Find reviews of places to visit, places to stay and places to eat including information about their accessibility. The front page displays my latest blog post while other pages have links to the places I’ve reviewed. Use the search function if you are after somethings specific or have a look at the map. The links page has some useful websites as well as a link to an interview I gave to Euan’s Guide, explaining why I set up Accessibility Reviews. Please use the comment function to add more detail to any of my posts – it all helps make this a useful resource for everyone!
“It just might change your life” says Ian Botham. I think it has!
When I realised that my difficulty in standing up sometimes was a circulation issue rather than a leg-strength issue I decided to give the Revitive Medic a go.
It’s not cheap so I had a good look at the website and various reviews and decided that it was probably just what I needed and it was!
It works by sending electrical pulses through your bare feet and your legs in different patterns and by the end of a session you feel as if you had had a good leg massage. I used to get regular sports massages and while a personalised treatment is probably better this is more convenient as you can use it at any time. I use it at regular times during the day for half an hour but also at other times if standing up feels rather difficult. Just ten minutes can make a huge difference.
You can feel the electrical pulses most strongly in your calves but also in your thighs as well although this probably depends on which intensity level you are using.
The intensity can be set between 1 and 99. I started on something like 20 and kept raising it as I got used to it and it seemed less effective. I have now settled on 70 which seems to work really well for me. Just two or three times in all the times I have used it, it has felt uncomfortable, probably because my feet weren’t quite in the right position and I had to stop it so it is probably a good idea to have the remote control to hand.
It does need to be charged up every few days but of course this will depend on how much you are using it. As it loses its charge though, the intensity does not diminish which is good, it will just stop when it runs out of charge and you can use it plugged in.
When it arrived it came with a tube of very pleasant smelling foot and leg cream and also a blanket with sleeves! They recommend that you keep hydrated and your feet moisturised so that it works better.
You can also use the Revitive to target specific muscles by attaching electrode pads to your legs. These pads are just like the ones you use with the FES foot-drop gadget I used to use. I have only tried this once with the Revitive because I am already spending quite a lot of time using it during the day and it seems to work so well anyway. You can also use it as a TENS machine if you suffer from actual muscle pain which I fortunately don’t.
There are some people who cannot use the Revitive such as people with a pacemaker but this is all explained on the website.
They do other gadgets such as the Aerosure for people with breathing difficulties or a hand-held ultrasound device to help with muscle strains or sprains.
While the Revitive may not work for everyone, if poor circulation is preventing your legs from working properly like me then it is definitely worth thinking about. It has made a huge difference to my life and I can’t think how I would cope without it!
York university campus is very lush at the moment!
There is plenty of accessible parking of Heslington Lane and the campus is mainly flat with pretty good paths although some were a bit bumpy where tree roots had pushed up the surface. Nothing my powerchair couldn’t cope with though!
Ducks, geese and squirrels are in abundance and there are lots of interesting trees and plants. There are information boards to identify the wildfowl so I can now tell a Barnacle Goose from a Canada Goose!
This is a modest visit and happens to be just a few minutes’ drive from our house. I have only been out in our Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle a few times and found it very tiring the last time, when we went to a garden centre out-of-town. Therefore, a short trip to somewhere that I knew would be really easy was just what was required and on a sunny, breezy summer afternoon this was really quite idyllic.
I’m hoping that the more I get accustomed to going out in the WAV, the less tiring it will be. It’s brilliant to be able to sit “up front” as the visibility is so much better and you don’t feel like a taxi passenger!
Listen to a lion lapping water in Kenya.
Watch a bald eagle feed its chicks in Florida. See owlets flex their wings in Israel or storks raise their young in Germany. Zebras and elephants in South Africa, raccoons in Ohio, a falcon in Australia and ospreys in Wales. These are all things which can be done while sitting in the comfort in your own home thanks to Skyline Webcams!
