Supermarket shopping, sunshine, mice and poetry

It is a strange world we are living in at the moment as Coronavirus digs its heels in. A trip to the shops is a nightmare. I actually walked out of Tesco this morning before I'd even set two feet inside the door. I saw the queues and the piled trolleys, and I thought, I'm not doing this. I went to Waitrose instead. Their queues were normal, however a lot of their stock was running low and many shelves were empty with no eggs, flour, bread and very few cleaning products. I got  most of what I wanted, but used a small shop to buy eggs.

Gradually my everyday life is changing as I think about what I am doing. A meeting I was due to be at tomorrow has been cancelled and I can see my holidays going the same way. One of my son's will work from home tomorrow as his company try this out for a day to see how it works.

I have been trying to look on the bright side of things and today at least the weather has improved and I spent an hour and a half outside reading on my bench in the sunshine, and watching the birds and squirrels going about their business oblivious to our plight. It sparked a poem! In fact this is the third poem I've written about Covid 19! Every cloud....

If the weather holds we will plant the potatoes out this week and I shall enjoy more reading on my bench. Meanwhile, we are being plagued by mice and I actually bought a fish net to try and catch some (blighters will not use the humane trap). We had a fun hour chasing one around the living room with the net. No, we didn't catch it. Almost, but not quite. The mice are mainly in the cupboard under the stairs where we keep food because our kitchen is so tiny. We've had to move the packets out or put them into old cake tins. I'll never find things again! I took everything out of the cupboard to clean it, washed the floor in solution of water and vinegar (mice are supposed not to like strong smells) and then left blobs of peppermint essential oils on the floor. They are laughing at us!

To end I'll share with you my self-isolation plan poem (should I need it). Stay safe and well.

Self-Isolation (if I have to, this is what I’ll do)

I shall read all those books piled up on my bedroom floor,

Drink through all the wine and spirits to kill the virus off!

Walk around my garden fifty times to keep my muscles strong

Catch up with all those TV programmes I never see,

Order in bags of flour and eggs

Bake

Finish the book of Sudoku puzzles I’ve had for five years

Play through my collection of old vinyl records

Grab my sketch pads, draw and paint and ink the pages

Read all those magazines that sit under the coffee table

Paint the kitchen with the odds and ends in the paint cans!

Write

Sleep

Do absolutely none of this and do nothing at all!