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Nature watch

If Coronavirus does nothing else for us, it has helped identify which school subjects the girls love, and which they just don't. This week Abi has been spending her spare hours after the school day has finished nature hunting and has been delighted to find a number of frogs, newts and other little critters, all of which she has temporarily befriended, named and then released. Demonstrating her interest even further, she has then gone and researched what she has found and is a fountain of knowledge on the local wildlife. Izzy on the other hand has been watching various tutorials on beauty techniques and has taught herself eyebrow threading. I was the lucky guinea pig (sorry, recipient) of these new talents and I'm currently sporting one pretty good eyebrow and one that I'm sure will grow back in no time... just not for tomorrow's round of video calls!! It's no accident that you get a picture of a frog but no eyebrows!

Over the course of the last 11 weeks we have got more relaxed about the whole schooling from home situation. I have basically written off this term, consoling myself with the fact that neither of them are in key years, and that the summer term is always lighter in content given sports days, trips and so on. I am increasingly worried however that there appears to be no confidence in what September might look like as yet, with talk of the 'blended learning' concepts which will be necessary if we continue to maintain the rule of 2m social distancing. The WHO still suggests 'at least 1m', but no, we are still advocating 2m which makes most school classrooms impractical, as well as many small businesses, offices and transport systems. In this and so many other areas I think the UK government is out of step and losing confidence. Over these past weeks of sunshine the beaches have been full and this weekend we have seen mass racism protests over a death in the US with tens of thousands of people standing shoulder to shoulder. Admirable but hardly following the guidelines. Time will tell whether this results in a second wave and a whole bunch of new rules - I hope not!

The highlight of this weekend has been a visit from Amanda and the boys. Having chosen Saturday as the better weather day, it of course changed and looked to be the worse one but there was no way we were allowed to change as the kids were all too excited, I love the fact that they are all still so close, and its of their own doing given we don't make them speak to each other, they do it themselves. As soon as they arrived they all disappeared off and after a quick lunch they headed out on a selection of bikes to meet Mia (vaguely socially distanced) and go for a ride. I think from the discussions afterwards that it tuned into a bit of an epic journey - they all came home full of stories of how far they'd been (who knows as they couldn't really explain where), and how tired their legs were. Regardless of the distance they were full of energy as a result and so it was well worth it. Amanda and I headed out on foot and had the most lovely 2 hour walk with Bertie, putting the world to right as we went. Sometimes there is just no substitute for a sisterly catch up. All too soon they headed home and we were left putting bikes away and settling down for the Saturday evening Red House take away.

Today was a lovely relaxing day of yoga while the kids lay in, followed by a socially distanced cup of tea in the garden with Zsara, followed by a chat with Izzy while she bakes (still not getting any slimmer!), a quick trip to the garden centre for yet more bird food, a potter around the garden, dog walk and then family tea. Of course the day has flown by and its back to work again tomorrow. Time seems to be passing as faster than ever despite the fact we are still on lockdown - inevitable I suppose but I do wish I could slow it down again.

Abi's rats - about as 
tidy in their bedroom as she is!


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