Today is the June Bank Holiday, a national holiday, a day off work, a day to relax and take life easy before facing back to the grindstone again tomorrow. After eleven weeks remaining at home, not out even once, it was very much just another day, another anonymous day like so many before it and, probably, like so many others to come. Life in retirement and life under the restrictions of Covid 19 are not frightfully dissimilar.
Without the structure of our normal routine we have lost track of days to a certain extent. Of course, routine is not gone entirely; we have not become disassociated from the calendar entirely and what had always been our domestic cycle of chores has continued. What is missing are those elements which related to the external world – the weekly shopping outing, our garden club meetings, morning walks, days out to visit gardens or for lunches, meetings with family and friends. These are all gone.
Life has become completely home-based, a society of two, and we are enjoying it very much! We do not find it the imposition we have seen so many people complain of; not a denial of liberty, nor a curtailment of freedom but a present-day necessity for the good of our health and that of the community. It is an opportunity to enjoy a new experience, or to extend and deepen the manner in which we have lived for some years.
We are not alone in enjoying these past weeks for I see everyday, online, how a great many others have taken advantage of the opportunity to enjoy their homes, their gardens and their families. I have seen example after example of how people have improved, even transformed, their gardens over the past while with projects which might otherwise have been put on the longest of fingers – postponed forever, to be honest. Now, these projects are in hand and people are enjoying doing them, enjoying the work and the sense of achievement in completing various projects. There is a positive side to the restrictions which have had to be imposed as protection for the community during this pandemic and I hope many people continue to enjoy it.
Just as an example, here are two blogs which might be of interest: https://diaryofanewgardener.com/ and https://belfastgardener.wordpress.com/
We did make a little concession to the Bank Holiday today though, to be honest, it was prompted more by the very hot weather than by any desire to be in line with society. We stopped gardening at three o’ clock and rested for the remainder of the afternoon. Mary took a set of photographs, edited them, and posted them to an online gardening site. I read a little – grappling with the complexities of identifying a group of native orchids, the dactylorhizas (blasted nuisances!). A couple of beers and dinner completed a lovely day. Tomorrow will be another! Be good, be safe and be healthy!
Best wishes, Paddy
No day would be complete without photographs of flowers from the garden and today, the sun shone and the flowers looked well.
My apologies that I cannot add captions to the photographs in the slideshow. This is a quirk of the new WordPress editing programme.
Paddy Tobin, An Irish Gardener 
I am so impressed by your steadfast positivity, Paddy. For us, it’s been a total relief to be able to get out and about more. I was going a little stir crazy under the tighter restrictions.
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We are neither particularly sociable people and enjoy our own company, individually and as a couple, so staying at home has not been a terrible imposition. We do miss the grandchildren (and their parents, of course), our days out and I especially miss days out with friends to seek out native orchids. Buy, by and large, we are perfectly happy as we are and intend proceeding very cautiously, staying as we are for the foreseeable future. Now that you are out and about I particularly look forward to your photographs of wildflowers!
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Also – your photography is inspirational!
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From one who takes photographs so very well, that is a huge compliment. Many thanks.
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Paddy thank you so much for the recommendation to my blog. I always love seeing the email in my inbox saying you have a new post. I agree with Finola above, I love seeing your pictures. Hope you and the head gardener are well?
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Both well and out in the garden again today – an absolutely beautiful day here in Waterford, really gorgeous. I cut the grass this morning and had a fabulous surprise: we have an area we call our “Bulb Lawn” because we have lots of bulbs there for spring. We later added a few native orchids, gifts from a friend’s garden, and as they flower in June we had to leave cutting the grass into August so it has developed into a wildflower patch for the summer. I was passing by this morning on the lawnmower and spotted a little flash of pink – a new orchid! It must have seeded from those I planted a few years ago. Thrilled pink! LOL (old fools are easily pleased!)
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