We have also watched ice skaters and Christmas markets in Germany and Easter processions in Spain. There are dozens of cameras in a huge variety of locations. Plenty are less exciting views, of a beach in Florida for example but even some of these were worth a look when they were being pummelled by a violent storm a few months back. Even watching the redevelopment of Puerta del Sol in central Madrid is curiously compelling!
If, like me, you don’t get out and about that much or go on exotic holidays but love watching wildlife in its natural habitat, these Webcams are hugely entertaining. I would say the best ones are in the United States and South Africa but as mentioned above, there are gems to be found in all sorts of places.
They are not all online all the time. In fact, one of our favourites, the Deer Pantry in Maine is about to go off-line until next winter so catch it soon to see beautiful white-tailed deer!
Once chicks have fledged and the adults have gone away, the cameras tend to be turned off but that means it’s great fun when they reappear and you see that the adult birds are rebuilding their nest for another brood.
If you go to the website and hover over Live Cams you get a menu of all the different countries where there are WebCams then you can explore and find your own favourites. Many of the cameras can be rewound so you can catch what went on earlier in the day or overnight such as visits from lions at ol Donyo in Kenya where the camera is placed very near to the waterhole so you get great close-ups. Most have sound which you usually have to unmute. Beware putting the sound up too high if watching the ospreys in Florida, they are loud!
New cameras appear all the time so there is always something fun to watch and of course, because they are in different parts of the world with different time zones and seasons you will find different creatures raising young at different times.
News and current affairs can be rather depressing and frustrating at times. Watching wildlife in South Africa, Spain or wherever is a great antidote!
Didn’t go to Specsavers…
… they came to me! You’ve probably seen the adverts for Specsavers home visit service. As it’s a lot more convenient for me than going out to an optician, I thought I would give it a go.
I filled out a form on the Specsavers website requesting an eye test and they rang back pretty promptly, the next day I think. They checked my details with me and gave me an appointment for later in January. Then a few days later they phoned to say they had had a cancellation nearby and they could come out that afternoon.
First the optometrist arrived and did some tests including a variation on the ‘puff of air’ test to check pressure and the usual reading lines of letters and seeing if your sight was better with one lens or another.
I can’t remember the official title for the other person who arrived to measure me and help me select frames. They had a pretty good selection although I wasn’t particularly keen on any of them. I chose some that were OK and she said the best thing would be to look at their website which shows their whole range and choose several pairs which could then be brought to me to try on.
On the site they have a cunning device where if you have a camera on your computer, it can take a photograph of your face then you can virtually try on different glasses. I only found one pair that I liked so we rang up and ordered those.
A few days later, Specsavers rang to say they could bring the glasses to me so I could try them on for real. Fortunately, they brought their whole case load of glasses because the ones I had chosen on line didn’t suit me at all! I tried several pairs until I found some that suited me and she printed out the order again and took my payment.
They said it would take a couple of weeks to get the glasses ready and they rang back two weeks later to say they could bring them out to me for fitting that afternoon. They then called again to say they would be with me in about ten minutes. After a quick check to see that they fitted all right and a slight adjustment, I was practising looking at things with my first pair of varifocals! They said they might take some getting used to but if I change my mind within one hundred days, I can get a full refund. I seem to be getting along with them just fine!
I definitely recommend this service if getting to an optician is difficult for you. The staff members were really pleasant, efficient and friendly and the service was prompt and well-organised.
The WAV experience and beyond!
When I realised I could not get in and out of our car any more, I didn’t realise it would be nearly two years before we finally got a WAV delivered!
It was in February 2021 when I happened to need to go to our GP surgery for a blood test that I realised, in the parking bay outside, that I could not get out of the car. It had become increasingly difficult with our previous model of Ford Focus but I could still manage, however we had had to replace it. With the Motability scheme you have your car for a maximum of five years and unfortunately, the new model was harder to negotiate, partly because the height of the passenger seat cannot be adjusted as there is a battery below it. We looked at some other types of car, but none of them appeared to be any easier.
