Picnic at Knowlton Church

 

We had a lovely picnic at Knowlton Church which seemed relatively busy with several other groups walking their dogs or having their own picnic. Lots of us seeking to enjoy the last days of late summer and making the most of the freedoms we have ahead of any further lockdown measures.

Amelia was with us for the day and she collected her first grasshoppers and some snails whilst walking the banks and slopes of the ancient henge. The first settlements here date back something like 4500 years which is quite incredible, especially when you consider the site is right on our back door step. It is so easy to overlook astonishing sites when they are part of the background to everyday life and there is no charge to visit.

The sun was warm in the afternoon and Amelia enjoyed playing with the mud kitchen before I had to set off on journeys to dance and Bournemouth on a day when I drove more than I can remember doing for a very long time, trips in the motorhome not included.

Maria is back at school and that has brought an element of routine back into the days. However, there is a good deal of confusion regarding social distancing, much of it brought about because of the arbirary nature of the instructions which seem designed to aggravate people, providing opportunities to blame others and to shatter the unity which appeared to exist earlier in the year.

Young people are being blamed for the spike in cases when we were encouraged to get out for the summer, to eat out, to holiday, to shop, to go abroad and return to normal, things being farily familiar by Christmas when in fact it was always going to be difficult to avoid successive waves, when systems in place are not working e.g. getting a test, self-isolating (only 25% of people have been doing it according to a survey), when fantastical projects are aired as the solution such as the daily testing of 10 million people with results in minutes, when the Government is prepared to act unlawfully in order to get what it wants from Brexit in echoes of the scant regard to rules shown by Cummings earlier in the year.

 Ultimately I am reminded of what Cummings and others in power have said about following your own rules rather than those set out in law when your common sense tells you that is the right thing to do e.g. Grenfell and the idea that those who died did so in part because they followed instructions from those in power when common sense said get out of the building. Rees-Mogg captures that sense of entitlement perfectly. 

It is little wonder that the country feels so at odds with itself, disatisfied with its leaders and confused.