Lockdown Life - Period of Mourning and No Swimming Pools This Summer

Spain will be starting a 10 day period of mourning for people who have died during the virus pandemic. Flags will be at half-mast and people are decorating their balconies with black ribbons.

However what has really set the cat amongst the pigeons is there are to be no swimming pools open this year in our area. About 10 local municipalities have collectively decided not to open the public pools this year - however this is only half due to Coronavirus, the other driving factor is lack of water so public pools were potentially not going to open this year anyway. The water level in our local reservoir had been worryingly low.  We've also been told not to fill our own pools from the mains supply - however as water is metered and is largely treated as a precious commodity, most private pools are filled from wells.

We've had a lot of rain over the last few weeks so we've been told that they will look again at the water levels later and confirm the decision about private pools.

Lockdown Life Phase 2 (it really is this time)

Yesterday we started phase 2. We will stay in phase 2 for two weeks. I think all the principalities that moved to phase 1 have moved on, with the exception of Valencia which saw an uptick of cases and moved back to phase 0.

Spain has had one of the strictest lockdowns globally, so getting back to 'normal' will certainly take some doing, but there's certainly light at the end of the tunnel now.

One interesting thing is I've read that many city people are thinking about leaving the cities for rural areas. Two factors are driving this - first many people have experienced working from home for the first time and are realizing they can work anywhere - and secondly,  a second wave is pretty much expected, and people think that being locked down in a village with a garden and space to move around, is better than being locked down in a flat with no terrace.

So we're going to put the house onto the market for the Spanish market - just in case. Obviously the bottom has dropped out of international sales, so if we want to sell in the near future, maybe some citydwellers looking to relocate to the country will be the way to go.

And on the subject of property - we're going to try to sell the shop and flat too. The shop is now empty and I guess it will remain so, as I can't think now is a good time for anyone to be opening a business in Alston. I had expected that we would lose the tenants from the flat too - but we haven't heard anything so hopefully they have been furloughed and have decided to stay.

The weather is very hot now - someone switched summer on! There is still asparagus so we're going either earlier in the morning or later in the day. Ian has been out in the afternoon, but it's too hot for me and Daisy - so he goes on his own! What do they say about mad dog and Englishmen...

Lockdown Life - Masks

Well, it transpires we're still on Phase One - I must admit that the two weeks did feel as though they had gone quickly! It's next week we move on to the new phase.

It's also mandatory from today to wear masks in public places where the two meter social distancing rules cannot be maintained. I suppose just in case, we ought to carry a couple of masks with us even when we are out for a walk in the morning.

Actually, it doesn't need to be a mask, it can be any covering which covers mouth and nose, so we could wear scarves or bandanas, but masks will probably be more comfortable anyway when the weather gets hot.

The hour bands for different demographics to go out is being lifted as the weather is getting too hot during the day now for people to be going out at lunch time and early afternoon.

Lockdown Life - Phase 2

We have entered phase two of the delockdowning. From our point of view, I don't think we'll be affected much. The big one for us was being able to go out - and then being able to go out in the car together, which was Phase One. We do need to go to the vet in the next week or so, so we may get a feeling then for life under Phase Two.

Phase 2 is allowing more shops to open up and the lifting of the restriction for people to have to make appointments to go to a shop. And people can now travel to neighbouring provinces - assuming they are on the same level.

Facemasks are now 'recommended ' so we bought a pack from Dia. The government has capped the price of masks at 0.60 and they are widely available. The plan is to keep some in the car as I don't think we'll really need any round the village.

There does seem to be a feeling of things coming back to life again. This morning, we saw a lot of people - builders working, someone else walking his dogs, the cement works appeared to be working at full tilt...

Another disaster on the food front last week! We forgot that Friday was a holiday in Llerena and therefore we had to wait for our food order until Monday. Happily, we still have our flour mountain so we weren't too inconvenienced and didn't go hungry.