Fortunately, after checking their insurance details, the GP practice was happy for me to have blood taken while I was seated in the car. Back home, I of course still had to get out of the car but, as part of the problem was the effect of stress, (mild, I know!) on my muscles plus the added factor of knowing I had to exit the car or live in it for ever more, I managed to stand up, swivel and sit in my power chair.
This meant we needed to look into getting a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV). We contacted Motability and they were happy for us to change vehicle, even though we hadn’t had the new one for very long but as my needs were now different, it was no use to us.
This led to us having The WAV Experience! This is administered by Proximo on behalf of Motability. They lend you a WAV for a week so that you can see if it is the right option for you. The car we were lent was a Citroën Berlingo, where the wheelchair-user sits in their chair in the back.
Before this, we had to buy a Powerchair that is “crash-tested,” in other words, one that can be fixed to the floor of the WAV. We decided on a Roma Reno Elite which had to come with the Captain Seat (a slightly higher seat back) in order to comply with the regulations. It is very similar to the chair I use the rest of the time but it is a bit ‘clunkier,’ not quite so nippy, but as I will mainly use it for parks or gardens this isn’t a big problem. It is no wider so it goes through our doors without a problem.
Travelling in the back of a WAV is rather strange in two ways: physically, because it doesn’t feel as stable as sitting in a car seat. Even though I knew wasn’t going to be tipped over, it was unsettling nevertheless until I got used to it. The other issue is that it does not feel great to me to sit in the back like a taxi passenger or a parcel! Plus, the visibility is really poor from there. It was good to get out and about having not done so since February but the weather was still too cold for an outdoor visit.
It was a useful experience, though, as it decided us that what we really wanted was an Upfront i.e. a car adapted so that the wheelchair-using passenger can sit next to the driver in the place where the passenger seat would be.
We did consider looking into vehicles where you enter the car from the side but decided that in our driveway, it would be much easier to enter from the rear of the vehicle. Also, not all Blue Badge parking bays are that wide and would probably have caused problems with accessing the side ramp when we were out and about.
In July we test drove a Volkswagen Caddy Upfront from Sirus, who are specialists in Upfront WAVs. I felt much more secure being seated upfront (although this might be because I was more used to travelling in my chair in a car anyway) and the visibility was much better. It was a second-hand car and we could have bought it but this would have meant leaving the Motability scheme. We decided we would prefer to stay with the scheme and get a new car. Unfortunately, the Caddy was temporarily unavailable because they were relaunching it as the VW Caddy 5.
We waited several months for the new model to appear but then they announced that they had raised the upfront price that you pay to Motability by several thousand pounds. This needed a rethink!
In February 2022, we test drove a Peugeot Traveller Upfront. We decided that this was what we wanted so we ordered it from GM Coachwork, a company that does adaptations to make cars accessible. It is larger than the VW Caddy but cheaper. What we actually got was a Citroën Spacetourer which is what was available from Motability at the time and as far as I can tell, it is exactly the same thing as the Peugeot Traveller.
We were told that there might be a bit of a wait for delivery as the whole car industry was having problems with sourcing parts such as microchips but that it should be ready by July or August. In August we were told the car had arrived in the country and was being adapted. In September they said they were waiting for parts then we finally had it delivered on 1 November.
The chap from GM Coachwork was very helpful in showing Pete how to secure my chair to the floor of the vehicle fold and lock the ramp and other technicalities and went with us for a brief test drive.
Since then we have had a drive around York while the trees still had some of their autumn colours. It was great to see places we hadn’t seen for a long time but nothing much had actually changed! We were also able to get to the garden centre so that I could spend some garden vouchers which would have expired at the end of the year!
It is now far too cold for outside visits unless you can walk briskly but it is good to have the car to use if we need to and I am really looking forward to getting out and about when the weather is warmer.
The area around the spider…
… and other useful phrases! Learning Danish with Duolingo is challenging and fascinating even if some of the vocabulary is obscure and some of the phrases downright weird.
