06:29 – 07:13, wind E 1 gusting 2, temp 6C (feels like 6)

There is a to and fro of enthusiasm for wearing face masks in public – “not very effective” versus “what harm can it do?”

                             off To the west coast
                            mailbOx grey-greened with moss and lichen
       a bin-wagon returns for a Missed-bin
                          last yeAr’s flowers brown the buddleia
                        waves of Sound lap along the western shore
                  roman doric marKs a garden
      pavier and gravel gardens fOr cars
        a lost hat placed on a gaRden wall
                      a bricked-iN gateway
                the slug trails tO the top of the wall
                            pass The sparrow colony
                      the walled Triangle full of maple seedlings
chalked bricks and a shrek swamp On the pavement
     gable end picked out in creaM bricks
           wooden gates let onto A cobbled yard
                             NHS Staff priority at the bank
                         a dunnocK’s song at the turn into the alley

06:25 – 07:12, wind NW 1 gusting 2, temp 1C (feels like 1)

The clash of models – the economy versus heath – is a straw man.

                 to the nortH east clockwise
a dairyman consults his phonE
     don twarr is signed in A window
            candles of laureL scent the road
      headstones blurred by Time
               wind and weatHer   
    slow warmth in the sunshIne
          collared dove callS at the back of the cemetery
a dawn frost carpets to the Wall
                        stonEs stand in lost corners
                   a chiffchAff sings
                        the Long and winding road
                       a dusTbin is papered with flowers
  the bassett hound and lurcHer palatinate

06:40 – 07:20, wind W 2 gusting 4, temp 5C (feels like 3)

Government briefings caution about the point to relax lockdown.

            off into the West
              three chimnEy-top gulls call
   a door overgrown with A drape of ivy
             footsteps thRump on inspection hatch metal
                      fivE blackbirds pull worms from the lawn
   beech hedge buds softeN
                  warmer On the sunny side of the street
        a house name glisTens in the sun
      a front garden vegeTable patch looks unloved
                terraced Houses trimmed with orange brick
       the downwind sifflE of distant traffic
             there is no Rhubarb amongst the bluebells
           the gate’s tunE plays onto the moor 
   private garden no entrY
trace the wall along the Edge of the moor
trying to track a small sTream

07:26 – 08:11, wind W 3 gusting 5, temp 10C (feels like 8)

Boris Johnson quotes Cicero – “The health of the people should be the supreme law”

           to redefine tHe eastern shore
          the moor cattlE low
     meet the retriever And the lurcher again
          ponder on a cuL-de-sac
                     pasT gardens paved for minis and audi’s
                 along tHe narrow road across the bridge
            down steps tO the burn
                  right For a wagtail a mid-stream shoal
                       sTand before a bank of wild garlic
         the black lab cHases sticks
    cross the burn by thE mill and the force
                    the Passing snatch of blackcap warble
up the slope and into thE drifted scent of garlic
  a lóng guards the windOwsill
               towards oPalescent greyness in the west
                in at a Locked gate
             ordered vegEtable rows

11:31 – 12:13, wind ESE 2 gusting 3, temp 11C (feels like 11)

The web based Covid testing site runs out of test after only a few hours.

                           a loop Through the east
              erratic with migrainE
 at the foot of a tree a fallen neSt box
          the ash is still in tighT bud
                      the lightnesS of the poplar
      a blackcap fluting from coveR
  a distant drift of beyond-roof gUlls
a street of cared-for pocket gardeNs
               a spaniel warns me Off
                       a fence sinUous form in two dimensions
          my hollow step on the meTal cover
                              no rAin for five weeks
   neither toadflax nor stonecrop Grows on a wall 
                    past the vicarAge but no discernible church
     a mistle thrush flutes and whIstles unseen
                        a runner iN a three-way social-distance-jam

06:20 – 07:07, wind WSW 1 gusting 3, temp 3C (feels like 3)

The UK’s seismic hum has fallen by between 30 and 50 percent during lockdown.

                      to the Southern grasslands …
                    south havEn and south shore
   an empty bus and a restockIng lorry
             an overnight froSt slicks the grass
             cut but not trimMed handkerchief lawns
                    the traffIc seethe pushes across the grass
            uneven grass legaCy of cowpats
               paths from nowHere to nowhere
          a skylark flickers Upwards
crows flap slowly across the Moor
    the cow just stares and cHews
      duck through the fence And across the road
    read the story in the walL’s stones
                         the Veering runner’s “morning”
                      the gatE clangs and
            a greenfinch callS

06:26 – 07:11, wind NNE 2 gusting 3, temp 6C (feels like 4)

There is discussion of what should be the driver of lockdown decisions, the economy or health.

                 to the norTh haven
         another roadside cHerry looks sick
                     a suggEstion of mist
          the mayflower appEars in april
          snatches of blackCap …
                      … belOw the great-tits rock 
          a pigeon feeds beNeath the bird scarer
     heads angled aside a sOng thrush and three blackbirds hunt
        passed by the rhythM of the jogger
        into a building canYon through a brick gorge
                      pls nOcke …
                … if answr Requid
a metal fish swims on a garDen bench
a recessed boot-scraper by Each front door
             through the blAst of the bin-wagon
         two passengers on The double-decker bus
   the mapped route is sligHtly …
               … cerne abbaS-esque

19:00 – 19:42, wind NE 2 gusting 4, temp 9C (feels like 7)

Dominic Raab standing in for the Prime Minister at PMQs meets Kier Starmer on his first outing at the despatch box.

      to the south-west gRasslands
                  a lost Alley
past the emblem of the plAntagenets
                       a Beaming five-year-old cyclist
 flowering ivy overhangs The path
              a mob of woOdpigeons
           joan the cow wAtches us pass
                 larks riSe and sing
              a pipit disTraction flights me away
          a view to the fAr hills
                 she’s goT an udder
           onto a desire Path
        three cows are naMeless
                    two sQueaking gates and a siren
  approach the traffic’s Seethe

06:42 – 07:27, wind ENE 3 gusting 5, temp 3C (feels like 5)

Reporting rates of testing, new cases and deaths are recognised as inaccurate for a range of (fairly predictable) reasons.

               through fields Towards the west
                      the smasH of glass recycling
               the drifting seEth of tyres on the wind
               mock-tudor chimNeys tower
                           a fUrther secret cul-de-sac
                   a front rooM cross-trainer
                         an arBour of olive trees
                      cross thE moor into wind and sun
sounds drift south to north acRoss me
       cows hide in the early Sun glare
                a goldfinch’s Chatter from across a wall
      pass two triple towered Argent badges
    roadside borage is early iN flower
           the dell slowly filLs with a curtain of new leaves
                 waves of a thIrd siren wash by
                     same placE same moulton