England calling Florida……Happy Monday to you all! It is the most beautiful morning here and set to be record temperatures for a long time here, it is wonderful and the seafront is looking fabulous, the water is so still. Of course our seafront has suffered hugely during this very weird and trying period of lockdown. Our beaches are now open which is great but it really needs for everyone to be careful so that they can stay open end thrive.We have the usual cafes and bars and ice cream stands as well as what is called Adventure Island, a huge park next to the sea with rides and roller coasters and other such fun stuff, this is really popular with families and the young thrill seekers. This particular park is not yet open again but I hope it won’t be long before it is because it is huge fun. A lot of our schools are now open which is a good thing and although they are not back full time at least they are back which gives them a new routine. The difficulty is the social distancing in schools, in junior schools the children have to be watched very closely as they forget about social distancing and act spontaneously (as kids do) and with space being limited they cannot do a whole week. In our Secondary Schools (high schools) it has meant a huge amount of work in creating new routine, signage instructing where to go and what to do but the schools have been amazing. The students have the usual 100 minute lessons in my school with break in between which means there is only movement around the school 3 times a day! Again, with the social distancing rules, space is at a premium so classes are staggered.

The big problem will be next years exams and how or if, they will go ahead. Our students have missed chunks of time which will have hugely impeded their learning. We will see what happens, with no exams going ahead this year teachers used mock exam grades to assess which is a fair way of doing it, I think.

We are hoping this week to hear that the two metre distancing will be lowered to one metre, not quite sure how I feel about that, life will be easier for restaurants and pubs and bars but is it the right time???? What are the rules in WPB??

We have a lot of allotments here in England, areas of land which can be rented at a very low rate on a yearly basis and people grow their own vegetables and fruit. I went to my sister’s allotment yesterday to have a cup of tea and a natter, the whole allotment  looks amazing because everyone has had time to work even harder on their plots and the fruit and vegetables are thriving. They are generally quite large, divided into about 50 plots and can be found all over the country. Here in this area we have a great many of them which is great. Allotments were started up in 1908, then as a way of assisting returning service men ease back into civilian life. In 1925 an act was passed allowing the land used for allotments to be protected so local councils could not sell off the land. Then they were made accessible and available for everyone in the communities. These gardens are very popular and you will always find long waiting lists for them. The food grown really does have a different taste, we picked peas yesterday and sat eating the peas out of the pod….gorgeous! I also have to visit my marrows which are being fostered by her, thought to be cucumbers at the beginning, turned out to be marrows which need  a lot of space which we do not have in our flower filled garden. It is thriving under her care and I think it will be read to eat in a few weeks time.

And, our shops have opened!!! Not sure how busy it all is yet as I have not been to the High Street yet but I hope that business starts to boom once more for our traders. We have to kickstart the economy somehow…

I am continuing with the daily ‘Thought for the Day’ Board, Day 90 today, I will go to day 100 and take it from there…it has been huge fun and much photographed and read. I often hear people outside laughing or talking about a snippet of information or a joke and it makes me smile. People drop notes through my letterbox with jokes to use or things they would like to see, some I can’t use but most of them I make sure I do.

I listened to your WPB update (supplied live by AnnaMaria), it was both interesting and worrying that your numbers of people with the virus is rising again, one of the problems of lifting lockdown which have been encountered by so many countries. I hope that this gets back under control quickly without having to  make more restrictions!!! Please stay safe. We still hold a reserve of scrubs at the local community hub in case more are needed. I have a group of machinists concentrating on making masks at the moment which have already been delivered to lots of different groups of people who have requested them for their members. It is now mandatory to wear masks on public transport which is a good move I think. I always wear mine in shops and enclosed spaces particularly as there are some people who just cannot follow directions and walk anywhere, in any direction that they want and a simple ‘I  think you are going the wrong way’ can be met with disdain…

I am going to try to talk about anything but COVID 19 next week as I have plans to visit places I have not been to for a long time. We are going to make plans for a trip around England to visit all the wonderful places that there are in our beautiful country which we have neglected to visit. We will be ready when hotels and bed and breakfasts are open again. It’s fun to plan and exciting to think about getting out and about. We have had several trips cancelled including one to Lake Worth, trips to see Queen in what was to be their last concert (now to be rescheduled) along with other trips which we may not be able to rebook.

So, we start another week, I hope it is amazing for you if somewhat quiet…..as long as you stay safe and healthy and of course happy, always stay happy!!!

Speak to you next week…