Diaphanous

In spite of what I said on Tuesday, lockdown isn't a totally bad state of being. There are positives.  There's the quietude, the calmness—aside, that is, from the supermarket and the main road. More walkers and cyclists meander by than cars hasten. There's a chance to ponder the champagne fizz of the insects that thicken the warm, diaphanous early spring air, as the gentle sun sweetly caresses and blankets us and burrows deeply into us.

Alongside garden flowers, there's a unique opportunity to absorb freckled banks of daisies and peppered with dandelions scattered like idle gossip; and the rarely seen verge-side wild plants. They're all spared the first scything of spring. In the sunlight, you can gape at the garrulously cheeky sparrow and the preening blackbird sharing the same birdbath side by side.

We have the usual virtual management team meeting at work on Thursdays and Monday's regular catch-up is postponed to yesterday because of Easter. The question around the "table" is, always, "What's happened since we last met?" and, of course, everyone answers "No updates from me since Thursday, except..." and then they list minor changes, petty acts and lesser crises that turn out to be of such triviality that no one's interested. The truth is that nothing actually went on over Easter and nothing much is going on anywhere—and that isn't all bad. We have a simplicity we've not enjoyed probably since the previous world war. There's a certain serenity, tranquility. It's actually nice that certain things are simply no longer proceeding.

So, let us enjoy the sun, our gardens, the once a day exercise. The chance to take a breath, to luxuriate in the moment without feeling the inevitable guilt of the opposite of busy-ness. Let's delight in the small things and be thankful that the Earth is on holiday enjoying something of a much needed respite. For things will be different over the next weekend when we expect rainfall.

Or, oblivion may yet descend upon us and visit us at any stage. The danger isn't past. In terms of illness and death, we're behind our urban cousins as we as a country also trail Italy.