Day 56 Monday 18th May

With no decorating to do we are at a bit of a loose end. Obviously, we can’t hop in the van and head off to the coast for the day. Nor can we visit family, much as we would like to. So, we changed the bed linen and did the laundry. This is what an exciting morning looks like in locked-down Britain.

Garden centres are open again, so, we wandered off to one of the local ones this afternoon. We were too late, it had been stripped bare by a swarm of locusts over the weekend. We did manage to find some plants that we wanted, some flowers for the garden at home and runner beans, courgettes, and sweet potatoes for the allotment.

The trip was cut slightly short because I had to be back home by four for a conference call. Work was outlining a few changes in our working practices brought about by the changes in government guidelines. It seems like we are almost back to normal, except the 2-metre rule still applies.

We needed to go up to the allotment to water and put the plants we had bought in. It was a beautiful evening, so we decided to take our dinner up to the allotment and cook it there. There is a single burner gas hob in the shed, so as long as it could be cooked in a single pot we would be fine. A packet of tortellini and a jar of pesto fitted the bill. Some Sauvignon Blanc to wash it down, and we had a dinner fit for gardeners.

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It felt a bit more special than if we had cooked it at home and eaten in the garden. For the first time in eight weeks we were “dining out”.