July 2020

Red and Green Teddies, and a new tail

6th July 2020

My friend Monkey is driving down to outermost Wessex today in his Ape van.

Our farmer friends down there are delighted that he’s coming to help with their harvest.

Monkey’s very excited.

He’ll be picking raspberries, strawberries, redcurrants and blackcurrrants, and blueberries.

And after that, there’ll be cherries in their orchard.

Monkey promised to phone when he arrives.

I know the roads aren’t busy at the moment, but I seem to be more worried than usual about things I used not to worry about at all.

We all had a chance to say goodbye to him last night, because we had a Zoom meeting of the Red and Green Teddies.

That’s the ecosocialist group that I belong to.

Now that I have some experience of online meetings, I’m more careful about my background.

People did comment last time, at the Book Club meeting.

I hadn’t realised that everyone would be able to see all my mess.

My cousin Peter looked very smart in the meeting, next to his elegant chest of drawers.

So this time I sat next to my chest of drawers.

It’s not as grand as Peter’s, but it is nice.

It didn’t show up well enough at the meeting last night, so I’ll show you now how good it looked. Better than my heap of clothes last time.

The drawers are all full of rubber bands.

I might empty them out and use them for storing something more useful.

Though then I’d have to find somewhere else for the rubber bands.

Points had a long agenda for the meeting.

We planned to discuss what changes we hope to see after the Coronacrisis is over.

Luckily Points is good at chairing meetings. She’s had a lot of practice.

We notice her prickles rise a little, and we all go quiet.

Of course there were a lot of suggestions.

We want the NHS to be properly funded, with all its workers, and other care workers, paid a decent wage. We want financial help to go only to companies that will change to green practices. We want a proper focus on Black Lives Matter, leading to action, not just words. We want clean safe living spaces, with less pollution and fewer cars. We want the pandemic to be recognised as part of the whole ecological crisis, which needs international cooperation. We want well funded education for all people of all ages.

Most of us also think that there should be a universal basic wage, but Gibbs and some of the others weren’t sure how this would work, so we decided to talk more about that at another meeting.

(That whole list will be in the Minutes, which is just as well because I’ve probably forgotten some of the crucial things we thought of.)

Our influence on all this is quite limited, because we aren’t represented in Parliament.

So as usual, we ended up agreeing to intensify our campaign for

Anyway, Monkey was at the meeting, so we all wished him well, and he was allowed to choose which song we’d sing at the end of the meeting.

Usually we sing something like The Red Flag, or Where Do The Children Play.

I’m very fond of the “You can count on trees” song.

I specially like the line “Let all the little plants and animals have their say, Biodiversity hurray hurray”.

But we all agreed that Monkey should choose, and he chose “We went to the animal fair”.

It’s not specially red or green, but it was good to sing it together.

We changed the ending to make it happier than the original version.

I don’t think Monkey really minds whether it’s sad or happy, he just likes singing “Monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey”.

I should say that I’ll miss him.

But everyone seems so far away at the moment, it won’t really make much difference that Monkey’s going to be all the way down in outermost Wessex.

Of course I do see Ruffy when he drops off my shopping. He’s very kind.

We have a bit of a chat, but he has to keep a long way off, and he’s got a mask on, so it’s hard to see what he’s saying.

Otherwise it’s just Zoom, and Skype, and Microsquash Teams, and phone calls.

I might as well be living on the moon.

But it’s no good moping.

Better get dressed and get something done.

It really is time I found out what this key is for.

I thought it might be for the Russian dancer, but she says she already has a key.

It’s a mystery.

RRRRRINGGG! RRRRRINGGG!

There’s the phone. I expect it’ll be one of those recorded people trying to sell me something.

(He sounds pleased. What sort of things come in the post that are very nice, I wonder.)

Well, fancy that.

I suppose I’m a bit old to learn something new like swinging from trees.

Bimbo really is better

11th July 2020

My friends and I have been practising our instruments.

