We have had a very welcome visit by Frances and the kids. This was fairly easily organised in the spirit of social distancing. It did however contravene the letter of government instructions until modified yesterday. We did this in the spirit of “doing a Dominic”. They entered via our side gate to our patio where we had set up two benches 2m apart with a parasol shaded table between. We had washing bowls towels etc. set up by our outside tap and the toilet is just inside the back door. Thus equipped we felt very confident that we kept the spirit of restrictions.
Frances is working from home although for this half term period she was planning leave including the day she visited. Alice and Ben are reacting rather variously to lockdown. Alice at 10 is quite self reliant and with her own computer following school worksheets and BBC Bitesize. She is very keen on drawing and had a pad and pencil in hand when she arrived. Her subjects are mainly cartoon figures and her present ambition is to be a cartoon animator when she grows up. In contrast Ben at 8 is rather at a loss. He is not wonderful at following the various online sources on his own and is looking for a lot of support. He is used to playing with Alice when at home but she has reached the stage of wanting some time to herself.
Annette is trying to encourage everyone ( children and grandchildren ) to write about their experiences in the pandemic. She sees this as a valuable family archive. Trying to get Ben to write something wasn’t a success. He managed a sentence and even bribery offers didn’t get more. Alice by contrast readily wrote a bit although she soon got bored. Apparently writing is not yet something Ben is comfortable with.
As it happened they came on a very hot day. While the recent glorious weather has been a nice bonus the day of the visit was perhaps a bit too much of a good thing. We hoped the kids would enjoy the garden but they seemed reluctant to stray too far from us
Like us Frances is part of the Kings College survey program. This was Alison’s idea that we should all enrol. Attempting home exercises Frances has developed a stiff back. Noting this in her daily report she was asked to take a Covid test. As she expected this was negative.
While the kids have been away from school I’ve been supplementing their tuition with quiz’s I’ve complied. It has been Frances and family who have been most positive about these. They apparently tackle them as a family in their evening family hour. This isn’t quite what I originally intended as I was trying to pitch it for the grandchildren themselves. I am very pleased that they have found them interesting and entertaining.
It seems that Frances and family are finding lockdown acceptable. Normally Frances does her grocery shopping online but in the present circumstances she is making weekly supermarket journeys. Led by Alison we have had Zoom chats both as a family and one to one. As might be expected Martin who has been working from his home office for several years has an excellent set up. His camera is far superior being both extra wide angle without apparent distortion and automatically following his face.
We have had interest and amusement following Martin’s hens. In anticipation of his planned house move his friend had passed on a dozen hens and a cockerel. As the house move has been delayed by lockdown they have only managed to accommodate the hens with difficulty. Not only is their present garden quite small it is divided up around their house. Ellen and Alex seem to have adopted the hens as pets to a degree. Ellen has been thrilled to be rearing a chick which was brooded from the flock. What we realise and she doesn’t if the chick is a cockerel then that is likely to cause long term problems. Sexing chicks is difficult and they won’t know for some time.
Frances’ husband Matt works in IT normally in the Department of Justice in Birmingham but has no difficulty working from home which he often does anyway as part of his normal working practice. He is leading a group trying to automate probate records.
Frances works for the library service at Birmingham University. There is anxiety at the University about their future with a reduction expected in the number of overseas students.
After the visit we are very comfortable that we can manage future visits without breaking our shielding while also seeing Frances’s family. She has the advantage she is less than an hour away while Alison and Martin are much further making day trips impossible. It was very nice to have the visit.
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