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Published: March 28th 2021
Day 379 of the Covid Diary . Yesterday the First Minister of Wales known forever as Drippy Drakeford announced that we in Wales were free. At last after three months of lockdown Covid deaths in Wales have decreased significantly. Hospital admissions have been less extreme and we are seeing that way out of Covid . Our own roadmap. Freedom . As I walked this morning that was all that was going round and round my head . Freedom to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted . Reality of course is not quite like that . After 379 days of lockdowns, closing of non essential shops, re-opening of the same shops , no gyms, no hairdressers , no swimming , Beaches opened up . Beaches closed down . Well I was expecting this to go belly up in a short while . From today we can go anywhere in Wales . No longer are we restricted to stay at home messages which have been the norm since we came back to Wales . No longer has the message stay local been drummed into us like some kind of demented mantra or earworm that just will not go away .
Do
I believe any of it ? The air smelt fresh today . Spring is definately here . At the back of my mind I thought that despite all this optomism something would go wrong . Another massive spike of Covid cases as we see in Europe at the moment . £5000 fines if we dare to venture abroad without a good reason . That good reason could be to decorate our second homes in readiness for going to stay in them or to rent them out . That should rule out travel for anyone without a second home . You can go anywhere you want but only if you are lucky enough to own a second home. Motorhomers can forget that one . You can go anywhere you want unless you want to go into England . Just a few miles to the border . I could walk there is less than half an hour.
The river looked lovely today . The anglers are out in force fishing the waters . There are grebes about but I see none of them . Despite looking hard there are no signs of anything other than the odd one or two Mallard
ducks. Even they though are elusive at times. The sky is blue . The clocks are changing tonight . Hello British Summer time . It will be darker in the mornings for a few weeks but lighter at night . The weather will improve . Of course it won't . For some reason like the freedom I am being given there is always a catch . The weather will turn . We probably will get rain now for a few days or even weeks . We plan a getaway . We shall go on Tuesday to pick Gabby up and hope she will start . She has been sadly neglected with all this lockdown. She won't know us . We probably will be locked out of her . We firstly will have to go and fill her up with diesel for the day out . It will feel good . We have forgotten how good driving away in her feels .
Where to go? We cannot go to England . Boris is not opening up anything this week . Perhaps a small change but nothing like the freedom we are getting . The celandines along the river are slowly
going over and being replaced by Coltsfoot which in turn will die and produce white fluffy seedheads. The Wild Garlic has a few flowers coming out here and there . As I stand on them they smell pungent . Strong onion smells pervade the air . The birds are out feathering their nests . I pass no-one . There is just me and my thoughts . I have not seen the man in his hi-vis jacket nor any of the neighbours walking . We could drive down to Barmouth . We have not been there for years . Is it motorhome friendly ? Is there space to park a van whilst we head off for a walk on the beach ? Will the locals be friendly or will they think we are English trying to avoid lockdown and bring Covid in ? The police are about in and around the beauty spots stopping cars when the numberplates suggest English occupants . Fines are arriving in the post . Perhaps we could go to Porthmadoc or Conwy . My ideas for a day out were going wild . That is what freedom after all this time does to you. We will
be able to have breakfast in Gabby . Lunch and maybe sleep in her . So many thoughts going round and round .
I leave the riverbank and head out up the empty road . Empty apart from a lady I see often . On her phone , always talking . Never looking up apart from when our paths cross . A quick nod and she has gone . The White Dead nettles are starting to appear . Red ones too. The leaves on the Blackthorn are thickening up. Perhaps we should stay local . How about driving from Chester to Point of Air along the North Wales coastal walk . We can follow the Dee on its journey to the sea.
I arrive home , the kettle goes on, the coffee is laid out and a cake . Barmouth is out . There seems to be spaces for motorhomes but many of the recommendations are at least 10 years old and feel out of date in this new Covid World. Porthmadoc is motorhome unfriendly as is Llandudno and Conwy . The coastal path following the Dee estuary seems more interesting by the minute . Just need a bit of planning so that is what we intend to do . A day out in Gabby now that will feel like freedom .
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JACKIE
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2nd Homes
My belief is that you can only go to your second homes to get them ready to rent out or sale? I'm not sure the Spanish would be too happy to see us at the moment as they have locked the Andalucia borders - mainly to stop people travelling down from Madrid! It seems crazy that we cannot go across the border yet!! We are all the United Kingdom?? Seems that everyone who has family in Wales can see each other. yet if you have all your family , ie son, daughter, grandchildren, parents, sisters, cousins living in Bristol - you cant see them :-( Fed up with it all now!!! We have a week away in Llandudno booked for mid April - it doesnt feel enough!!!