I did stuff today!

 Real stuff! With other people and everything! With CHRISTMAS CAROLS! (happy sigh)

I've been volunteering with a group called Trees for Farms, who work with conservation groups and farmers to plant trees and hedgerows. For a few weeks we have been digging out a bank for a new hedgerow on a farm in Conyer (about 8 km from here) and today we planted it. It's actually quite hard work (my lower back and arse are shouting now. "Oh really? WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CLUE?").  It wasn't raining, the sun even broke through for a bit, and it was good to be outside, working, even if planting trees implies an optimism for the future that I don't particularly share right now. It reminded me of a phrase my beautiful cousin Maria shared with me years ago from Martin Luther: (transl) "If I knew that tomorrow the world would be destroyed, I would still plant today my little apple tree."

I cycled to Conyer and back (arse: WE KNOW) (do you think arse should be plural? I suppose we only have one, but there are two buttocks which implies some degree of plurality. I think plural - if only because on one of the yoga videos I (very) intermittently do, the teacher refers at one point to buttocks in the singular and no matter how relaxed I am at that point it always makes me stop and go, what?)

Anyways, with that and the digging and planting I was pretty tired but the fun was not over as, after lunch, I met with three others from the brass band and we went to the new bandstand area in the recreation ground and recorded a few (socially distanced) carols to be added to the you tube 'Carols (not) in the Marketplace'. Every December, just before Christmas, the town comes out in force to sing carols in the town square with brass band accompaniment. Obviously that can't happen this year, hence some creative work-arounds. Today the sun shone, some onlookers gathered around, and I could have played all afternoon - I would have if I could have convinced the others to stay too. I did try. The other three undoubtedly ended up playing a lot longer than they had intended. 

It's a strange December with no Christmas gigs, no carols in the Christmas markets, no cathedral concerts, no pubs. Even today, when we finished, we were all laughing and packing up and someone said, "To the pub then?" and we all stopped short - because that is exactly what would have happened and now it can't and yet again Covid lands a sucker punch.

There's more brass carols ahead - my friend John and I are hatching plans. They involve a fire pit and the end of our driveway - I'll keep you posted!