Lockdown; the Final Month. Or is it?

This too shall pass....

We here in France are slowly discovering the new 'normal', as is much of Europe. The UK? Not so much. More of a new abnormal as your emperor (King of the World) walks around in his new clothes*.

Or hides in the fridge*.
(*Delete as necessary.)

But that story is for the next blog. Let me rewind to the last month of our imprisonment. Not that I expect any real change any time soon.

For us, this last month of lockdown (confinement) has passed quickly. This is probably something to do with it only being about two weeks long.
But let's not get picky...

So what have I been doing?
The best way for me to answer that is to look back at my Facebook feed.
Yeah, that is how sad my life has become.

It comes down to this. I live here. And this is where I am. And, I strongly suspect, this is where I will be. Until whipped away by the grim reaper...

So this is Lockdown Month 3:

Apologies for the cut and paste. Facebook doesn't play well with the rest of the virtual universe...

Day 1: Rain.
It rained most of yesterday. It’s going to rain again today. At times like this I find it a good idea to be philosophical.
I thus refer to the great philosopher Eeyore:
“The nicest thing about rain is that it always stops.
Eventually.”
I wonder what he thinks about viruses...
“Days, weeks, months. Who knows?”

Day 2: Seeing things...
This isolation must be getting to me. Everywhere I look in our garden there are flowers, birds, insects, and then this...

Day 3: Love.
What greater gift than the love of a cat?
Charles Dickens.

Day 4: FEED ME!!
Life moves on. One day; child sitting in front of our tiny terraced house in London reading Gerald Durrell, next day student, next day veterinarian, next day parent, next day retired. 
Now? Chief cook and bottle washer. 
Half my day is spent cooking for the ravenous beasts. 
I need to be free. 
I am not a number! 
I am a free man!

I walk out into the garden in search of solace. And what do I see?

I live in the Little Shop of Horrors...

Day 5: Nothing.
Oooh. A bad day. Let's skip it...

Day 6: Feeling lonely?
Let me take you by the hand...

Day 7: Weeds.
When life is not coming up roses,
look to the weeds,
and find the beauty hidden within them.

Day 8: To be a bee or not.

There's no sting in this tale...

Day 9: Sex

It's better to copulate than never...

Day 10: Not knowing.

Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway.

Day 11: Knackered.

It takes a bee 10,000,000 trips to collect enough nectar to make 1 pound of honey.

The poor thing must be completely knackered...

Day 12: AAAAAARRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Day 13: Be Alert!

Look out!

There may be Ferbies about!

Day 14: What's in a name?
That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
But I refuse to call them 'Boris'.

Day 15: Gardening again.
You may have noticed that almost all my photos now come from my garden. Well, photos of me picking up the shopping or dressing up in a mask do not a great photo make. 
There is another reason though, and that is because the garden is just so full of colour and life it's difficult to know where to look next.
So, with apologies, I'll keep on posting photos of flowers, macros of monsters and collages of colour. It's fun.
So here's a couple of quotes I live by:
An old Chinese proverb:
Life begins the day you start a garden.
Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone. – Jean Jacques Rousseau
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. – Greek proverb
Gardening adds years to your life and life to your years...
Unlike viruses...

Day 16: Purple Haze...
all in my brain
Lately things, they don't seem the same
Acting funny, but I don't know why
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky.

Day 17: Growing up.
The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.
Salvador Dal
Our pair of Crowned Cranes are growing up, so we've built them a new feed station, tropical style...

Day 18: The Final Day... Bittersweet.
Well guys, lockdown is gradually coming to an end, so it looks like this much anticipated daily photo-shot with added barely-witty remarks must also come to an end. 
The new normal seems nearly here, with the local roads as busy as ever. Masks and distancing seem widely (but not totally) accepted over here, despite there being virtually no corvid around here. The new StopCovid app is out today, and we are insisting that all visitors must use it. The usual 'Darwin Award' rebels have been quashed.
Restaurants open today.
We still have to be careful, but yesterday seemed almost as before with Sophie & the kids around for a bbq and swim. I even had my first game of snooker since BC (Before Corvid).
Later on a video chat with my brother then with the gang from Wales dragged me back from this utopia, bringing home to me that the world has got much bigger as distance becomes much more significant. It's going to be a long time before travel between France and the UK is going to be possible, even by car.
A long time before I see my other kids and their sproggs.
Bittersweet.
So farewell guys, and thanks for all the fish.

And so we enter the next phase. Much like the old phase.
The age long tradition of La Bise has gone, to be replaced with masks and a suspicious look.
But fear not dear reader, this too shall pass.
It may pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass.