Another month passes with no sign of the lockdown ending – and now the weather has broken. The last two days have been wet and chilly, and today rain is due within the hour. As a result I haven’t walked anywhere outside over the last couple of days, but have been pretty assiduous inside the house. I think that’s legal. Despite that I have completed more steps this month than I have on any month since our accident last August.

I didn’t really keep up with the note-taking; so again I am vague about what happened on which day. We “attended” the Zoom service at St Luke’s on Sunday, and now there is talk of having our own St Augustine’s event – largely because Carrie is getting very restless. The Greens are not keen on having a service because they don’t think Zoom is suitable for it. The word “integrity” was used, but I’m not sure why. As I result, I think we’re having some sort of experimental event at 6pm on Sunday.

Earth Day and St George’s Day have passed us by. Dot has been doing a lot of work in the garage, which looks much neater. She is also tackling her mother’s stuff, which is taking her a long time, as it would. We spent quite lot of Tuesday watching six episodes of a Nordic drama called Twin, which surprisingly worked although none of it could possibly have happened unless the police were determined to come to the wrong conclusions and children didn’t notice their father was suddenly a different person. Good scenery.

Quite interesting, though I guess predictable, that phone calls become longer and longer as visits cease. Spent a long time talking to Paul the other day while Dot was on FaceTime with Amy. Paul and Maryta are still going to St Benet’s Abbey, though a police car followed them in the other day. To Paul’s disappointment/relief (he wasn’t sure which), the police car then drove off without asking them what they were doing.

Had a long chat with Mark while Dot was putting some plants in the front garden (plants obtained by Des and Chris). It turns out that he has had COVID-19 and is just about getting over it. He almost certainly got it on his trip to Aberdeen and was laid out for four or five days and has been pretty exhausted since. He is just over 50. He rang 111 but didn’t go to hospital, though they said he definitely had it. Bit uneasy having it so close to us!

Today I have completed writing the minutes for the Paston Society annual meeting. Tricky, because it didn’t happen, obviously, but someone told Rob we could do it by e-mail; so we did. Would have thought we could have done the meeting by Zoom, but there you are. Bit of a challenge, but I had the chairman’s and treasurer’s report and one person’s response…

I’m about to write a shopping list for Des and have taken over our shopping bags. I have a bit of a headache. Adrian sent us a really good poem by Max Boyce about the current situation. It’s here.

I did take some notes this week, but my big achievement was to complete the labelling and editing of the Holy Land pictures (and some taken since that). This was a huge job, and I am not good at huge jobs. Lots of little ones are much better. Still, I felt great on Wednesday, when I completed it.

It’s been sunny all week, and gradually getting warmer. There was a cold wind on Sunday, when Dot and I walked by the river for a bit in the afternoon. In the morning the Zoom service from St Luke’s went pretty well. The next day it was a little warmer, and Dot cleaned the lounge while I was working on the pictures. Afterwards we walked up to the Rosary, and in the evening we watched the end of Sunderland ‘Til I Die – a shorter season, after which I suspect they may have given up. Interesting, though.

There was still a chill in the air on Tuesday. Dot and I drove to Mousehold and went for a walk, discovering the new cycle/foot path from Britannia Road down towards the Julian Bridge. I responded to an e-mail from Denise in the Orkneys and then we had a Zoom cake and compline. Dot baked a very nice sponge, and David Archer offered to take over the organising of the Zoom element, as he is a tech expert. As a result it went badly wrong, because he sent out the wrong invitation. Heroically I saved the day by finding the right link, which had appeared on my iCal. After that it went quite well, though I am going to have to make changes to the next Compline, because saying things together just doesn’t work.

On Wednesday I did some editing on the Gresham page on thisispaston.co.uk before we both walked up to the Rosary again. This time we met a guy who was doing some work there – a real cheerful Norfolk guy despite a terrible experience with his son, who was infected with meningitis at birth and has to be cared for all the time – probably because of a hospital error. It was good to talk to him (at a safe distance).

Later on we watched the end of Season 2 of The Expanse, and I tidied up my filling cabinet, re-doing about half a dozen files and making sure none of them were falling apart or unlabelled. (Some were to start with.)

Yesterday was very warm. I did some more on Gresham and then helped Dot with tidying up the garage. We put away the table tennis table and got most of the loose stuff into piles ready to go (to the tip, charity shops, or returned to Hello Fresh), though of course we can’t actually get rid of anything yet. Can you imagine the queues at the tips when they reopen?

Later we walked up into the Cathedral Close for a change: it was teatime but there were surprisingly few people about. I’ve noticed more cars on the roads, though. I made a fruit salad and wrote a bit of Parish Pump stuff, which I finished this morning. We watched an old film, The Spy who Came in from the Cold, which was surprisingly lacking in emotional impact, though good in other ways. David FaceTimed us, as he does frequently, which is great.

