All local councils have now been given the power here to impose local lockdowns if spikes in figures change. One such town, Leicester, was put back in lock down some three weeks ago and is now gradually being released bit by bit. I think it is probably the best way forward to prevent any new outbreaks. It also serves as a deterrent to those who are a bit lax and never follow instructions, simply because they are instructions …. they do not want another lockdown so are at least following guidelines Phew!! I mentioned last week about the mask giveaways we have been holding at the community hub, they have been so busy and we held a pop up giveaways on Saturday which wiped us right out of masks ….. Hopefully more will come in this week as the sewers work their fingers to the bone to complete them.

What is nice about the giveaway is that you get to meet all these really lovely people, four at a time, who really would love to stay and chat but we have to keep moving because the queue outside gets longer and longer. The quilt that I told you about last week is completed except for the square which will hopefully come in this week ….it is exquisite, here are some photos to whet your appetite – i had not thought of sewing and machining as being particularly creative, now I cannot wait to learn to use the sewing mariner properly, these pieces of work are beautiful, like little pieces of glorious art, each one so different but all made with love, what a great legacy this is going to be to hang in the hospital eventually as a reminder of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. There are over 170 people who sewed scrubs, now we have those who are making masks – for many of these people, sewing has been a lifeline in these times, many of our sewers are on their own and do not see many people, these scrubs and masks and gowns have kept them busy with little time to think about being lonely!!!

And we had a a royal wedding. Princes Beatrice, daughter of Prince Andrew, was meant to marry earlier this year but as lots of young people have had to do, they cancelled the wedding. This was kept very hush hush and was held at Windsor Castle Chapel. Windsor Castle is where the Queen and Prince Philip are living during lockdown. They both attended their granddaughters wedding, keeping a social distance of course. The Queen lent Beatrice a dress to wear which was altered slightly to fit her, and the most beautiful tiara….in the attached photo you can see the Queen in the dress some 60 years ago and beatrice wearing it last week. I think it looks amazing. In fact, this was the first Royal wedding behind closed doors for 235 years which was when George IV, wed his mistress in 175 in a furtive ceremony in her Mayfair drawing room …..can you imagine what a scandal that was !!!!Everyone loves our Queen, she is amazing and straight after the wedding she knighted Captain Sir Tom Moore who at 100 years of age started to walk round and round his garden very slowly a few laps at a time, caught the imagination of people around the world and his final total as something like 15,000,000 lbs. an amazing amount of money… everyone who knows who he is now. The Queen rarely takes part in the ceremony these days but she wanted to Knight this lovely gentleman herself. He stated afterwards that he is not telling anyone what they talked about it was the proudest moment of his life. He has inspired many people to follow his lead and Tobias is one of them, a young 9 year old lad who has a condition which means he has to use a special walker, he walked every day in his home town, up and down the street in which he lived, every day all his neighbors would come out and applaud, he made thousands for the NHS. ( national health service)

We are now having family meetings at my sisters allotment, community gardens which can be rented at a low annual rate for people to grow vegetables and fruit. I told you how popular they are here and over the lockdown period people had time to work their plots and they all look amazing with an amazing array of veg and fruit an abundance. I love the scarecrows made to scare away the birds who love to eat the seeds and fruits. Some people leave a small part of their plot to grow wild with corn and wild flowers growing together, they grow flower in order to have fresh flowers at home all through the Summer, they look fantastic, nature is a wonderful thing. And when lots of us get together it’s a great place to social distance and chat and eat. More and more of our shops are opening having made the necessary changes to keep people safe and it is lovely to see little local shops which we love coming to life again. This little tea room and Barkery will usually be filled up all day but to take away instead of eating in. It’s better now Nanny Egg’s is providing tea and food to take away instead of eating in. It’s better than nothing as the food is gorgeous, home made scones with cream and jam, cakes and sandwiches all created to make a take away picnic. Some of our high streets are suffering as people are still wary of visiting areas where there are lots of people around, hopefully this will change and our high streets will boom once more. I am hoping that everyone is well and staying safe, following orders from those in power who are trying to keep us safe !!! Just when you think that this awful virus is going away,m up it pops again sending figures higher again.