Week 2 of distancing
Monday: I went to the woods. Spring was there before me.
Tuesday: This. In my own back yard.
Wednesday: New life on a dead willow.
Thursday: Light enters the Bishop’s Eye.
Friday: West Park Wood – mostly beech with a few oaks at the corners.
Saturday: Wild greens for a pungent soup. That’ll help with distancing! We did our daily walk after dark and didn’t see another human being.
Sunday: British Summer Time began. The first bird I heard was a raven.
It’s been a week of cold clear fine weather, perfect for walking.
We have little flour or yeast, and there was none in the two shops I went to this week. I made a rather heavy loaf from rye flour and pasta flour, half and half. The next loaf was made by the man of the house.
teach me he said
I want to know how to make bread
‘when you’re dead’ left unsaid
so I did
the boy done good
Then I turned out the cupboards in the hope of finding more flour.
We have no bread
in the depths of a cupboard
I found a bag of flour
shelf-life expired
there’s mould on the outside
and I think something’s living
inside the bag
but we have oatmeal and ginger
treacle and dates
let us eat cake
The Verb on BBC Radio 3 is always worth listening to, and Ian McMillan is the perfect host. Ana Silvera’s song near the beginning a couple of weeks ago really got under my skin, and I’ve listened so often I now know all the words … I’m carrying those seeds, for planting when the time comes.
barleybooks 
Wonderful Ama, many thanks! Hope you encounter some bread flour soon. My weekly? poem from this morning:
We are waiting. Bright morning sunshine and brisk cold winds and everywhere birdsong and the bursting of buds and the planting of hopeful seeds and the unaccustomed hush scream at us LIFE life life. We are waiting for the surge of deaths.
Joxxx
Sent from Samsung tablet
Thank you for this Jo. Sums up the situation admirably!
I’m thrilled to report that my dear friend and neighbour Steph, as soon as she read the post, rang to offer me a nearly-full bag of Burcott Mill flour and a sourdough starter. She has just brought them round, with a couple of delicious handmade chocolates. There’s so much love and joy around in the midst of all this.