Lockdown in Leeds

I had a nice long video chat with a cousin in Jo'burg, South Africa : he is continuing to work from home and they are managing alright. He reports that the Covid case numbers there are remarkably low because of stringent lockdown measures. I find this very surprising given the density of the people in the townships, but well done nevertheless. He said that his daughter was now at Pretoria university and he recently went to pick her up. During the journey he was stopped a couple of times by the police in road blocks."

then 4 weeks later

Last Thursday was the final clapping for NHS heroes night so we wait to see what will replace it, somebody is bound to think up a new routine. The month of May was declared to be one of the driest on record after the wettest February, weird times.

- reports from a relative in Surrey 1/5/2020 & 1/6/2020

. .

- - - - - - - - -

Lockdown in Somerset, in the west of England.

We are lucky to live in a lovely village on the edge of the Somerset levels, below Ham Hill, part of a range of hills in our area.
We live in a square, in a house part of three in a row, with amazing neighbours. We know all of them, some better than others and we have been blessed by offers of help re shopping etc. Our community shop delivers each week and stocks all the basic groceres plus newspapers and a few magazines. We have a fruit and veg shop and a butcher in a neighbouring village three miles away, who deliver each week. And if you're lucky you can get a slot in Tesco, one of the supermarkets in the town near us. I have been lucky to get three so far. So, extremely well looked after. It was difficult at first having to work out what food we needed from each shop, as one is used to just going into one large shop to buy everything!

. .

Online Delivery slots were like gold dust for at least a month into Lockdown

Because our village is very quiet we feel perfectly safe going for walks about three times a week. Everyone says hallo, I even had a greeting from a passing cyclist, many young people cycle through each day for their daily exercise.

Spring has been wonderful here, flowering trees galore, and with dilegent watering the very small garden we have has managed to cope with the drought we have had for about the last six weeks. Odd to pray for rain here but it does happen.

Our churches are all closed but our church in Yeovil does a service online and our son who runs a church in north London does the same. We can actually get any church in the country virtually, as they are all either on You Tube or Facebook. I am on Facebook at the moment so that I can see my son and keep in touch with the grandchildren.

Our daughter lives in Surrey, her husband who is an independent builder has had to stop work temporarily and our son who lives in Sweden, in Stockholm seems to be carrying on as normal, except for some social distancing. They did very well to start with we gather but cases of the virus are building now. Our 25 year grandson there has probably had a mild version of the virus for a day or two, and our daughter-in-law in London the same. Our son and his family have a lovely boat so can go out in the archipelago when they like and cruise round the islands. It is a really beautiful place and we had thirty years of holidays with them staying on an island and going everywhere in a small boat for shopping etc. Sadly as my husband is now 89 this year he can no longer cope with flying and airports so that has stopped.  We normally live a very quiet life due to his age: no long distance driving so the children and grandchildren have to come to us when they can; no weekends away, so things are much the same as usual.

We keep in touch with friends by phone or emails and are really looking forward to being able to go back to our church and seeing all our friends there as it is a big part of our life. We are praying for this situation to be overcome very soon.

a friend with whom I used to play social bridge around 1990 - now living near Yeovil 1/6/2020

- - - - - - - - - -

Lockdown beside the sea in Sussex

Boris has confused everyone with our way forward. People should go back to work, but most children aren’t at school, so the
parents don’t have childcare and so on. I would rather stay as we are at the moment while the number of cases is slowly 
going down. I do want to go home, but we have settled into a peaceful life here, with the occasional excitement like last
week’s VE Day street party.    David was right not to be impressed by Prof. Ferguson. Look what a mess he got himself into!

Street party for V E Day in a Sussex Village . . . . . . Our Silverseas friends 'locked' outside their house there

 - - - - - - - - 

Then 7 weeks later 

A Silverseas friend and social bridge player, 15/3/2020, 3/5/2020 and 2/6/2020

Lockdown in Bedfordsbire

Mike & Val Lawson locked down in Maulden, Bedfordshire

We are both well, thanks, and playing some online bridge. I’ve never played online before, but its good to be able to do it 
while we are spending so much more time at home.    Interested to see your blog and where everyone is locked down. I wouldn’t 
mind being locked down in Peru as I’d like to do some more travelling in South America. But on second thoughts it is better to
 be locked down where you mainly live and where your family and relatives live.    My youngest son regularly comes round with
 his children and we walk down to the park (keeping social distancing of course). And we have had excellent summer weather 
since mid-April which makes lockdown a lot more bearable.    A common sight these days is to see a group of people standing in
 front of a house talking to their family or friends through the window or front door as they can’t go inside. And because so
 many people are working from home they have more time to do odd jobs like car-washing and gardening. So lots of clean cars 
and tidy gardens around!

M L 21/5/2020

His grandchildren with Val - before lockdown! Mike winning the Triples at Maulden Bowls Club . His local church, St Mary's

. . .

News from Essex, my natal county

I was made aware of the work done into the effects of Covid 19 on society by a genealogical contact

Institute for Social and Economic Research

University of Essex

https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/

Lockdown in Sheffield

A friendship lasting 60 years

Still relying on the odd takeaway meal to make a change - saving a fortune! 

Has it been tough, not really. We have a great garden which is looking better than it ever has, many clearance jobs that
have been put off for years have been completed. The river Avon is at the bottom of the garden - the most noticeable change
has been the proliferation of paddle boards and inflatable canoes, where have they all come from? No motor boats for hire 
in town, so peace reigns. A family of swans and four cygnets turn up every day for some food and so far have escaped the 
attention of foxes and the Pikes in the river.  We both play golf and that is now fully available, but we have been 
disciplined about daily walks during its unavailability. Have been meeting friends in respective gardens for drinks (sorry
Boris) with no hugging etc. Main concern is lack of seeing grandchildren, will they forget us? FaceTime ok but they, 4 & 6, say 
hello, pull a few funny faces and get on with whatever they were doing!!  Just waiting now for the UK inbound quarantine
period to be abolished, hopefully by July as there is so much pressure on the Govt

. .