Friday 15th May 2020

We did good thing.

But more of that later.

And is Friday, jut one almost full working day until the freedom of the weekend. And with the lockdown eased, for whatever reason, we could, in theory, go further.

I should have done exercise in the morning. I really should have. But, I wasn't motivated, there were chores to do, Jools had her yoga class, and I had to be ready for work as usual at half seven, but then had three and a half hours of meetings until 11, so I had to have breakfast, if not eaten then ready to eat.

I mean, I could have done it all in the time available. But didn't. I drank coffee, took the garden waste out, topped up the bird feeders and and breakfast.

Had it all done in time, whilst Jools did yoga whilst being shadowed by Scully who normally isn't bothered by anything, but seems wanted to be on Zoom too.

No real change with the morning meeting, we are all well and looking forward to the weekend, and they looking forward to the bars and pubs opening on Wednesday next week, for them it might really be the last weekend of the lockdown. For us, probably going to be a lot longer than that.

Straight after there is the weekly auditor's alignment meeting, where we auditors talk about audits and audit related stuff. While Jools goes to Tesco.

The council tip is open, but the queue is all the way back to the Whitfield roundabout, apparently. Jools gets into Tesco and does ours and Walter's shopping. It takes two hours.

One meeting ends and another begins.

And then there is the weekly 1:1 with my boss, and an hour later another meeting about future meetings.

That was the morning.

By the time I am done, Jools has come back, unpacked and put the shopping away. So, we have lunch, a fresh ham roll and a brew.

I have some mails to write, but am done for the week at half two, and why not do some orchiding?

Why not?

We drive to Woolage to check on the Birds Nests and White Helleborines. This is the only reliable site I know of for Birds Nest, but the last two years were very disappointing; three spikes two years ago and just the one last year.

We park on the road to avoid going into the village, nip in the wood and there was helleborines, one even in flower, and of a decent size too.

But no matter how hard we searched, there was no Birds Nest at all. I even searched at the far east end of the wood, but there was nothing.

And to top the experience off, I stood in a huge pile of dog's eggs and it stunk to high heaven.

I scrape what I could off, and we drive down the hill to Barham.

We park in the wood, I have my camera and ring flash, so we walk to the path and into the wood. It is peak Lady season, and scattered around the side of the wooded hillside are groups of Lady. There was a pure white one, and one with just a hint of colour on her bonnet.

The Fly are also at their peak, and there is over 30 spikes, most with multiple flowers open.

I snap them too, but it seems my camera was on f16, and most shots come out blurred.

Bugger.

Still, I know what I saw.

And then up the bridleway to check on the Lesser Butterfly, where again numbers have crashed in recent years, i search and search, and do find a single large rosette, but it had been nibbled, and no flower will come now.

I walk back down and go to meet Jools at the car. We are hot and I am bothered, but more good orchiding, even with the two species being a disappointment.

We drive home, where even though it is half four, there is little traffic. It feels very odd even still.

Once home we call our friend, Gary.

Gary, and his wife Julie, are or were disabled. Five years ago Gary got certified disabled for life, so that should have been that. But, Tory cuts wait for no one, and punishing the poor, the sick, the old and disabled for the greed of the Bankers leading up to the 2008 crash mean that all have to be re certified for the "new" benefit scheme.

The both lost their mobility allowance, and what money they still get has been slashed. And so they lost their mobility car, and now have to make do with one borrowed from Gary's son. Losing several hundred quid a month when you don' get that much is hard.

And we have paid for the Corsa. It is ours, and we also have the Audi, and the thrill of being a two car family paled, as with the lockdown only Jools mostly went out, so one was always parked up. The Audi has to be under the car port as the drive is only wide enough there to be able to open the doors. If she uses the Audi them the Corsa had to be parked on the road, and then there is next door.

They have two cars, and now that their son is staying, three cars. The spaces in front of their house are theirs, they park in such a way when they go out on one of them so that one car straddles two spaces, and see ours as free game. One time two weeks ago we were going to go straight out, so parked in one of the spaces in front of their house, and we heard comments about "being so childish". Might not have been about us, but we think it was.

Jools moved the car back onto the drive, and they moved their car from in front of ours to in front of theirs. And since then, outside our house has been empty.

But the two car thing wasn't going to work, so initially we asked if they wanted to by the Corsa, but then we decided to give it to them.

So we did.

Not that they can go far, but they have a car now and we have just the one.

We come home for dinner; piss poor ribs from Tesco, jut with buttered Jersey Royals and creamed spinach, which hit the spot.

Being a Friday, there was Gardener's World, but a sad one, as Monty's dog, Nigel, had died in its sleep earlier that week, and although the program went on as normal, there was a tribute to the golden retriever at the end.

Sleep well, Nigel.