Panic Shopping
15th March 2020 Waitrose Supermarket, Malvern, England [P Butler] Car park full and huge queues at the checkouts as the local population stock up on supplies ahead of the unknown.
Locusts
16th March 2020. Malvern, England. One of thousands of similar images from across the globe. Empty shelves. Some shoppers find it so absurd they can't help but laugh, others don't find it quite so amusing. [P Butler]
Trading Estate
17th March 2020 I drove to a trading estate in Worcester today pick up parts for my old car. No sign of any slowdown there yet, business continues as usual. [P Butler]
School Pack Lunches
18th March 2020 Despite most of Europe closing schools and nurseries, they remain open in the UK. Pupil numbers are dropping as some parents choose to keep their children at home, but in large part everything remains as normal. We expect the Government to announce closures from the end of this week, but wait for confirmation. [P Butler]
Vunerable
19th March 2020. I visited my parents today, probably for the last time in a couple of months. They are both 80 and my dad has had severe respiratory infections in the past, so was nervous about even going today, but kept my distance and didn’t stay long. They seem to be taking the self-isolation warnings seriously, but it’s going to be hard on them. [P Butler]
Closed
20th March 2020. The UK government has finally forced closure of cafes, bars and restaurants from the end of today. A few, like this one, have already shut, but from what I've seen, a large chunk of the population simply isn't taking the risk seriously enough. Without dramatically increasing the number of tests in the UK, and enforcing lockdown, I fear we will end up with catastrophic loss of life. It is perhaps already too late. [P Butler]
God is closed for business.
I'm not religious, but I guess in times like these some may find comfort and hope in it. The local priory has cancelled all services until further notice, but you can still sneak in through the side door to pray. [P Butler]
Happy Birthday.
22nd March 2020. My eldest daughter is seven today. Apart from the cancellation of her party and schools closing on Friday, she's unaware of the situation outside. I'm jealous, ignorance is bliss. [P Butler]
Home School
23rd March 2020 Day one of home schooling. All went to plan, but it's going to be a challenge to keep it up for months on end. I guess it'll just become routine after a while. [P Butler]
Lockdown
The UK is now finally in 'lockdown'.This is the front gate of the apartments where we live, I can't go beyond this point without a valid reason. Good, I don't wan't to! [P Butler]
Outside In
I'd rather be outside on days like today. Beautiful light.
Solitary Escape
26th March 2020 We're spending more time in the garden than I can remember. Might as well make the most of the beautiful weather. [P Butler]
Empty Mirror
27th March 2020 We actually left the grounds and went for a walk today. Seemed like most of the town was out walking their dogs, but we were able to find some quiet corners and keep our distance. [Philip Butler]
Deflated
29th March 2020 This old cat toy looks how I feel today, deflated. After a week off work (annual leave) I have to return tomorrow. I've been classed as a 'key worker' by the Government, so no more isolation for me. I'm utterly dreading it. [Philip Butler]
Manicured
31st March 2020 I guess it's best to stay on top of bowling green maintenance if you have one, but I can't image anyone is going to be using it any time soon. [Philip Butler]
April Fools
Not much on the calendar for this month, I only hope that by the time I turn over the next page new cases are heading back down. [Philip Butler]
Still
There's plenty I could be getting on with, but increasingly I feel the need to just sit in silence. [Philip Butler]
Under the Tracks
3rd April 2020 One of the plus points of taking daily family walks from our front door, is discovering local points of interest we never knew existed. This is a small tunnel underneath the railway line at the corner of our local common, just out of sight from the road and our usual stomping ground. We'll try to take a new route each day to become more familiar with every square inch of our local area. [Philip Butler]
Telescreen
We seem to be spending far too much time in the evenings watching really dreadful movies. I guess it's better than watching the news. [Philip Butler]
Essential Journeys
5th April 2020 Today's officially Government sanctioned family walk took us up past the main road at the top of town. I'm trying not to be too judgemental, but there was far more traffic than I'd expect for a Sunday afternoon under lockdown conditions. Can't help but wonder how many folks were driving to and from beauty spots in the area. [Philip Butler]
Rotating
It's a cool windy evening and my daughter's little windmill is furiously rattling away in the garden. It was the first thing that caught my eye on returning home from work. [Philip Butler]
Shut the curtains and keep the world outside
Stay at home / stay safe. [Philip Butler]
Not a cloud in the sky
It's a beautiful warm sunny day, so we snuck out for a bit of vitamin D. [Philip Butler]
Pool
9th April 2020 We're so lucky to have a garden. I can't imagine what it must be like for those with children who live in upstairs apartments during this beautiful weather. [Philip Butler]
Quiet weekend calling.