If you have access to the internet an activity accessible to all is learning a language and using Duolingo is one way of going about it. I haven’t investigated the app, just the website but I had been aware of Duolingo for some time as people I had taught Spanish to had often mentioned it. I looked at the Spanish materials a while back and thought the choice of vocabulary was a little random, an opinion confirmed in spades when I started to learn Danish. I’m not sure words like hedgehog and penguin are essential for beginners of any language!
I had always wanted to try a language that was not Latin-based to see how I would get on. Watching Danish dramas on television I noticed words with links to northern English or Scottish dialect (barn for child, kendte for knew) so I thought it would be interesting to give learning Danish a go.
Many more linguistic links came along such as dale for valley or rygsaeck for backpack and I found that when we next watched a Danish drama I could pick out a word or two. I even on occasion recognised a whole sentence. That felt like progress!
Although you can pay for access to more exercises on Duolingo, there is far more free content on there than I expected. As I wanted to test how good Duolingo was as a language learning method as well as have a go at learning Danish, I didn’t consult any other materials for a long while. Eventually, however, I felt frustrated by not having a set of pronunciation rules so I looked online for some information.
If I seriously needed to learn Danish for some reason, or any other language for that matter, I would go about it differently. Having taught languages for over twenty years my advice to anyone would be to take a multi-pronged approach. You need exposure to some authentic language rather than the out-of-context praises on Duolingo. I was able to experience this thanks to the many Danish dramas available to view but there is an argument that it is better to be exposed to language which is just a little bit more advanced than the level you are at as some people find it off-putting when they cannot understand every word they are hearing or reading.
This is where things like graded reading materials come in or sites like News in Slow Spanish. I would advise using both methods: some easier stuff and some more challenging stuff!
Obviously, different approaches suit different people but it is always good to push yourself and try things which might not be your favourite way of learning but which are nevertheless beneficial. For example, if you prefer working methodically through a grammar exercise, try something a bit more unstructured for a change such as looking at a newspaper or listening to the radio from the country whose language you are studying. If being methodical isn’t your thing, sometimes you could try focusing on a particular area of grammar you are unsure of: look up the rules and do some exercises until you feel confident with it.
Duolingo is one tool in your language learning kit. It’s not perfect but it’s compelling, it’s fun and it’s free!
Digitally accessible museums
I realised recently that many museums and art galleries around the world can be viewed on Google Street View. This is useful not only as it increases access for those with disabilities or limited mobility but also creates access for everyone during times of lockdown or other Covid restrictions. It is also brilliant fun!
Perhaps this feature of Street View has been available for a long time but I was delighted to discover it recently and promptly had a look around museums I am familiar with such as the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum and the Musée D’Orsay but also the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Lahore Museum which I have never visited and am not likely to.
Some are easier to navigate around than others: I failed to access the upper floors of some museums, whereas in others it was easy to go up or down the staircases. The Dulwich Picture Gallery was particularly simple to navigate and you could get a good view of the paintings. Many art galleries, when viewed digitally, have a circle in front of the paintings which you can click and a side panel opens on your screen giving you more detail about the picture in question.
If you find a museum on Google Maps then click the little man to bring up the blue Street View areas, you can tell whether the museum can be visited because of all the blue lines showing where the Street View camera has been.
Some just have blue dots which means you can go inside but only in a certain position, you can’t navigate around the place. That said, one of the museums I tried this with was Hull Maritime Museum which didn’t have blue lines inside it so I assumed you couldn’t visit it virtually but when I tried anyway, found myself inside and I not only navigated around but also up and down the staircase!
It’s definitely worth having a play with this function of Google Maps and Street View. Obviously, seeing paintings ‘in the flesh’ as it were is best but when that’s not possible this is a great substitute!
All quiet on campus – just for now?
A quick trip to York University campus for some fresh air and wildlife spots made a change the other day and led me to wonder what will become of students’ university experience in the future and other changes we might see in our towns and cities.
