early morning

It's just after 6 in the morning and I'm sitting on the sofa wrapped up in an afghan and with a cup of hot coffee. The only noise I can hear are birds. I can pick out the blackbird (his name is Alfred), and the great tits, and the collared doves, the rest I'm not always sure. I think it's the wren chittering away.  Lockdown has done what no amount of alarm clocks or good intentions ever managed and turned me into a morning person. On running days I head out the door and I have the streets nearly to myself.

Tomorrow is a bank holiday and it looks like we will have beautiful weather again for it - so much so that I looked at the weather forecast and decided to take today off as well. It's been sunny, but with a north-easterly wind that is shockingly cold. Today the wind turns and we get some heat with that sun. It's grocery day (the excitement!) and one of our favourite pubs, the Shipwright Arms, are doing a beer take out service today, tomorrow and Saturday to see if it helps keep them floating through this all, so I'll bike up this afternoon for some take away pints of Shipwrecked Ale. I miss pubs so much.

This is the 8th week of being at home, and it's fine. We think a lot about food and spend a lot of time cooking and eating which is lovely. We have the time to spend an hour hand rolling pasta dough into tiny farfalle butterflies, or making sushi. We sit outside and watch the birds - there are fledglings everywhere and they are surprisingly entertaining. Yesterday two fat robin fledglings sat on the fence with the two adults flying back and forth feeding them with meal worms from the feeder. As soon as one worm disappeared the little beak was open again and I swear the adult robin sighed and rolled its eyes :) This week we also saw a kestral right up close on one of our walks - you could see the coral brown of its breast feathers and hear the whoosh as it swept across the field in front of us - amazing.

Work is busy enough - we are working on what our buildings will look like once we start opening up again - euphemistically called "the  new normal" - a phrase which makes my stomach ache slightly. It looks like it will involve a lot of perspex screens and queuing. None of it seems very normal, new or otherwise.

It's almost time to eat some breakfast and saddle up my trusty steed. On grocery day I cycle up to Macknades, our farm shop, but I leave an hour before it opens and go for a quiet bike ride through the countryside first. I barely ever see cars on the lanes, although last week I nearly ran over a chicken that had escaped out of its enclosure so there are still dangers! The hedgerows are full of birds and blossom,  and everything is vibrant and green and noisily alive. The trees meet overhead to make tree tunnels and every now and then you crest a hill and see the morning mist rising on the fields and orchards. I cut back through the field behind the farm shop and by the time I lock up my bike and grab my grocery bags I am tired and happy.

I'll take my phone on my errands today and take some pictures for you x