It was such a beautiful day yesterday. By the time my daughter and I met up for our walk the clouds had burned away and the sun had come out. It was cold but not so cold to spoil the enjoyment. My daughter and her partner are police officers and they both had coronavirus just after the New Year. This was one of her first walks and although she is much better she still gets a bit breathless. I know from experience even if you recover well the breathlessness can carry on for a while. It was so fresh at the top of the hill though we stood and breathed in the air to exercise our lungs. It felt wonderful! I'm sure Tess my border collie thought we had lost our minds.
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| The View From Oaks Park |
There were little signs of spring everywhere. I don't care what the news says I just know things will seem better by then. There were families out in force walking with their little children. One family were walking along singing away. To jolly the little one up as he was looking decidedly miserable they were singing "Nick Nack Paddy Wack" as they walked. My daughter and I really laughed as that is exactly what we used to do on long walks!
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| Snowdrops In The Park |
Poor children I feel so much for them in this pandemic. Disrupted school, not seeing their friends and in a world were they were already so over protected, in comparison with my childhood, growing up obsessed with germs. I fear the harm it will do. I have thought a lot about the freedom we had as children. It was not just the freedom to play out for hours unsupervised but there was zero health and safety in the 1960s.
I mentioned yesterday that two ten year olds would look after a whole class of five year old during wet play, that was the joy of being a "lunchtime monitor" reserved for the top class of primary school. There were however many other coveted jobs at the time. Every class, even the very little ones, had milk monitors. Two of us would go before break time to prepare the little milk bottles for the rest of the class. One would carry the sharp scissors and the other the box of straws. The only instructions being "Remember to hold the scissors downwards when you are walking down the stairs!" As a six years old I clearly remember pushing the straws through the silver top of the tiny little bottles after the other child had pierced the hole with the sharp scissors.