Obviously, the campus was quiet because it is August although the grounds people are making the most of this to do a bit of work: I thought our way was going to be blocked but as we got closer, discovered that some trenches that had been dug had been filled in but not yet tarmac-ed so were passable, just a little bit bumpy. The stream looked a bit neglected and overgrown but the ducks and coots didn’t seem to mind and there were absolutely loads of geese. Perhaps being undisturbed all this time has meant they have bred more?
Campus felt like a bit of a wildlife haven as we also saw a dragonfly and a couple of squirrels as well as a variety of ducks – you can identify them on various information boards. Some of the trees were starting to look distinctly autumnal, mainly the horse chestnuts which were laden with conkers.
I found myself wondering if the campus will ever again be as busy as it used to be. I gather that universities are expecting a lot fewer international students but that courses are filled with homes students. Perhaps some people are thinking they may as well become a student as there are fewer jobs around.
I wonder though if some students will elect to go to their local universities so that they can continue to live at home as student accommodation may be less inviting in the current climate. I’m sure the student experience will be different for at least a year or two and I can imagine a situation where large lectures are given online only and face-to-face contact is limited. It’s a shame as a large part of being a student is going away from home, becoming independent, meeting loads of new people, doing things as a group and so on, all of which will become more difficult when social distancing is involved.
Of course, it’s not just being a student that will change. Do you think in the future that more people will work from home and therefore there will be more demand for houses with enough space for a workstation, more houses with some outside space? I have often wondered what the best solution is to the fact that more people get things delivered to their homes with the increase in online shopping, but there’s nobody in to receive parcels. That issue might be solved with more home-working just as people do even more on-line shopping.
Perhaps a long time in to the future, we will have cities that have a smaller shopping area in the centre, larger out-of-town shopping areas with easy parking and access and lots more people living in suburbs where the houses have gardens. Perhaps there will be more shops and services in the suburbs so people don’t need to drive so much. But where does that leave city centres? There has been much debate about this; I even contributed a tiny bit to it myself with a letter in the Guardian suggesting that all city centres ought to have a lifelong-learning centre which would bring people in who might go for a drink or meal and buy, for example, art or craft supplies or cooking ingredients depending on the class they are going to. People might also come into a city centre for the library, cinema, theatre, live music, skating or bowling and other things that you can’t do online such as trying on clothes. Perhaps some of these office blocks which aren’t needed any more could become city centre accommodation or some kind of community space. If communal activities are to continue, they will need more space if physical distancing is still an issue.
I don’t suppose there will be any sudden changes but wouldn’t it be wonderful if gradually we became less dependent on cars and townscapes became more accessible to all?
It can be depressing thinking about a future continually affected by Covid restrictions but it is nevertheless interesting to speculate about how things might be done differently.
Same but different!
Our trip back to Northumberland meant some slightly different arrangements but also new places to visit: an accessible promenade and some rather bumpy gardens!
Because of the virus, holidaymakers had been asked not to turn up before 5pm in order that the cottages could be thoroughly cleaned and we managed to time it so that we turned up on the Saturday at 5.05! Instructions had been added to the cottage information file about Covid and the visitors’ book had been put away and nobody had written it since before the lockdown but otherwise the cottage was just as we remembered, comfortable, clean, spacious, well-equipped and with good decor. Sue, the manager, appeared on the Monday to check everything was all right, but wouldn’t step inside. Later in the week we saw some of the cleaners in PPE: the new rules were being taken very seriously.
The surroundings are wonderfully peaceful: no traffic, just the susurration of the trees and the cawing of the rooks.
We had stayed at Fox Cover at Doxford Cottages last year but whereas then I thought it was almost ideal and we rebooked it straightaway (and thank goodness we did! I don’t think we would have found anything at short notice) this time it seemed a bit more of a struggle to deal with the practical arrangements.
