so how many weeks is it now?

Just to think, it was this day last week that Boris came on the television and confused us all with his road map to unlocking the lockdown. For many in the country the weather has been gorgeous which has led to masses of people heading out. Perhaps rather further a field than necessary.

For us in Scotland, the lockdown is still firmly on. And l cant say that l am upset. Our R number is still rather high according to the poisoned dwarf, Nicola Sturgeon. Cant say l like the women's policies, but she has done exceedingly well at the rostrum during this crisis.

Unlike the press. I am perhaps swayed towards Alan Sugars comments in Twitter posted on Facebook by my friend Sandy.

The post claims that critical journalists are “missing the mood of this great country” by trying to “trip up” politicians about coronavirus. The post adds: “It is time you all changed your negative and political rhetoric for the health of this nation and start supporting our government.”

Where to start.

Well, it seems as though the author of this post – and in turn Lord Sugar – fundamentally doesn’t understand the job of journalists.

The whole point of journalism is to scrutinise people in power. To make sure they’re telling the truth. Or else we risk turning into a totalitarian state where all information is sanctioned and controlled by the government of the day.

I feel that as many have said, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

It is a horrendous virus that no one has a handle on. There is so much information that scientists and politicians would wish to keep out of the media, basically to not causing unbelievable panic. 

But newspapers and broadcasters are trying to sell news, advertising and increase views. They need to sensationalise everything. 

Unfortunately it’s the way of the world.

Personally l think the government are doing a fairly good job considering, but they could have done better with hindsight, but they didn’t have a crystal ball.

My concern is that if everyone keeps attacking the government, they will need to take their eye of the ball to keep answering questions and quantifying every step. It’s an impossible situation.

On a more positive note, we have been able to crack on with the garden, both the hidden and the back garden. Although we have run out of the black Cuprinol Ducksback that we paint the wood with. We tried locally and on line but to no avail. All the DIY's seems out of stock, presume everyone is busy getting the odd jobs done, the same as us.

Judith persevered and kept searching on line, eventually coming up with a company in Folkestone. The price was excellent and the shipping costs low. More importantly, royal mail delivered all eight tins within five days.

Down side its now RAINING cats and dogs 

Interesting image compared to the reality, not so impressive.

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And the forecast for the following week isn't too bright either. The only day it shouldn't  rain is Wednesday. But we live in a micro climate, so it could be back in the glorious Mediterranean sun by tomorrow. We can only hope. 

We have all the timber for the fencing, it now only needs to be painted. Perhaps we will be fortunate enough to get it all done on Wednesday, if that is the only dry day this coming week.

Post for the screens fitted, waiting for the timbers to be ripped into narrower strips and cut to size. But first we paint.

This section of the garden will be split into two. A gravel garden with grasses and a Japanese themed garden. Should be fun.

Wild flowers along the edge are just appearing, although the deer have already taken the tops of the geraniums out the front.

Vegetable seedlings are just starting to come up. But its slow. Its taken some four weeks to germinate.

Completed the small patio in the hidden garden. Its the afternoon, early evening G&T area.

Its a veritable hot spot, no wind, just heat once the sun is out. 

Still quite a bit of work to do. But time is on our side at present. 

Its amazing how much sea traffic there is during this lockdown

Fred our resident male pheasant keeps turning up for his food 

A few slices of sough dough for breakfast. Made it last night. Its always better after a day. lashings of butter and ginger preserve. Delicious. Although l do get told off by Judith. She worries about my cholesterol.

 

My bowl of sough dough Mother bubbling away ready for the next loaf.

I haven't baked for awhile, due to lack of flour. But managed to find a health food shop in Dunoon that has bulk organic flour. So should be ok for the next month.

On another trawl through the New York Times l came across a fantastic thread about mapping out your day in lock down. The original article shows people how to make an Illustrated Map in 8 steps.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/travel/how-to-make-an-illustrated-map-in-8-steps.html?referringSource=articleShare

Then it moves onto this:

Add caption

Well it seems that a handful of demonstrators headed into the parks in London yesterday, Saturday 16th May. Fortunately, only armed with placards and banners and obscure messages adorning their clothing. Feel sorry for the police who had to put themselves in danger as they tried to usher the few though the masses of journalists and photographers. 

Everyone in the UK has the right to free speech, but they don’t have the right to put other people at risk, flouting distancing rules and potentially spreading the virus. 

According to the press, the few that were there purported that the virus is just an excuse to control the masses. Corbyn's brother, Piers was declaring that “5G and the coronavirus pandemic was a pack of lies to brainwash you and keep you in order”. Others had placards with slogans like “anti vax deserves a voice”, “freedom over fear” and “civil rights over a fake virus” 

It makes me wonder how these people handle the fact that we are heading towards 500,000 deaths in the world.35,000 in the UK alone. But there will always be conspiracy theorists around, who’s mind is set on unbelievable and way out beliefs. You only need to go online and see how many societies are formed on impossible scenarios, such as The Flat Earth society. Even Wikipedia has an extensive list of accounts and theories. Some people need to live in a parallel world, away from normality as the majority recognise. Will stop here. I am not a professional psychologist. In fact, l perhaps could benefit from the help of one on some occasions. Fortunately, the majority of people do take notice of the advise and stay safe, and don't deliberately go out of their way to be controversial and endanger life.

Moving on quickly.

Weather has deteriorated. Even more rain, and the ground that was rock solid is now a glupe.

The only good news is that the empty water buts are now overflowing.

 

 

The woodland garden and bird feeding station is doing an excellent job of putting us in touch with the local nature. Even though the deer seem to enjoy nibbling away at our plants.The female seems to be ready to pop. She has had twins most years. But l am not sure if its the mother who is pregnant or one of the offspring.

The male is still barking first thing in the morning. The only signs are the hoof prints left in the clay earth around our vegetable beds.