This morning – sunny again – Des delivered our groceries. I had got up early, but he delayed, thinking we might still be in bed! All was well, though: both Dot and I were available and dressed when he arrived. Apparently far fewer people at Morrisons today. Dot is now in the garage again, and we are planning to go up to the Rosary again later. Oh, we have placed an order with the Cley Smokehouse. It should arrive on Tuesday.

I realise I should be making meticulous notes about what is happening each day, so that I end up with a historic document. However, this has not been the case, and the days continue to merge into each other, this becoming the new normal. Dot, however, has been taking notes, and I draw on them partly for this blog.

Today it’s raining and quite cool, but apparently this is a minor blip in the mainly warm weather we’ve been having. We did have a couple of much cooler days, but they were simply nearer the seasonal average. We have been able to do our exercise walk in the Rosary most days: it really is a beautiful place, and because dogs are not allowed, peaceful too.

We’ve been watching a few films, but surprisingly are still busy in other areas. We really enjoyed Fisherman’s Friends, but were not particularly enamoured of Hustlers. We are continuing with The Expanse, but got lured into Masterchef finals week and always watch Vera. We have also just started watching the second season of Sunderland ‘Til I Die, which is really well done.

On Monday we had a Zoom get-together with Howard, Anna, Janet and Derek, and that was quite enjoyable. It came with wine. Paul also rang: he is hanging on, but Debbie is about to take a break; so that may cause difficulties with Maryta.

Mark came over and told us he was travelling to Mobile, Alabama, for his company (he is in oil and gas construction, I think). He left us with the key to his hire car, which would be collected the next day. He then left for Norwich Airport. He was flying to Aberdeen, then Schiphol, then Atlanta, from where he would drive to Mobile.

The hire company turned up for the car key, but two days later we noticed Mark’s own car was in front of the house and his windows were open. While we were chatting with Des (and keeping our distance) he emerged and said he had got as far as Aberdeen, where he was told by his company that the Amsterdam flight was cancelled, and he had to go to Heathrow (by train). He was just south of Edinburgh when he heard again from his company, saying the whole trip was off. So he left the train at Peterborough and came home. He said it was very odd being with other people, and he had felt very nervous at the airport and in the train.

On Tuesday we sorted out all the cards that we had accumulated over the years, and Dot did a careful file of all those we wanted to keep. Various items were delivered, including coffee, water filters and bathroom cleaner. David FaceTimed us: he seems well. He keeps in close touch, which is great.

The next day Dot cleaned the windowsills, and wrote to Phyllis. We posted the card on our daily walk. I went on my own on Thursday while Dot painted the cloakroom/downstairs toilet, and I posted a card to Christine, my cousin’s wife, which I should have done ages ago. I also found out that as well as a daughter he had a son, Matthew, who has ME. I sort of knew this, but couldn’t track anything down to confirm it. Earlier Des and Chris brought our shopping – quite a lot of it this time. We and the rest of the street clapped the NHS workers at 8pm (remembered at last minute) and then watched Compline in bed, which in my opinion is the right time for Compline, unless you go to sleep in the middle of it.

Obviously I have been doing various work in the middle of all this, some of it on Paston stuff. For instance I have checked the Personnel mini-biogs on the website and done a few corrections, some of them factual. I am getting to be quite an authority on Captain Robert Paston, who was shipwrecked off Nova Scotia in 1711 – the male line of the Pastons went down with him. I am also editing and captioning the Holy Land pictures, which is a bit of a slog. The photobook that I did arrived this week and looks quite good.

I have also restrung my guitar, only to find that this brought home how soft my fingertips are. I need to get back into practice. I did this yesterday, while Dot was clearing out the shed and painting a stool. I also made a fruit salad, but we fitted in another Rosary walk. I rang up Ray and Chris to see how Chris got on with her radiotherapy over the last couple of weeks. It seemed it went as well as could be expected. Complex but necessary procedure for actually getting into the hospital.

Bob Dylan has released another song – I Contain Multitudes, which is good, though not quite as good as Murder Most Foul. Great that he’s still producing more than worthwhile stuff at his age. I will now progress with picture editing and (possibly) a Holy Land poetry and pictures book. I have got in touch by e-mail with Matt, who apparently I was supposed to ring under the church “buddy” system, but this had not filtered through to me.

It’s getting harder and harder to separate one day from another. Lockdown is still in operation, and Boris has just left hospital for Chequers – his second home. Dot and I are still feeling Ok and have just had a long FaceTime chat with David and Chrissy. It remains very warm here, though there is a thunderstorm warning for late afternoon or evening. There is a good chance it may never happen, but as a precaution Dot and I went for a walk to the Rosary immediately after lunch. Came back quite tired.