There did seem to be some confusion with the delivery driver. He appeared to have a bag of food left over and didn't know who it belonged to. He came back a couple of times to check we had things, and then about 10pm last night we heard the someone at the door, which I thought was extremely odd, and even more so when I found that someone had stuck a pack of cheese through our door. I think the delivery driver lives in the village, so I wonder if he found the cheese in his van and thought it was ours!

In other news, we came back from our walk this morning and Sam was jumping around - and seeing him jumping around (albeit wobbly) made me realize I can't remember the last time I saw him do this. His back legs are weak - so he really shouldn't be jumping - however, it is really quite amazing. He was jumping and running. We were speaking about it earlier - and we've been giving Sam glucosamine. Our experience now, is having seen amazing results with Herbie and Wilbur - and now Sam, has really reinforced in our minds that this is something we'd highly recommend for dogs with joint problems.

Lockdown Life - Phase One

Today we enter Phase One of the delockdowning. The big changes are more than one person from the same household can go in a car and there can be meetings of up to 10 people in a home. Outdoor areas in bars and restaurants can open, but at 30% of their normal capacity - although they can extend space where possible to increase the number of people. Small non essential shops can open now, however the time bands for people going out remains the same - but that doesn't affect us as it only comes into play in places with over 5k inhabitants.

Madrid and Barcelona are remaining in Phase 0, as they have not met the criteria to move up a phase - which is ICU bed capacity and a lower infection rate. There is supposed to be a certain number of spare ICU beds per 10k population.

Travel is still restricted, we can travel within our province but no further. In the next phase, I believe we can travel to adjacent provinces which are at the same level - but I don't think information on that has been finalized yet.

The plan from here is that provinces will move up and down the phases as required, so if new clusters appear, action can be taken quickly.

Fingers crossed we'll now just move through the phases and get to whatever normality looks like now for now on!

Oh, we've started on our flour mountain. The white flour is creamier in colour than our normal flour and has a more sweet smell. The wholemeal is browner and tastes sweeter, again with a stronger smell. I wonder if this is where the flour was fresh from a small mill?

another day, another olive grove...

Lockdown Life - Day 48, we go out

The lockdown (which is a phrase that I really don't like as it sounds punitive, I prefer quarantine) is starting to be lifted gradually and next week we start on Phase 0.

Prior to this, the measures have been lifted on adults going out from the house, and as of 2nd May, adults are allowed out for exercise.  Different time bands have been designated to avoid overcrowding and to protect the vulnerable. Adults are allowed out between 6 and 10, vulnerable people of any age are allowed out between 10 & 12, families in the afternoon and adults again in the evening from 7 - 11.

However, this only applies in municipalities with over 5k inhabitants - so it doesn't affect us.

So yesterday we headed off into the country to pick asparagus - and everything was SO overgrown! With everyone staying home coinciding with the rain, the countryside has just exploded. We had to look extra carefully for the asparagus which was hiding among the weeds.

Hopefully we'll have another couple of weeks before the season ends for another year.

Unfortunately, we can't go out in the car for ''recreation', which probably includes asparagus picking, so we have a long walk to go to our favourite spot, but I believe that Phase 1 or 2 will allow people to drive and to have more than one in a car.

The border has opened between Spain and Portugal in Badajoz. While the borders are officially closed, there are a lot of crossover with communities on either side of the border in Badajoz, and the people on the immediate Portuguese side use the hospital in Badajoz and many people cross the border regularly to work, so the border has been opened to facilitate this. Portugal has been much less affected than Spain, which is interesting.

Last week was a complete disaster on the food front! We didn't have our grocery delivery as we'd forgotten that Friday was a public holiday. It's coming on Monday, so given we have enough flour to keep a small army going and the fridge is now packed with asparagus, we didn't need to worry too much! We've been trying to keep at least a back of animal/bird food in hand in case of emergencies and/or us forgetting when the holidays are.

we go asparagus picking!