Poco a Poco

  
    We're now halfway through our eighth week of lockdown here in the Canary Islands. My waistline has expanded a little, ( I'm probably not being too honest about that) and the grey roots of my hair are getting harder and harder to disguise. (I am telling the truth about that.)

    I've been keeping myself busy the best I can. I've read a barrel load of cozy mysteries and I have been very productive in the writing sense. This work I hope to share with you very soon. Something I won't be sharing with you is my baking, which I do once a week as I'm afraid we've managed to scoff it all. Hence the larger waistline. Okay, I've included a picture of my cheese scones, because I didn't want to disappoint.

    On Sunday past, we started a phase of de-escalation of the state of emergency, here. De-escalation will be done poco a poco, as they say in Spain. Thankfully, we are now allowed a little exercise, which will help rid the extra pounds as well as the cabin fever that has gradually crept in. We can leave our homes for an hour each day to walk, run, or cycle, as long as we stay within 1 kilometer of our homes (6/10 of a mile.) This can only be done with members of your household, meaning if your son or daughter lives down the street you can't walk with them.

    In order that social distancing can be maintained our daily exercise has been given time slots by the government, according to age.  My partner and I can go out of doors between the hours of 6am-10am in the morning or 8pm-11pm in the evening.

    We choose to take our walk around 8am and the first morning it was strange to walk along the main road and find it fairly deserted of vehicles and pedestrians. A small line of people had started to form outside the supermarket and one of the store assistants kept a watchful eye on the forming queue, making sure that the 2-meter rule was being adhered to. But, otherwise, there were no queues at the bus-stops and the buses passed with no passengers on board.

    Hopefully, within the next few weeks, we can start to move around a little more freely. Our contagion is now nearly zero within the islands and thankfully the number of deaths has fallen into near solitary figures. But, freedom is not the most important thing right now. Staying alive is.

God bless. Stay safe.