In the preceding weeks, I had made a real effort to work on my balance so that I would feel more confident in a new setting and that did help but it is difficult when grab rails are in different places and chairs are a different shape! Really deep armchairs can be a bit problematic for anyone who is not particularly tall as you need to get the right combination of cushions to feel comfortable but there was a really good selection of different sized cushions!
With grab rails, shower seats etc, it’s a case of needing to feel sure that things won’t budge when you grab them or lean on them. This place does not claim to have the top level of accessibility but, given that it is wheelchair accessible and they have made an effort with some grab rails, they could just do with having a bit of a rethink and making it even better. As ever, different people need different help but that’s why there are industry recommendations for layouts that suit the most people.
We weren’t planning to do anything much, we knew the weather was going to be dodgy on some days and we wanted to get the balance right so as not to come back from holiday needing a holiday! The weather was glorious on the Sunday so we spent most of the day in the garden, then on Monday when the weather turned and was wet most of the day, we were able to sit in the conservatory, looking out at the trees. We were thoroughly chilled by now so on the Tuesday we ventured out to the somewhat unfortunately named Spittal to see the sea. Spittal promenade is a low key affair but very easily accessible and with good parking in well-marked bays for Blue Badge holders. We hadn’t seen the sea since visiting Northumberland last summer and very refreshing it was too and with distant views of Holy Island and Bambrugh Castle. There were plenty of other people about and we exchanged hellos while remaining suitably distanced.
On the Wednesday we went to Howick Hall Gardens. I had seen them recommended in the cottage visitors’ book and on Euan’sGuide and they would be a great place to visit for the able-bodied as they are very extensive. In a good-sized scooter they would probably be a bit bumpy but for a power chair it really was a bit too uneven in places as the paths are mainly all grass.
Some of it was no more uneven than our lawn at home but there were some tree roots and other obstacles which made it a bit tiring to deal with while the threshold into the Sensory Garden was just impossible to even attempt.
I was glad to have gone because I wanted to see what it was like and it was a great change of scene with some lovely plants. The visitor centre was closed except for a ticket counter where a member of staff gave us a map of the grounds with the access of all groups marked. It wasn’t a very detailed map and as we left, we asked for the usual map which described the path surfaces so I would recommend asking for both maps if you are a wheelchair user or accompanying one.
The Thursday was mainly drizzly again then the Friday was an absolute corker, really hot and sunny. We thought we would have a brief trip to Bamburgh to get another glimpse of the sea, but as I suspected, even though it was about 10am when we got there, it was heaving so our vague plan of perhaps parking somewhere with a view of the sea was impossible. On the way there was a lovely, clear view of the Farne Islands and we got a glorious view of the silvery waves, the beach, and the castle behind.
Back at the cottage, a chap had turned up to trim the hedges. He wasn’t going to be long so we wandered back down the lane under the shady trees and discovered there were lots of little mice in the bank under the hedge. Doxford Cottages are something of a haven for wildlife: every day we saw a woodpecker or two, seven or eight chaffinches all at once, a nuthatch, pheasants, rabbits and a squirrel as well as the mice and lots of crows, jackdaws, house-martins and many other birds.
I really recommend this cottage if the access is right for you. It’s a great cottage in lovely surroundings and there is plenty to do in the area. I know the bathroom arrangements can be make or break for many disabled people and, guess what? We forgot to take photos of the bathroom! You can see the shower area on the cottage website and they provide a good adjustable height shower seat and also a toilet seat raiser if you wish (and were happy to provide measurements). The toilet has a vertical grab rail to the left of it but as it is not a back-to-the-wall lavatory, the rail is too far back to be useful and the drop-down rail to the right of the loo is a bit too far away to lean on but of course that won’t be a problem for everyone. It’s also great that it is possible to sit at the dining table in a wheelchair! The dressing table is also at an accessible height.
This may have been a little tiring physically at times but it was great to have a change of scene (I’d not been away from the house since the lockdown) and be in such peaceful surroundings. It was also very mentally refreshing to have a break from the news: we just checked the local weather and national headlines once a day and didn’t look at social media at all. We didn’t even have the radio on, just lots of our favourite CDs and only got a newspaper on the days when we were out and about.
