2020. The year when life was turned upside down. There seemed little point in writing any blog when so much that can be said is negative. We watched with increasing horror as the devastating news came in from Italy.
March brought the unhappy task of cancelling bookings and refunding many disappointed people. Then a feeling of unreality followed as the glorious weather in the first lockdown seemed to deny the unfolding, increasing tragedy which is still playing out now in January 2021.
Here we were fortunate to be able to concentrate on the garden, re-establishing our neglected vegetable cage. which had been invaded by the natural flora of this old Down; bramble, bracken, wild ferns, oak, ash, hazel and birch. It was a mammoth task, taking many weeks.
Every vegetable needs protection in a garden where deer attack is a constant problem and rabbits burrow through all defences. We were only too aware of how hard lockdown was and is for people without gardens and recently there has been an influx of city dwellers buying houses in the High Weald.
The greenhouse was bursting with baby plants. Germination is problematic in our heavy clay so we sow in guttering or pots and transplant later.
Like everyone missing our family, some of whom live abroad and were booked to fly in for most of June was the hardest thing of all, until very recently we lost a much-loved friend to Covid. It is a bitter loss and all that matters now is to know that those we love are well, wherever they are.
When the first lockdown was lifted we were happy to have a succession of really delightful guests at the cottage, including some who had deferred several times. We finally had some young honeymooners who had repeatedly rebooked all year. Inevitably restrictions meant conversation at a distance in the garden. Just as well that we still have our hearing….. Yet again the special atmosphere in the cottage worked its magic for people who left really lovely messages in our guest book. Many said they will return.
Life here was facilitated by the imaginative way in which local businesses came up trumps. The King’s Arms spread tables across the Millenium Green, setting up an outside bar and barbecue and later a marquee with heaters. The Cuckoo Line Stores vastly and imaginatively expanded its range of food, delivering across the whole area when supermarket slots were almost impossible to find even for those shielding. Many restaurants and pubs transformed themselves into takeaways. People are very enterprising when they are given a chance to be so.
More restrictions and a damp squib of a Christmas followed but spirits have been lifted by the fantastic news of the vaccines. We owe so much to the people who have worked tirelessly all year and the dedication which has brought us to this point. As I write the race is on to vaccinate as many people as possible against the background of new mutations causing great worry.
So in January 2021 the cottage sits on its sunny slope, empty but filled with light and not forlorn, just waiting for life to resume, the bees are tucked up in their hive, the rabbits are eating the grass and Figgy wonders why life is so quiet…….where is everyone?
