Friday 23 October
Our school has been closed today, the last day of the first half-term of Autumn, because of Coronavirus. A confirmed case of a teacher and a number of staff self-isolations means that we cannot see out the week.
I went in today, fielded a few phone calls, worked through my overspilling inbox of email. Constructive and satisfying. We also planned out our distribution of food parcels to pupils’ households on Monday. The government aren’t providing free school meals during the break so will do what we can.
I was able to get back this afternoon with enough daylight to be able to take Mabel for a walk with Adora. I have really missed the dog walk this week. It was real chicken soup for the soul. Mabel ran and sniffed whilst me and my daughter chatted about this and that.
In just this one week, so many leaves have now dropped, making the darker afternoons weirdly lighter in the lanes. Despite there being less light in the sky, what there is is able to seep through the branches.
Laying on the sofa here, waiting for our Thai takeaway, the house is pretty quiet. We are all very tired. The kids are pretty drained from their blended learning of home and college based lessons and tutorials. Wales starts it’s ‘fire-break’ (mini-lockdown) tonight and a whole bunch of other local Tier 3 measures have kicked in across England. The office of national statistics estimates cases of Covid19 are rising by around 35,000 per day.
The Bald Birder 