Day 3 and 4
How much rubbish can people drop? That certainly was the question I found myself asking on Thursday as I decided to make my daily walk useful; lone ranger litter picking for Bacup Pride. Two hours of hard 
work and an area off New Line looked a heck of a lot better after four large bags of rubbish had been removed. Two general waste and two mostly full of alcohol bottles!
Earlier on Thursday, I decided to make my first trip to the supermarket and drove into Bacup. Welcome to the apocalypse; it certainly felt like it when I spied lots of people wearing face masks and many with nitrile gloves on their hands. I grabbed a trolley and completely missed the fact there was a queue, but was fine when the guard pointed me to the end. Everyone was waiting in marked 2m distance bays, under the canopy and brrr it was cold. No one complained as we waited for the required number to leave the store enabling the same from the queue to enter.
Once inside, everyone was polite, courteous and I found most customers kept their distance. I was able to obtain almost all I had on my list and the PA was used to reinforce the rules of keeping your distance. The ‘fast lane’ proved to be the slow one as usual and after it turned red three times and assistants and even the manager had to reset it, I paid for the items and then started again for the remaining shopping. Two bags and done.
After giving the lawn at my new house its first haircut and undertaking what is fast becoming my new hobby – bird watching – I decided to head out to make use of the litter picker Pat Smith from Bacup Pride had provided. Given these social isolation days I wonder how long it will take for that piece of land to become a dumping ground again…
I killed a few ants that for some reason have decided to crawl out of a gap in the silicon around my living room window, rang my folks in Scotland and I went upstairs and opened my window to join in the 8am applause for the NHS. I was pleased to hear others on New Line also clapping. Finally, I settled down to craft, this time creating a charcoal picture of a photograph I took in Lee Quarry.
Friday arrived and once more a beautiful sunny day greeted me – anyone would think it was summer! 
Today I already had a plan. Firstly, I had been informed my prescription was ready, so I knew I was heading to Bacup to collect it from Boots… might as well sort my exercise walk at the same time. I passed the land I cleared yesterday – yes it was still clean, then I saw that a queue had already formed outside the health centre and pharmacy and as I started to walk past the shops I spied a lovely ‘I love the NHS sign’ in the window of Bacup Chippy, lovely and deserving of a picture.
Oops, on arrival at Boots there was another sign – not open until 10am and it was only 9.15, but my favourite butcher Pete was open on the market so I joined the queue, at a safe distance. On returning to Boots I was fourth and waited in the sunshine. By opening time there were 10 of us and although not in a line, we had all memorised our position in the queue.
Having discovered the ant invasion, I decided to walk into Stacksteads to locate some powder to get rid of the critters, expansion foam to fill the gap and new silicon to finish it off – all acquired from Multi Store, and some flowers for my garden.
Not being busy work wise, does not mean I am not going to be busy; it is not in my nature to do nothing.
As I planted the pansies, I was delighted to see nests near my garden, and asked a friend if she could identify them. She thinks one may be a song thrush, if anyone else knows differently just message me.
I was then given some work to do by one of my schools – Whitworth – hurrah. Never have I been so happy to get work in.
I returned to the charcoal drawing and began adding colour, but more about that later… with the latest news explaining that even the Prime Minister, Health Minister and maybe the Chief Medical Officer now have this virus, we all really do have to take this very seriously. Please stay safe, stay at home and look after each other.
Writing… it’s what I do…