Well, we came out of lockdown, and then pretty much immediately had to participate in “surge testing” for the South African variant of the virus, which had popped up in our local area.
It was like, Happy reopening! …now go get tested. (Ours were negative.)
But fortunately, school has resumed following the Easter holidays, and pretty much all the kids’ activities have resumed as well. So we’ve been trying to get back into a routine after a very disjointed start to this year.
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Today, Monday, April 12, was a big one for removing quite a few of the restrictions we’ve all been under since Christmas. Domestic travel and holiday lets are now allowed, so some of my friends and neighbours have packed up their cars and gone off to various English country- or seaside locales for the remainder of the school holidays.
Retail shops and gyms could reopen, salons and barber shops could welcome back the desperate and ungroomed (that would be a good name for a soap opera, no?), and restaurants and pubs could once again serve diners and drinkers, as long as they were outdoors. People have been very excited for this day, and are hungry for a taste of the former freedoms and simple pleasures we once took for granted.
So it seemed like a particularly cruel joke when we woke up to this:
HRH Prince Philip died yesterday, at the age of 99.
The nation has gone into mourning, so I’ve heard, but we’ve already been deep in that due to our own personal loss this week.
Easter Sunday was a very sad day for us, as we said goodbye to our beloved dog, Wren. It’s been a difficult week, to say the least.
Meet Rose and Violet. They are very egg-cited for the Easter bonnet parade.
The three things you see most at Easter in England are 1. hot cross buns, 2. chocolate eggs, and 3. children on parade, wearing homemade Easter bonnets. So I had to incorporate all these things into my Easter mouse hole scene.
Walks Between the Commons 