January began in a great rush after a busy Christmas. We had had a wonderful time at home and with friends, continuing on into the New Year. I managed to get a visit in to the garden centre to see the Christmas decorations – a wonderful Christmas miniature ski village, with train, ski-lift, balloon rides and all manner of interesting buildings had been introduced last year. I loved it. Sadly, by the time I got there after Christmas, it was still up, but not in operation. A bit of a disappointment. But the cycle ride there was wonderful: an exceptionally clear day gave us great views of Alderney to the north, with even the little islands Burhou, Ortac and the rocky islets of the Casquets clearly visible. Extraordinary.
I was soon back to school – INSET on the Monday, a public holiday still in some parts of the world. We had to do some online courses on various aspects of teaching which proved to be quite interesting and inspirational – always a bonus.
Time at home was spent helping Nicky and Richard, as they finished clearing their field next door. The first third of the month was full of rain and so, eventually, the field and our garden flooded. We had the pump well set up by then, so, although much of our garden was quite soggy, nothing was quite underwater.
It was a different story with the field. The compost heap was dry enough to shovel clear, but the hen houses were standing in inches of water. We paddled as we helped carry various parts of it – each one flat-packed down into 6 boards. The houses were going to a good home: The Soil Farm, a sustainable smallholding, majoring on wormeries and chickens in an effort to utilise local food waste and improve the soil. Appropriate, then, that a friend lent us a copy of the film The Biggest Little Farm... fascinating.
After all that, it was a relief when it eventually stopped raining quite as much and we had a couple of sunny, dry days.
Meanwhile, I prepared for a little Ladies’ Bible study group I was initiating with, it has to be confessed, more than a little trepidation... a group of women were coming who I barely new. #alwaysinteresting.
And Cat sent us frequent, absolutely delightful photos of Cara and Rosie... and videos of Cara's adventures. She is consistently funny, brave, adventurous, charming: such a delight to see her developing so quickly.
Then, three weeks into January, Guernsey was thrown into turmoil once more. We woke on Saturday 23rd January to... Lockdown. Declared overnight, the news spread rapidly by local media such that by 9am the roads were busy and shop car parks filled to overflowing as people rushed to do their shopping. By 3pm, the roads were almost deserted. Stay at home, stay at home... only going out for essential shopping, medical visits and 2 hours exercise outside a day.
4 cases had appeared in the community with no apparent links to the few cases - only 6 - which had developed while visitors were still in self-isolation. By the evening of the next day, the Sunday, there were 20 cases; by Wednesday 27th, 84. Getting on for a thousand people had been tested in less than a week and more were self-isolating, waiting to see if symptoms would develop.
Guernsey - particularly Dr Nicola Brink, our leading virologist and director of public health - acts quickly, following New Zealand's example. (Even there, a case developed after somone came out of mandatory 14 day quarantine.) Travel in and out of the Bailiwick had been banned, in any case, earlier in the month as the virus rampaged through Britain. Even travel between the islands of Herm, Alderney and Sark was restricted, with travellers to Alderney having to isolate for fourteen days in order to protect the island and its rudimentary medical services.
The hospital was already full to capacity with the usual winter illnesses and ailments. Schools were closed - completely, not even for key worker children. My school instantly went to online learning, with daily online staff meetings.
We were prepared, but the onslaught of technology was still exhausting. I spent two hours - TWO HOURS - with one child, who was a techie whizz but nevertheless was struggling with his ipad. We got there eventually...
And the weather. Ranged from beautiful bright sunshine, so clear we could see Alderney and Jersey with no trouble at all, to a day full of fog, mist and drizzle. A day to sit in by the fire and wrestle with marking work - mostly clear and well-processed, but some submitted as upside down or out of focus photographs, often with a large expanse of carpet around them, rendering the actual work almost too small to read. I am getting quite a good idea of the carpet choices in some of the households....
And then the email came. I had been in contact with a member of the school community and needed to self-isolate. Fourteen days from the last time, which, as we had already been in lockdown for a while, turned out to be just four remaining.
I moved into the guest room, working in the hallway, with the same set up we had used for Jonny and Adele last year. It seemed a bit silly, isolating from Richard, as we had been together, but it did mean that he could still take the dog out for solitary walks through the lanes.
We communicated through the glass of windows and messages on WhatsApp. The menu was somewhat limited...
And the weather settled in to wet. We had actually been, unwittingly, following 'dry January' in not drinking wine. There's more than enough water to compensate - poor plants, sitting soggily in a swamp...
Let's hope that February is drier...
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