Deep Winter

This feels a strange time. The Covid figures are climbing daily and it looks as though January will be grim. It is the dark depths of winter and feels it, with persistent cold and damp. Further north there has been snow, but not here - we just have clouds and drizzle. My headache finally lifted today, but left me feeling a bit dizzy and out-of-sorts. Hopefully by tomorrow it will have cleared properly. The Covid research app I provide data for decided to offer me a test despite having no Covid symptoms, but after two failed attempts the government test portal decided I had had a home test too recently to get another one (presumably because I ordered TG's using my own email address) and I decided I my commitment to help with research data didn't extend to going for a drive-in test. 

We went out for local walks both yesterday and today but I didn't take any photographs, so here are two more from our Boxing Day walk. The house above was lived in by women's suffrage campaigner Emmeline Pankhurst for a couple of years before the First World War, which is why it has the blue commemorative plaque. The church is not quite as old as the Anglo-Saxon church at Wing, but is one of the best examples of a 12th century church in the country. Not long after it was built the church revenues and the right to appoint its vicar were given to Kenilworth Priory, which was too far away to show much interest, and the village had absentee overlords, so there was never anyone with enough interest to extend or "improve" the building in the later Middle Ages. All for the best, as it turned out, as this beautiful old church is a gem. 

Yesterday morning H took TG out to the new drive-through Tim Horton's for breakfast and M went to the tidy tip to get rid of Christmas debris. In the evening we had a Zoom session with our neighbours and ex-neighbours (TG's godparents) which was lovely - almost as good as being in the same room. The six of us have socialised regularly for years, usually sharing dinners with an international theme for which each of us makes one course. One set of neighbours moved and now split their time between England and Spain (when there isn't a pandemic!) but we still usually meet up regularly when they are in the UK. Spending time with dear friends is a treat, even when it has to be virtual. Today has been very lazy. I think I have slowed down to almost a complete stop! Getting back into work mode next week is going to be a struggle. I think I would really rather hibernate and just come out in the spring when it is lighter, brighter, and (please God!) vaccination is starting to win the battle against Covid.