We all think it will cheer Bimbo up to take charge of the Zoom Ensemble again.

I said I’d phone and ask him.

Oh gosh. I thought I’d nearly mastered it.

I see I have a long way to go.

Lucky Bimbo!

It must be good to feel you have a purpose in life.

I suppose at the moment my purpose in life is to find out what my key is for.

I tried it in this train, but it didn’t fit.

I offered it to the ducks. They don’t need it.

I’ll have to keep looking.

I suppose it gives me a reason to get up in the morning.

the List

I’ve been feeling a bit purposeless.

My younger friends are all out and about, being useful, while I’m stuck here at home.

But at least being a Key Worker does mean that when I wake up in the morning I know what I have to do.

I have to find out what that key is for.

And there are plenty of other things that need to be done.

I’d better make a list for the day.

1) Water the bean.

I always do that first.

It’s doing very well.

But I’ve had to rethink my hypothesis about the number of leaves.

2) Do my yoga.

I’ll choose an easy pose today.

3) Check up on Monkey.

Better get dressed first, even though he won’t be able to see me.

I need a courageous badge today. I mustn’t let myself fall into despondency.

This one will do. Bronze Survival.

Survival is all I’m aiming for at the moment.

Bronze is stronger than silver or gold, and I need to be strong.

And anyway, I never got a silver or gold Survival Award.

Monkey did phone to say he’d arrived safely in outermost Wessex, but I haven’t heard from him since.

(It’s Bunce and Snowy’s farm where Monkey is working.)

4) Practise my triangle.

Bimbo suggested I try using a thicker beater, to get a richer tone.

The egg whisk isn’t exactly thicker, but it is wider than my usual beater.

As well as hoping the triangle won’t twirl round, I have to try to hit it with the same number of wires each time.

Hmm. A fairly silvery sound, but perhaps not quite as pure as I’d like.

It will need a lot of practice.

5) Find out what the key is for.

I wonder if it would fit the man on the bicycle.

No, he isn’t interested at all.

He wound himself up with some other key, and he’s cycled away out of sight.

I used to enjoy cycling.

6) Housework.

Nobody’s going to notice whether I do it or not, so I’ll cross that off the list.

I don’t often get as far as crossing six things off my list. I think I’ve done very well.

I know what I want to do now.

I’m going to get out my bicycle.

I’d like to ride off into the distance, like that mechanical man.

Seems to be in good order.

It doesn’t have tyres, which saves a lot of bother.

I’ll ring Ruffy and check that he thinks it’s all right for me to go out cycling.

Now I’ll practise a little indoors.

It’s a long time since I’ve cycled, but they say it’s something you never forget, just like riding a bicycle.

The thing is, you have to look it in the eyes, and get straight back on.

I’ll soon get the knack.

Well, there’s no need for you to watch me.

But I assure you, I’ll soon be ready to cycle off over the horizon.

Though perhaps Ruffy is right that I should wear a helmet.

going out

24th July 2020

I remembered how to ride my bicycle.

I stopped worrying about the pedals, and just pushed myself along with my feet.

Once I’d got used to balancing, it was easy to put my feet on the pedals.

Now I can’t wait to get out on the open road.

I was so excited that I could hardly sleep last night.

I’ve got up early.

If I go out now, there won’t be many people around, and it will be quite safe.

I’ll just check my equipment.

I have a hi-vis jacket, and the christmas-pudding bowl will be fine as a helmet.

The last time I used it was for carrying earth, so I’ve given it a bit of a wash.

I have a lock. I’ve heard that there’s a lot of bicycle theft these days.

The lock is a bit of a puzzle.

The key seems to be locked on the lock, and I don’t see how to get it off.

If I hang the lock on the bicycle, perhaps the bicycle thieves will think that the bicycle is locked, and won’t bother stealing it.

The Highway Code doesn’t say that I MUST have a bell. It just recommends fitting one.

