Monday 23 March:

A beautiful sunny morning… and, in these difficult times, it feels like a bit of a gift. 

Spent time out in our tiny garden for some much-needed tidying, weeding and general sorting… with the bonus of being able to enjoy our coffee out in the open air. Although this was an incredibly small thing, somehow it seems quite important for our mindfulness. I can see the headlines now: “Elderly couple tackle their entire Estate single-handedly in a single day and without the assistance of any mechanical devices” (note: our garden is less than 5 metres square!).

Our lovely greengrocer/deli man, Hugo, made a delivery during the course of the morning… so good that so many of our local, independent, small businesses are going out of their way to help the community. Not sure how long he’ll be able to do this for… he’s clearly overstretched and doing his damndest to meet everybody’s (sensible) needs.

I went down to Bathurst basin again to sketch this afternoon (walked there via Vauxhall Bridge and the harbourside)… sun still shining!

Our new (old) door number was delivered today – so now people actually KNOW where we live again! (see photo).

Lots of pleas for people to stay at home if at all possible and/or for people to social-distance themselves from colleagues and others. I must say, while I was out sketching (in a very isolated spot, I hasten to add!), I observed lots people who were ignoring this advice; blasé builders (a group of whom noisily jumped in the back of a small van together and seemed hell bent on showing each other they weren’t scared of any ‘silly virus’); teenagers sitting close to each other fishing; and old blokes sitting and drinking takeaway teas etc at café tables on the harbourside… and all this nowhere any built-up area.  

After supper, we had our first coronavirus Skype chat! Moira and I chatted to Alice and Dan and it was really nice to feel ‘properly’ in touch with them. We’ll obviously repeat the experience with Ruth, Hannah and Co in due course. Good old technology!

Tonight, we received another reminder of how thoughtful and kind people are being at this difficult time – our neighbours, Matt and Sam (who we only know by sight) from no.32 pushed notes through everyone’s letterboxes offering to help any neighbours who are self-isolating. I managed to speak to them briefly and thank them. 

How brilliant some people can be!
During the course of the evening, Mr Johnson 'addressed the nation' and announced some far-reaching additional measures, including (taken from the BBC website):

1. From tonight, people in Britain will be allowed to leave their homes for only "very limited purposes" - shopping for basic necessities; for one form of exercise a day; for any medical need; and to travel to and from work when "absolutely necessary"
2. People are warned not to meet friends or family members who they do not live with
3. Shopping is only permitted for essentials like food and medicine, and people are advised to do it “as little as you can”
4. Police have powers to enforce the rules, including through fines and dispersing gatherings
5. All shops selling non-essential goods, such as clothing and electronic stores, are ordered to close
6. Libraries, playgrounds, outdoor gyms and places of worship are to close
7. All gatherings of more than two people in public - excluding people you live with - are banned
8. All social events, including weddings and baptisms are banned
9. Funerals are not included in the new restrictions
10. Parks will remain open for exercise but gatherings will be dispersed
11. Restrictions “under constant review” and will be checked again in three weeks. They will be relaxed “if the evidence shows we are able to”. 

Far-reaching indeed! These latest measures won't really affect us - because they more or less mirror the self-imposed restrictions we've been operating for the past 5-6 days... EXCEPT that I won't be able to go out sketching from now (beyond the back garden!).