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Who knew just a month or so ago that we would find ourselves in this current situation? And yet here we are, and Himself Lord Malarkey and moiself shall, of course, be doing our bit and not behaving at all like some of the mop heads who are out there treating all this like great larks, imagining they are invincible and in no way potential carriers of a nasty virus. Presumably because they are alien life forms of some sort from the Planet Plank. Or made entirely from Dettol.

Andy is self-isolating and working from home and has been doing so for almost a week now. His job is a difficult one to manage from home but he is doing his VERY best and cracking on. I am now home, too, my workplace having closed from today. But I am allowed out if needs be, to collect essential shopping, nothing more. I remain optimistic that things won’t be as bad as predicted, and I am aware that some people of my acquaintance find this stance annoying, but hey - I’m a born optimist, it’s the way I think and the way I keep myself strong and cheerful. And at least I am not panic buying and stockpiling, although when I was doing a spot o’ dusting at 7.30 a.m I did wonder how I’ve managed to accumulate 14 cat ornaments when I only remember buying two of them.

Today then. Woke to a heavy frost so a bit chilly for gardening first thing. What did I do instead? I sat and wrote 3,000 more words of ‘Clive and Min’, that’s what I did. Don’t get too excited - they are first draft words and will need polishing somewhat before I unleash them on my adoring public (!) ha ha! But Sylvia Path has concocted a cunning plan and Clive is breaking through the veil, so exciting stuff, even for me wot is writing it!

In the afternoon I hied me forth into the garden and set about some serious trimming of the hedge that backs onto my embryo rose garden. This instantly made the bed look wider. It also revealed the remains of a dead magpie. Which was nice.  Bleurgh....

I continued the digging up of much crocosmia, aquilegia, ivy and something else unidentifiable. Oh, and nettles. And bits of tree root. It’s a bit of a job, to be honest, but I am making satisfactory progress and I am pretty certain my upper arms aren’t as bingo-wingy as they were, but then that could also be down to all the bread making I’ve been doing. The rose garden space is about 6 feet wide and 20 feet long. I am very much looking forward to being able to go out and buy the roses with which to fill it! Not totally committed to colours yet, but probably pinks and creams and whites.

It cheers the spirit, getting outside and doing stuff to the garden. The garden, I think, is not going to know quite what has hit it over these ensuing weeks. But the garden will be my silver lining to the current cloud.

Keep safe and happy, everyone! Our personal worlds may feel like they are shrinking at this moment, but I bet, when we are out the other side, we will find they have grown.