That's another week over with. I'm looking forward to not having to leave the house for the next few days. Stay safe. [Philip Butler]
Web
[Philip Butler]
From the outside in
"The UK is likely to be among the European countries worst affected by coronavirus", is the current headline on the BBC news site. This, despite the rare and invaluable time in which we had to minimise impact while watching it move from China to Italy to here. What an utterly useless bunch idiots we have running the country! Happy Easter [Philip Butler]
Common Ground
We took another late afternoon walk on the local common. Just a few dog walkers and cyclists around, all keeping their distance and sharing the solitude. [Philip Butler]
April
A saw a tweet today about a guy in London being stopped by the police for taking photos while out on his daily walk. He was surrounded by four officers and told that this was a 'non-essential activity' and the camera should be left at home. I can't see this happening if he was using his phone, but because had a proper camera it was deemed a breech of the rules. Utterly crazy! Yet another reason why I feel extremely fortune to live in a rural area. Keep taking those pictures everyone! [Philip Butler]
No drugs today.
I read today that independent pharmacies in the UK are struggling to remain open. Increased costs of medicines, home deliveries and staffing issues has caused many to go under, despite the increase in trade. This one in Malvern shut before the pandemic, but it's worrying all the same. [Philip Butler]
Ducks
One of the small highlights of the week for my girls is walking to the park to feed the ducks. Thankfully we're still allowed to do it. Only problem is, everyone else is feeding them too, so they're not hungry! [Philip Butler]
Local Inspiration
Frustration in not being able to travel to take photos had led me to constantly re-evaluate my local neighbourhood for shots. I've walked past this wold caravan 100s of times, but never thought to take a picture. I daren't set foot on the drive, as the house looks really scary, but I grabbed a quick photo from the road today. [Philip Butler]
Another sunny morning in lockdown land
[Philip Butler]
Home
I spent much of today teaching my daughter to ride a bike up and down the path. Unfortunately I failed to take any photos of this momentous occasion apart from a video on my phone, so here's a photo of our front door instead. [Philip Butler]
Empty Spaces
I wanted to find somewhere local where my daughter could improve her riding, so we cycled down to the local swimming pool car park. This would usually be full on the weekend, but there was only one car and a couple of post office vans parked up, so we made the most of it. [Philip Butler]
Rain
We've had beautiful weather here for the last couple of months. Undoubtedly the back to back sunshine has made it harder for people to stick to the lockdown, but it has no doubt helped reduce cabin fever by encouraging folks to enjoy their gardens and daily walks. It's been raining heavily all day. I suspect we'll be spending more time in doors over the next week. [Philip Butler]
Storm Clouds
A photo taken on yesterday's lockdown walk. Today was very similar. Stormy. [Philip Butler]
The View
I haven't posted anything on here in a few weeks. I lost the inspiration to keep taking a shot a day. Anyway, here's one I took a few days ago that I meant to post. I'm lucky enough to live in a rural hilly area, and this view is just 30 minutes from my front door. It's been pretty quiet up there the last few times we've walked up, but now the useless UK Government have announced a loosening of lockdown (despite us still having very high number of daily infections), I expect the hills will get very busy again. [Philip Butler]
Thursday
Simple pleasures. [Philip Butler]
Thank You
Displays thanking our emergency services have popped up in closed shop windows over the last few months. This one, in our local party shop, is perhaps the most amusing. [Philip Butler]
Air Show
From out of nowhere a single stunt plane appeared above the town and started pulling manoeuvres, finishing off with a smiley face. 🙂 [Philip Butler]
© Philip Butler