COVID-19 UPDATE FROM SOLIHULL...

Covid-19 Update From Solihull:

W/E Friday, 8th May…

The week began with an early walk along Tanworth Lane towards the Stratford Road and the area was fairly quiet until a saloon car suddenly turned right into Shakespeare Drive, illegally and rather quickly, before swinging first right again into Falstaff Road and immediately into the service road which accommodates a row of shops. One Stop was the destination… There is NO right turn there off the A34 but only around 200 metres ahead lies a small roundabout which services Sainbury’s and it would have taken the driver only seconds longer to negotiate that.

As his car was being parked, another left the service road in a cloud of exhaust smoke and a roar like that of a Tiger Moth biplane revving up before leaving Elmdon Airport in the 1950s… This low-slung vehicle was black and spluttered all over the lawbreaking vehicle which had actually failed to socially distance itself in the parking area. 

In Stretton Road, an elderly woman waddled towards the local store and I growled slightly as I crossed the road to avoid her. She has a really yappy dog which has an annoying and fairly regular habit of high-pitched garden-barking on weekend mornings between 6.15 and 7.15am. I refused to acknowledge her.

I turned into Baxters Road and perhaps 50 metres along on the left side there is a parking-lot serving a bunch of houses, but one white vehicle was parked totally across the pavement. I stopped and gaped and two women walking dogs looked at the car with some surprise too. I checked it again on Wednesday and this time it had been shifted slightly to the left but it still encumbered pedestrians. Strangely on both mornings there were spaces to park on the road itself…

So, to Wednesday and a walk on ‘the fields’ as the locals in Shirley call the area behind Bills Lane and near the woods. I had never really investigated much of it before but I was startled to find not only a healthy running stream but also quite a large pond. Amazing… 

One tree looked like it was suffering from Covid-19, looking vaguely like the sprouting virus image shown regularly on TV… There was a lot of space to exercise in at ‘the fields’ and not too many dogs spoiled the broth, although crossing the stream via a makeshift ‘bridge’ at one point became a tricky piece of action which I managed with badger-like dexterity (i.e., I nearly toppled into the pond…) 

THE COVID TREE...

Walking the local roads, Oberon Drive (sounds SO posh…) offered a strange moment too… Near one end, a family of three was approaching, parents and a lad, seemingly clones of each other and they, lard-like, held their ground in a group-like hug of considerable flesh and forced us to veer into the road. No acknowledgement was given and that SO annoyed me… 

Yesterday morning meant a necessary walk to One Stop for milk but they, er, had none, so I was forced to walk past Light Hall School to Stretton Store. Incongruously, there was a hearse across the entrance to the school, the funeral staff members were standing clear and three women, also socially distanced, were positioned behind the vehicle, which had its rear hatch open. One woman was reading from notes, presumably a blessing of some sort and the whole scene seemed quite puzzling to me, until I was later informed that the school has been used for religious purposes of some kind. Hence the death was linked to that, I guess… 

And so to the Thursday Clap… Neighbours have been appearing with whistles and bells, as well as hands recently, so it was time to introduce my military drum… I have never actually drummed at all but I have it because my grandfather joined the army in Victorian times as a drummer boy. I made some noise… 

Looks like ‘the fields’ again today, as the weather has held and I write this after the two minutes of silence to remember VE Day, 75 years ago. I stood on the drive holding a stirrup pump. 

It was relevant and after all, it’s what I do… 

Be safe…