Tuesday 21st April
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 a front garden 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
Wednesday 22nd April
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 lifts at my approach 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 step onto a desire Path three cows are naMeless two sQueaking gates and a siren I approach the traffic’s Seethe
Thursday 23rd April
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 there is a suggEstion of mist the mayflower is appEaring 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
Friday 24th April
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
Saturday 25th April
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 I am 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 leaves a blackcap flutes from coveR a distant drift of beyond-roof gUlls a street of cared-for pocket gardeNs a spaniel warns me Off a fence is a 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 with no discernible church a mistle thrush flutes and whIstles unseen a runner iN a three-way social-distance-jam
Sunday 26th April
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 Pearly greyness in the west in at a Locked gate ordered vegEtable rows
Monday 27th April
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