It’s been a busy week. I’ve mostly been working on personal projects and doing family things.

It seems to be as though social distancing has gone by the wayside however as the lockdown has been relaxed people seem to be making their own rules rather than following the government’s advice. Possibly they are acting on their instincts like Dominic Cummings did all those weeks ago. I don’t know, but it certainly feels like the government has lost control of the response to this crisis and is making it up as it goes along. This thread on twitter makes for an interesting read, it’s pretty much a shambles.

Mask wearing also seems to be pretty much non-existent, and I predict all sorts of complaints from idiots on Monday when the rules change and we all must wear them on public transport. I can see a lot of people going nowhere fast.

I am attempting to participate in AudioMo again this year. The principal is simple, post a piece of audio everyday during the month of June and share a link via Twitter with the hashtag #audiomo. You can find all of mine via Twitter (@tontowilliams), or click on the links below.

Day 1 – A Day of Firsts, Day 2 – Bin Day, Day 3 – The Rain, Day 4 – Some Thoughts on Social Distancing, Day 5 – Thinking Carbon Emissions and Atmospheric Carbon, Day 6 – Some Thoughts on June 6th 1944 and Current Events, Day 7 – Thinking Time on the Allotment, Day 8 – Work & Coronavirus, Day 9 – Don’t Break The Chain, Day 10 – Things That Go Bump In The Night, Day 11 – Nobody Told The People In My Dreams About Social Distancing, Day 12 – I Think I’ve Broken The Weather, Day 13 – What’s Your New EDC?, Day 14 – Are You Ready To Go Shopping?

Also one of the field recordings that I made at the allotment was featured on the podcast Field Recordings

Work has been very quiet this week. I think I’ve probably reached that point where the amount of current work is declining faster than new work is coming in.

The allotment has been relishing in the rain that we’ve had over the last few days. It’s looking much healthier for rainfall rather than what I am able to provide with watering cans. It has of course also benefited the weeds, so I spent a good proportion of Saturday weeding. We did also have our first new potatoes and some gooseberries and loganberries. (I must remember to put the bowl of the ice cream maker in the freezer and order some double cream on our next grocery order, so that we can have gooseberry ice cream!)

Sadly we’ve also had some thefts from the site. This is a more common occurrence than you might think, and in the past we’ve had spates of people’s sheds being broken into and tools and other things being stolen. The current crimewave however seems to focus on food. Persons unknown are stealing fruit and veg from people’s plots. As far as I know, nothing has been taken from my plot but I do know of a few who have had things taken. I wonder whether the thefts are motivated by people not being able to afford to buy food from the shops or whether there is some other driver.

I read Helen MacInnes Above Suspicion this week and now am flipping between Valentine Warner’s The Consolation of Food and David Sedaris’ Calypso.

Above Suspicion was a great read, I’m pretty sure that I read it as a teenager around the same time I was reading Alistair Maclean’s stories. I’d like to read her other novels but at the moment I have so many books to read I don’t really want to add anymore to the long list and that’s probably why I’m flipping between two at the moment. I’d recommend reading Valentine Warner’s book in particular. If you don’t know he’s a chef but this isn’t really a cookbook. There are recipes in there but this is more of a book of stories with the odd recipe thrown in. If you want a taster you can go to his Instagram. He recorded a few of the stories there during lockdown to help publicise the book. I already had a copy but it encouraged me to bring it to the top of the pile.

Okay I think that’s about all I have this week. Have a good coming week yourself and stay safe!