May 2020

 May saw things started to improve, there was going to be a test & trace system to better track infections. There was talk of schools opening again for some students, and there was relief for many when it was announced some sporting events were going to be starting again, albeit behind "closed doors", whatever that meant. We had reached a milestone of 40,000 deaths from Covid. Thats was a number I cant even comprehend. Fourty Thousand. And although the death toll was slowing down, we had no idea if it was going to keep going that way, or if something else was going to happen.

Work was getting busier, we were busier than ever picking stock from the shop floor and sending it to customers who had ordered online. We were starting to sell more in store as well, with customers being able to stand near the entrance to the clothing section and asking for items which we would get for them if it was available. Our store manager, who had worked with us throughout, took good care of us, and was a better store manager than I had ever had before.

The only issues was that gaps were starting to form in areas on the shop floor, there had been no clothing deliveries for weeks due to the warehouses closing down and focussing on food items, and obviously shipments of stock had stopped too. There was talk of us reopening clothing areas, and I was dreading to think how we would manage without stock to sell! The stockroom was also empty too, which is never a good sign in retail!

A sad event was that Eurovision was cancelled, and it was shame that for over sixty years it had graced our screens each May, and we would afterwards argue about the result. But Covid-19 put paid to that, as it did to many other events, like the Olympics and the various football tournament's that always seem to be on. But don't worry, I was still be reviewing the songs, and that post will be coming up next.

Here's James exploring the overgrown path in the park, it made such a beautiful picture with the sun shining through the leaves.

That is, until we stumbled across this group of crows (called a murder incidentally) who stood around us and watched intently while we ate a sandwich. We threw a crust to them and then ran away 

A lot of people were putting up rainbows in thier windows, in support of the NHS & key workers. My nan had knitted this amazing rainbow and had hung it up on her door. I noticed it when we dropped thier food shopping off. What a lovely idea, and it made me laugh when she sad she knitted one instead of drawing one because she didnt think she would be able to draw a very good rainbow!

The May weather was beautiful, and with great delight after a couple of weeks of buds, our Peony bush had suddenly burst into flower. Oh they were beautiful!

This was the sight that greeted me on my morning walk. Every morning I would go for a half an hour walk around the block when it was quiet so I would reduce the risk of mixing with people as best I could. I would always take a bag of birdseed with me to feed the pigeons who always looked hungry on the local green. They got so used to me that before I had even got the bag of food out of my pocket they were already running towards me! 

The same black and white cat kept appearing in the area. He looked too well looked after to be a stray, although I couldn't ever get close enough to check if he had a tag on his collar. He would run up to you, rub his head on your leg a couple of times then run off again if you tried to touch him.

The elderflower tree's were in full bloom on the common, we love elderflower cordial, so we thought why not try and make some ourselves? Here's our elderflower with lemon zest, we left it to soak overnight before straining it. I couldn't find the exact recipe we used, but I found this similar one from BBC Good Food which seemed close to the one we used. The funny thing is, I got the recipe from a cookery book that I then gave to the charity shop when I had a clear out of the books. Bloody typical! Here's the BBC Good food one, give it a try next time the elderflower is in bloom! BBC Good Food: Elderflower Cordial. If you live in Southampton, there's plenty of elderflower trees up Lovers walk, heading up towards Highfield. Just make sure you leave me some!

Our games of Catan were getting better, I feel like finally I've got a board game that I don't always come last in! The three of us would play most nights, and as our skills progressed we started increasing the points needed to win, to make it a longer and more strategic game. Note the robber being constantly put on my brick tile!

Our strawberry plants seemed to have multiplied by about a hundred over the winter months, the only way we could keep them all was to use James's brilliant idea of stacking them in wall baskets to fit them all in. The only trouble was they then needed watering much more frequenly, as they seemed to dry out so quickly

On another of my walks, I thought I'd take a picture of Cobden Bridge, its nothing exciting, but I just thought it was interesting how the span is dry at low tide. (The river Itchen is a tidal river up with Woodmill, meaning anything downstream gets a high and low tide) Normally when I walk to Bitterne park over Cobden bridge, the tide is in, and for some reason when I walked today, it was out and you could see under the bridge. I must have been out for my morning walk much later than usual.

Apparently Banksy came to Southampton to do a work of art for the Southampton General Hospital to raise money for the NHS charities, he donated a piece of work at the hospital. He had apparently been to Southampton previously and left us this one in Beovis Valley, which seemed to suddenly gain a possible bacteria/virus on the end of where I think the balloon was. How mysterious.

However, the true celebrity was Husky, who yet again sat with me while I was waiting for my laptop to load. He's not very good as spell checking and editing though!