I don’t think it would recommend fitting this one, because it’s very heavy.

I’ll leave it behind.

I shan’t bother with panniers. I won’t need any luggage today.

Actually, I shan’t bother with the lock either, because I won’t be leaving the bicycle anywhere.

I shall be as free as air.

It’s not raining right now, but I do hate getting wet when I’m cycling.

I’ll see if I can find my rain cape.

It still fits nicely.

If it does rain, I don’t think I’ll be able to pedal in wellies, so I’ll just have to get wet feet.

But I don’t think it’s going to rain.

It’s months since I’ve been outside.

Not since before I went into the cupboard in November.

Eight whole months!

It will be good to be out in the fresh air, out in the world.

Now, what else could I possibly need?

I’ll have a quick look at the map, but I won’t take it with me.

I shan’t go far from home this time.

This is just a practice run, ready for a real expedition.

I can’t believe Ruffy said it would be all right for me to go out.

He’s been so very cautious and protective.

I suppose it really is safe?

The Virus is still out there.

It’s a horrible disease – Bimbo was very ill.

He was lucky – he got better.

I’m not very strong.

I do want to stay alive a bit longer.

It’s not so very bad being stuck indoors.

I have my triangle, and I’m looking forward to learning a new language.

I have a beanstalk that depends on me.

The Virus can’t get to me in here.

I think it is stupid to go out.

I’m safe here.

On the other hand, you only live once.

Ruffy does say that there aren’t so many viruses out there now.

And I can keep far away from everyone else.

I’d better go quickly before Ruffy changes his mind, or I change mine.

Here goes!

fresh air

30th July, 2020

Did I say that this was the first time I’d been out for months and months?

I was wrong.

Back in May, I did actually go out one night to post a letter.

But I felt so bad about it that I think I deleted it from my memory.

I never told Ruffy I’d been out. He would not have approved.

Since then, I’ve been very sensible.

I stayed indoors all the rest of May.

And all of June.

And all of July up till now.

But now Ruffy says it’s all right to go out on my bicycle.

I didn’t feel sure about it, but finally I took the plunge, and it was wonderful to be out.

Fresh air! A breeze! Sunshine on my fur!

I headed to the edge of town.

I decided to cycle round the Ring Road.

Because it’s a Ring, I knew that I couldn’t get lost.

It would be sure to bring me back to where I started.

It turns out that it’s more of a hoop than a ring, definitely a bigger circle than I’d realised.

It was good to get some exercise.

I have been doing my yoga, and I’m not a person who just sits watching the telly.

(In fact, I don’t have a telly. But I sometimes sit and watch the wireless.)

But I haven’t really been very active.

At last I was able to give my legs a good stretch.

I felt years younger! At least at the start.

It wasn’t all plain sailing, though.

I was so excited to be out, that sometimes I was looking around me more than was safe.

They could put up polite signs saying “Please don’t cycle here”, instead of setting traps.

Even where you are allowed to cycle, the roads and cycle tracks are not always in a good condition.

I quite often had to lift my bicycle out of a pot-hole.

This is exercise for all muscle groups.

I got hot and tired. It would have been wise to take some water with me.

I stopped a couple of times to rest.

First in the shade of a lamp post.

But I thought I’d better make some progress, so on I went.

Eventually I found a very nice park and had a bit of a sit-down, and maybe a snooze.

After that I was ready for more pedalling.

My legs were aching, but I carried on till they got too wobbly to pedal.

Then I got off and pushed all of the rest of the way home.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired in the whole of my life.

I had intended to phone my friends as soon as I got in, to tell them about my adventure.

But I just sat down and drank about ten thimbles of water,

and then I fell asleep and didn’t wake up again till just now.

I feel quite well, so I don’t think I’ve caught the Virus.

Though I’ll have to be alert and watch out for symptoms.

No fever, no cough, and the water tasted just as usual.

So far so good.