The weeks have been passing relentlessly; each one much like the last with slight variants in the weather. The loosening and somewhat complex relaxing of lockdown rules hasn’t made a great deal of difference to us yet: schools are still effectively closed and likely to be until September at the earliest, working from home continues relatively smoothly, we can’t go and see our parents, we’re getting most of our food and other essentials delivered – and we don’t much fancy going to a theme park, or whatever else of that sort is being reopened with our government’s strange priorities.

Having said that, we have strayed slightly further from the immediate neighbourhood for the first time since early March. A Saturday morning walk around Foots Cray Meadows was nice: sun out, people around but not exactly in crowds, and plenty to look at: the River Cray nice and clean for the 9 year old to paddle in, fish visible, coots, moorhens, ducks, dragonflies and damselflies. We’ll go back.

On Saturday evening I went for a quick spin on the bike to Greenwich Park. I’d avoided it for the last couple of months on the basis that it looked much busier than the surrounding streets when I’ve been running, but I thought I should take a look now things are a little more relaxed. It’s always a lovely place, but removing the through traffic and car park has made a huge difference. To cycle up the main avenue from the Heath to the Wolfe Statue without dodging the traffic and parking cars, and to see it in use by families and kids on bikes was a pleasure. I believe the ban on through traffic may be permanent but suspect that the car park will be back, as a source of revenue for Royal Parks. It would be nice if they at least reduced the size of it, but as with mooted long term improvements to the cycling and pedestrian environment around the borough, I’m not optimistic (though this scheme on the other side of the Heath is a source of hope).

I’ve been cycling more than running, having aggravated a niggling muscle injury. It probably needs some physio but I can’t get a referral until it’s been scanned, and all scans are cancelled for the foreseeable – until the pandemic dies out, presumably. It’s not too big a deal, but does give an insight into the downstream effects of coronavirus on society’s health. What will be the long term effect of all these minor (or in some cases presumably not so minor) issues being put off for months?

This afternoon we sat in the garden and drank wine with friends – who also brought us tomato plants. A good way to round off the weekend; the future may hold more garden drinks than pub drinks for a while (at least while the weather holds).