So it goes on, the tragedy of coronavirus, it doesn’t deserve a capital letter. I hope you are coping.
We are in total lock down which has been easier over the good weather also the highlight is Thursday evenings when we walk to the gate and join the neighbours clapping in support of those in public service. The horns from the docks and fireworks and us calling greetings up and down the road.
It was originally for those in the NHS and now includes many others we depend on for our lives. I saw a note from a man who is in charge of bin collections – he was pleading with people to wear gloves and wash their hand throughly when bringing the bins in and out. He says the men, and some women, are handling hundreds of bins every day and there is a strong chance the virus will be lurking there.
We’ve been fortunate enough to have good service with home delivery but finding a slot is terrifying! I hear that some people sit up all night trying – I wonder if that’s an exeggeration but certainly it’s scary.
We have a bad shelf and a good shelf areas in the kitchen, bags brought into the house wearing gloves, cut the bags and bin, wipe all the messages with bacterial wipes passing from bad area to good area and into storage.
On top of all that I’ve just had a rotator cuff operation and after four weeks I’m still in a sling for another two weeks so I’m only able to use my left arm and hand – and I’m right handed. Everything takes four times longer so life is interesting! Hence these late and random jottings. I feel for everyone who finds it difficult to cope physically especially when they have no help at the moment. What can we do to support them? Very little except to keep in touch by phone and that is so important. Just do it, even people you wouldn’t usually ring, they will appreciate it and when people phone you, you will appreciate such calls as well.
Will all this change our attitudes to life and to each other? I hope so. And I hope above all we will think twice about those who look after us and appreciate their dedication
LOOKING BACK
Just been listening to BBC 4 and the coronation of the queen and Sue MacGregor talking to the bridesmaids and Audrey Russell the BBC commentator has just be speaking. She was in Belfast some years earlier to report on the Queen Mother attending a Territorial Army passing out parade at Girdwood Park and my mother, who always wanted to be a journalist but didn’t follow that path, knew I wanted to follow this as a career path.
So just as Miss Russell was waiting to climb up to her vantage point Mummy pounced! She introduced me, telling this doyen of broadcasting that I wanted to be a journalist. This exemplary woman fixed me with her smiling eyes and said: “I’m so glad you are deciding on this for your future but you must remember one thing. If we didn’t have the men to build this tower for me to stand above the crowd and see her majesty, if we didn’t have the engineers to give me this microphone and plug it into their equipment and send the signal to London and all the people in London to send it out into the wireless in people’s home. So you see me and think I want to be like Audrey Russell but remember, even if you are the person the public see fronting the programme and think your special, you are only a small cog in a big wheel.” With a big smile and a hand shake she said; “I wish you success in a wonderful career.” Best advice I ever got.
Although Easter weekend is over time still time hangs heavy when you’re in lock down. I know some families who are prolonging the celebration by garden competitions while the fair weather lasts and in the house when it turns wet. Very still this morning and it could go either way.
While picnics at the seaside aren’t possible the garden will probably be the place to develop a centre for fun. You can still take advantage of hen’s eggs and competitions as to who can draw the funniest face on a boiled egg or the most beautiful design. Colour is fascinating for children so pens or paints to the fore. And before that, to make them a bit different put a couple of teabags in the boiling water and they will stain the shell a lovely dark brown, we used to gather whin blossom to put into the boiling water for a vibrant yellow finish but you can also achieved this using onion skins. Of course, at the end of the afternoon, a prize ceremony must follow with speeches and a fashion show.
What’s the difference between brown and white eggs? There isn’t any. Why are there brown and white eggs? Because different breeds of hen lay different colours, no big mystery.
April Fool
I remember one April First I wrote an article about hen’s eggs which were being laid with bands of black and white on the shell thanks to a newly developed feed which had to be fed to the chickens 15 minutes apart – one scoop from the white bag and then one from the black bag. This resulted in the unique banding! Quite a reaction, shops wanted to know where they could obtain them and a farmer asked me where he could get the new feed!
Food colouring added to water in a vase of flowers is an interesting thing for children to try, red, blue or green – I think it’s a horrible idea and I avoid artificially coloured blooms but it’s a good experiment and if you have some food colouring in the house use for the egg decoration competition.
Lovely to have flowers round the house if you are lucky enough to have some in the garden to cut and bring in but I find they droop quite soon. To revive choice blooms that have faded, plunge the stems into hot water and allow them to remain until the water has cooled. By that time the flowers will have revived. The ends of the stems should then be cut off and the blossoms placed in cold water in the usual way. That’s the theory anyway. Tulips are fascinating, tall and proud one day and a creeping mess the next. Apparently if you stab them with a pin on the stem just below the petals it allows air to be released and they remain standing to attention. I find that a tall vase or bottle is best with the flowers popping out the top.
I have a great fondness for lavender in any shape or form. A little perfume rubbed on a light bulb (before you turn it on) will fill the room with scent. I also used it in a television studio when interviewing a dog handler. He brought along two doberman pinschers and in the excitement and under the bright lights they became very agitated and threatening. I asked if I could waft a tissue with lavender essence under their noses to calm them. He laughed and said go ahead. Worked like a dream, they lay at my feet docile and loveable.
It Works For People Too.
Provided you don’t have low blood pressure, a few drops of pure lavender essence on your pillow will help you sleep, it will help you stay calm in a tricky situation, a few breaths in before an interview or a tricky social situation for example, when that time comes again, will work wonders and when you walk in enveloped in a cloud of perfume it will please everyone. I also use a drop on a cut or a burn but dilute it in a little water first. I also notice midges don’t favour lavender although bees do circle twice in case you are a tasty flower.
This is a tough time for everyone but for children it must be both frightening and confusing, everything normal in their little lives has been taken from them and they are left living with confusion. I came across a web sight that might help parents keep them occupied during Easter and thereafter. Just type ‘CORONAVIRUS: 10 boredom-busting ideas for kids during COVID-19′ into the search engine and you’ll find a lot of imaginative ways of filling time constructively within the family. This comes fro the National adult Literacy Agency. Useful information for grandparents to pass on.
Eat an Alphabet
For instance. ’Get your kids to describe how hungry they are – starting with the letter A take turns. The trick is to remember what everyone said before you. I’m so hungry I could eat an Apple. I’m so hungry I could eat an Apple and a Banana. I’m so hungry I could eat an Apple, Banana and a Cat!’
Apart from games, a treasure hunt round the garden is good fun, clues to find the hidden objects, even round the house. If you have the ingredients, baking is brilliant, scones are easy and children love to get involved. Favourite with my grandchildren are pancakes, they mix the flour, milk and eggs, a little sugar and a knob of butter and then I pour into the frying pan. Being ultra careful, they are allowed to toss them and so what if they hit the ceiling or ‘splosh’ on the floor.
Back To Eggs
If any of the family cut themselves my granny immediately cracked an egg and teased out the membrane which lines the inside of the shell, She’d lay it over the cut and as it dried it drew the skin together to knit.
I remember being sent for cracked eggs for baking but she would often boil them for sandwiches and to stop the insides popping out she’d add a little vinegar to the water and she always plunged the bread knife into boiling water before quickly cutting the new loaf of bread, no crumbling or tearing and as thin as you like.
Aren’t eggs just the most useful little things. Versatile, you can eat them, play with them, blow the insides out, paint them and string them up as decorations – there’s a challenge for the children. I know one young man who, at the age of seven, sneaked half a dozen eggs out of the fridge and threw them at the wall of the garage just for fun. The look of naughty delight on his face cracked me up – just had to laugh. Keep safe, keep at home, keep talking to each other.
