A Year With Covid-19 Gone By
Covid-19 Reflection
Beautiful Violas
This week we are taking the unusual (first time ever) step of reposting an earlier story. For the very good reason that it is exactly a year since we wrote SID (Self Isolation Day) and it is interesting to look back and remember our thoughts. This was the start of our mid-week blog.
If you scan down, the steam enthusiasts will see the last time we went to a heritage railway and it just happened to be “The Most Famous Steam Engine in the World”. The Flying Scotsmen. Look at the railway posters and you will see the name of our favourite artist. Terence Cuneo. We promised then to write a story about him. Well we have and it would’ve been today’s story. but now put back a week to allow for this reflection.
S I D
We started a story called “What if”. It’s still relevant and follows later. But, as we all know, the situation is changing so rapidly that by the time this is posted it will have completely changed again. So we are posting an exceptional mid week blog.
Today, Monday 16 March, is SID (Self Isolation Day) at Laurel Cottage. Waking up to the sunshine of a world in turmoil. Bobby himself with “elderly and heart condition” qualifications to choose to self isolate. During that first hour we walked round the cottage taking pictures. No idea why, but it seemed a good idea.
“When I wake up in the morning”
Bill Withers
But first. People choose all sorts of ways to express their emotions. Creative people may compose music, write poetry, write stories. Some create unique artwork, like our friend Kate:
We are delighted to tell you that Kate has agreed to honour Mindfully Bertie by presenting an exhibition of her unique artwork on a future blog.
Pictures at 08.00 on 16 March 2020. S.I.D.
Thank you Giselle and Daisy-Mae.
The window box.
Football. Reading. The Life and Times of Mr Pussy. The all important notebook.
The family.
Another window box.
The front door. Not a prison door, but a door to the countryside. Avoiding social contact.
Window on a beautiful world. The garden, the birds and Redlands in the distance.
The birds that we will look after, no matter what. Goldfiches. Siskins later. Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, Tits, Robins, Starlings, Blackbirds, Greenfinches and more.
Tea towels and posters. Rude magnets from Diddley.
Our favourite poem. Our favourite picture. The new member of the Mindfully Bertie team to be introduced soon. Hefyn Hare. A Welsh talking picture.
Through the front room window.
Doesn’t he just love those planes and vehicles. Especially Concorde and the Vulcan.
Old and new buses. Some 1950. Some 2019.
Brother and sister. Bobby and Wendy.
Diddley’s favourite. The bluebird window.
Tracey Emin deckchair on the staircase wall. Don’t magnify the writing if you are easily offended!
Where’s Eamonn? With Carol who knit his new scarf.
Panic buying. Who noticed? The bow tie is back.
Just a few days ago, before S I D, we started drafting “What if”. Seems a pity to waste it:
What If?
What if, what if, what if, what if,
What if, what if, what if, what if, what if,
What if, what if, what if, what if, what if,
What if, what if, what if, what if, what if,
What if, what if, what if, what if, what if,
What if, what if, what if, what if, what if, …
Bertie: “You OK, Bobby?”
Bobby: “Yes! Why?”
Bertie: “You seem distant. A little preoccupied. Miles away. Maybe a little GADish, do you think?”
Bobby: “No… I am no different to anyone else. With so much going on in the world, it’s only natural I am thinking of ‘what ifs’. Even on S I D.”
Bertie: “But how often you think ‘what if’ is the clue to how normal or how GADish you might be? How often in an hour, day, week, month do you think ‘what if’? Honestly?”
Bobby: “Honestly Bertie, the only time at present I am not thinking ‘what if’ is when I am distracted.”
Bertie: “Like how?”
Bobby: “Going to the gym. Exercising with headphones from Chopin to Dire Straits and all in-between.
Going to Al-Anon.
Going to the pictures. ‘Portrait of a Woman on Fire’ was good.
Sitting on Diddley’s Bench with you.”
Bertie: “Umm. A couple of years ago, you told us how a bad attack of GAD was relieved by the Flying Scotsman.”
Bobby: “You wont believe this, Bertie. The Flying Scotsman has helped me back onto the right track again. At the Watercress Line a few weeks ago. I didn’t take you because, much as I love you, you distract everybody and I craved anonymity”
Bertie: “Seen it all before, Bobby. I did like Thomas the Tank Engine.”
“Why Worry”
Dire Straits
Finding Serenity with the Flying Scotsman at the Watercress Line.
Ropley, Flying Scotsman.
Ropley.
Ropley.
From out of the window on a glorious day
“Cheltenham”. Schools Class.
Alresford. Flying Scotsman.
Ivatt tank engine.
Last Train of the Day.
Last train of the day pulled by 506… “Tony’s engine”.
First Class. So comfortable the silly old sod slept through most of the last journey of the day.
And Finally, Some Station Posters.
Terence Cuneo painted the original. He will be the subject of a future story.
Bleedin dangerous years ago.
We love the Isle of Wight.
Trainspotters loved the “West Country” engines. Bobby had to wait until adulthood before he finally visited those magical places in the West Country.
Cheerio for now, Flying Scotsman.
Since we wrote this, all those distractions bar one have gone. So now it’s the biggest one of all. The glorious countryside. Not just here at Denbies Hillside, but all over the place in reach of a car journey where we can walk on our ownsome away from people. We did go to one last concert at our local church, St Mary Magdalene. An amazing piano recital by possibly the only one handed (left) pianist in the world.
But for now, it’s a world where no-one knows where we are going next. If you are self isolating and having an S I D, don’t expect too much of yourself. It’s a completely new experience for most of us. One that will take time to adjust to. Those who have lived frantic, creative lives have always yearned for ‘more time’. Now they have got it, they may not know at first what to do with it!
Our advice is to take it easy. Try to eat well. And, if you can, the fresh air will lift our spirits.
Lighting a Candle for Diddley is new and reflects the hope for the future:
Lighting a Candle for Diddley 2021
Beautiful Violas will bring joy to our garden this spring and summer.
The candle is in a glass dedicated to BOB. Established in the 1800s, Wickwar Wessex Brewery is part of Wessex folklore. Stories abound, telling tall tales of their beer and how they came into being. Take BOB, the brewery’s classic amber ale; they say that old Bob White told the tallest tales in the whole of England, including the one about the magical dousing rod bestowed with the power to lead a man to the perfect tankard of ale. Now Bobby tells everyone he doesn’t drink alcohol any more. Everyone near where he lives, that is. When he goes back to the Cotswolds later this year, he will lift a glass or three of BOB to the memory of the incomparable Diddley. But only in the course of duty…
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