I’m glad that we went on some ‘exotic’ holidays when we did as we have them to look back on. I certainly have no intention of flying until the airlines have sorted out accommodating wheelchair users properly. Besides, even if I was able-bodied, the thought of having to wear a mask for hours on end in the airport and on the flight is not very appealing. At the moment, simple staycations are right for us. I think a shorter break would suit me better as far as not getting too tired goes and as we are no longer bound by school holiday dates, I can see us doing a short break in the autumn or spring (or both!) in future. Maybe not at this cottage but we shall enjoy exploring other options!
Routine, mental gymnastics and a stake in the future
Do you find routine comforting? Do you use certain mental tricks to help you cope with things?
I read an article recently in which somebody commented that isolation was something that disabled people were quite used to. My initial reaction was to think “not all disabled people are isolated!” But then I considered my position even while I was still going into work, until last May. While I was just as much a member of staff as anybody else, for various reasons and largely because I use voice-activated software, I was in an office by myself which did inevitably have the effect of isolating me from my colleagues. Many other disabled people will be in similar situations and isolated in different ways, for example, my deaf colleagues were sometimes isolated because a BSL interpreter had not been booked and it was difficult for them to follow what was happening in a meeting.
During my PGCE, my teaching practice placement was away from York where I was sharing a house with my friends and therefore for one term I lived on my own in a bedsit. This is where I learned that lesson that many sleep experts talk about. They often recommend that you don’t do anything work-related in the bedroom. While this was impossible in the bedsit, I did make it a rule that I would never do anything work-related while sitting on the bed so that whenever I looked at the room from that angle I wasn’t in a work frame of mind. It took some mental gymnastics to achieve it, but I think it must have worked as I don’t remember sleepless nights thinking about work.
We usually watch the news a lot but like many people now, we are rationing it and making sure we don’t watch it last thing before going to bed but play some music instead. It sometimes requires some of those mental gymnastics to switch off and leave thinking or worrying for the morning but, like meditation or mindfulness, I think it comes with practice.
Something experts are recommending as a good way to cope with the current lockdown is to maintain some sort of routine. I find people’s need for routine a really interesting phenomenon. I’ve often had a conversation with people in January where everyone admits that we quite liked getting back into a routine after Christmas. Similarly, I remember having conversations as an undergraduate where people agreed that they had started by revelling in not having to get up if you didn’t have an early lecture, eating whenever you felt like it, having breakfast cereal for dinner, that sort of thing and then finding after a while that it was a little bit unsettling, depressing even, and feeling better once they had got into some sort of routine.
On the news the other day, there was an item about a young homeless woman who had been given a flat to live in. It was like a palace, she said and she was really enjoying getting into a routine, preparing meals and so on and had not taken any heroin for a week. I wish they did follow-ups on news items like that, I’d love to know how she’s doing now. Routine is somehow comforting and while ditching it for a while during the holidays is refreshing, for many people it is reassuring to have some sort of structure to your day or week.
Another thing we keep being recommended to do is be grateful for what we have and to notice the small things. I think I am doing both of those in spades: we are hugely grateful we have a garden and noticing the small changes in it is one of the great joys of gardening. Every time I go outside I look to see how much further the thyme, the fuchsia or the jasmine have come out into leaf, how much further out is the saxifrage or the blossom on the cherry tree, how much higher the clematis has climbed up the trellis, how much the tadpoles have grown. Also, how the privet cuttings are doing that we planted to plug a hole in the hedge and if the wildflower seeds we scattered have germinated yet. We have a few indoor projects too like spring-cleaning and a mini one is a maidenhair fern we turned around as it was growing lopsided. It looks unsightly just now but I love seeing the new tendrils reaching out for the light. Plenty to look at and lots of mini-projects, all life-affirming and a stake in the future.
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