I finally got the shredder to work and have shredded quite a lot of paper; so that’s quite satisfying. The slide viewer arrived and was smaller than I thought it would be, but it works perfectly well. Dot has finished front and back garden, and they look really good. We are still visited frequently by our male and female blackbirds, Jet and Speckles (Don’t ask). I have also completed a photobook of our Holy Land trip, but I only ordered one as it would be pretty meaningless to anyone else. Also it cost about £25, once you included postage.

On Maundy Thursday there was a Zoom service led by the Bishop, for people who are ministers of one kind or another to renew their promises. As the lowest kind of minister (an authorised worship assistant) I was invited, and it was quite moving. Dot came in towards the end (she had been speaking to Bridget), but fortunately I was muted. There was another service on Good Friday led by Sam and Martin: we missed it as it happened, but picked it up later on.

There was another Zoom service this morning – Easter Sunday – from St Luke’s, with about 50 people attending. Pretty good. The Maundy Thursday one had about 360, but that was diocese-wide. On Maundy Thursday we also took part in the 8pm street applause for NHS workers. It was Mary’s birthday; so we clapped her too.

We had a four-way FaceTime with David, Oliver and Amy one day, and that worked quite well. Everyone seems to be surviving with no trouble, though I guess Oliver would like to be driving around. So would I, come to that.

I have finished reading the book Dot read that referred to our pilgrimage. It’s called Jesus, and is written by a Jesuit. It brought back a lot of memories of the different sites, and though I didn’t go to the Jerusalem sites, I read about them at Easter; so it was quite special. I am now reading a book about diving for treasure in eastern Canada. There’s a Paston connection, but I haven’t got to it yet.

Yesterday while we were sitting in the garden I wrote a couple of poems. I was particularly pleased with one of them, which I called Easter Saturday and which alluded to the current situation in an oblique way. I decided to put it on Facebook, and it got some nice comments. I had already put up Gethsemane the day before, and this morning I made it three in a row by posting Easter Sky, another older one. I may be overdoing it.

And so it goes on. April Fool’s Day was notable for an absence of the usual jokes, possibly because real life was so absurd anyway. I was convinced for a minute that the third obituary in the Daily Telegraph was an April Fool, but then I read the other two and decided perhaps they all were – or none of them. Most coronavirus pronouncements are in much the same mould. Now PM Boris is in hospital and, it has to be said, not looking too good. But then…

I have finished clearing out the study, and it looks refreshingly neat. Sadly my paper-shredding machine is failing to work again for no apparent reason; so I have a pile of paper to cut up, burn or expose to a virus of some kind. We managed to get the slide projector to work and looked at my mother’s slides of the Holy Land. It’s amazing how different the place looked a mere 30-40 years ago. Far fewer buildings.

The smaller slide viewer, which is much better for a quick look, has given up the ghost, mainly because the batteries corroded and messed up everything else. I have sent off for a new one, which is only about £20. I can’t make the gizmo that transfers slides to my computer work, apparently because it’s now unsupported (too few bits, or something. Ho, hum.) Also can’t get the Super 8 film projector to work, but have located a shop in Norwich that can transfer my films to CD; so will give them a try eventually – whenever that is.

I keep on working on Paston site material. My latest achievement (a pretty small one) was to write sub-headings for some of the Paston Places articles. I am still modernising some of the letters, but to be honest it’s a bit of a burden, because the Middle English is often obscure. If it was just a case of making normal English more readable, it would be quite enjoyable. Peter obviously really loves the obscurities, because he keeps coming up with more and more obscure things to do.

I have written the Norwich Paston walk in leaflet form, but this can’t really be taken any further while we’re in isolation. I’ve also produced a liturgy for St Augustine’s Way, and Howard has just produced a reply to it, which I will have to have a look at. Meanwhile Dave Evetts wrote to ask for help with his family tree investigations, but I don’t think I was much help.

We’ve been in the house mostly, but last Friday we drove up to the chemist’s in the afternoon to pick up my prescription. We then called at the petrol station to fill the car up, which may not have been essential but didn’t expose anyone else, and I was careful to spray and wash my hands after handling the pump. (Paid with credit card at pump.) Earlier in the day the D’Souzas had got some groceries for us from Morrisons.

Saturday was very warm, and we decided to go for a walk for our exercise. We found the Rosary open and walked round it, encountering hardly anyone, and staying clear of them. It was actually very pleasant. On Sunday we joined in the St Luke’s service using Zoom. Surprisingly, it worked, especially when people muted themselves so that we could concentrate on Sarah, and sing the songs without sounding awful.

Cooler today, but still quite pleasant after early rain.