue as before. How I would wish for an end to this wall-to-wall sunshine and cloudless skies. The garden really, really needs rain. I am now on Plan C of preparing for the future with sowing seeds and the like but hardly anything is germinating outside. The combination of drought, frosts and wild animals is deadly. This morning though its grey but still cold and dry. manage the occasional walk
to the canal. Still no otter, but this time a friendly swan, poling along one leg casually hitched up.
Nothing much to report on the wildlife front either. Except that the missing strand in the tapestry, moles, have made a belated appearance too but so far only in the paddock, where they are welcome to make their little hills. A red-legged partridge appeared one evening making its way across the back lawn pecking at the dandelions. The mallards still drop in occasionally but I think have decided against permanently moving in. At one stage I thought they would since Donald's consort (what should be her name ?) nestled down for a while in a clump of tall waterside grass which looked to my untutored eye at least an ideal nest site. But evidently not. I see them ( I think) on the canal too when I pass by that way. Donald sometimes calls in, does a bit of trampolining on the net and the flies off through the darkening evening sky, either to the canal or the small lake in All Cannings I presume. More strangely I encountered them one evening when I was on my constitutional; I came across them waddling along side by side and plainly on theirs, following the path through the woods - for all the world like an old couple taking the evening air. Quite charming. We exchanged pleasantries and went our separate ways.
This weekend two slices of the family came, this time observing the rules by Simon Ruth and Violet staying in the annex while Christopher and Beth hired a canal side barn conversion in nearby Rowde. Tests had been recently taken and all activities were in the open air . The evening was cold of course but the fire bowl once again proved invaluable and after Violet had gone to bed we were all mesmerised by it in truly primeval fashion, imagining unseen eyes watching us from the outside darkness. Now Violet is getting old enough to enjoy such things the old trampoline was resuscitated for her use and the car, though the position of her feet show she hadn't quite got the hang of it yet. She will though - no question. A vey determined young lady.
On the Sunday morning we did the hill walk coming back for once along the bottom of the Wansdyke, out of a very keen wind. Lots of cowslips. From down there the prodigious industry that had created this great pre-Roman ditch some 30 miles long, roughly between Bath and Marlborough is obvious. The sheer labour effort and the organisation behind it both suggest a much more advanced society than we tend to give them credit for. We still don't really know what it was for; far too long really to serve as a military defence without intervening forts and garrisons like Hadrian's Wall; but far too ambitious as a boundary between different tribes.
On Sunday evening, supper at the King's Arms with Christopher and Beth. Outside of course and the service wasn't the fastest in the world. By its conclusion, as dusk fell, we were really cold- and thinking of taking over one of the nearby camper caravans when their owner took his dog off for a walk. We were quite glad to leave in search of warmth, me to my home, them to their barn-conversion by the Kennet and Avon canal.
