We live in a quintessential English countryside village, the kind that looks like it’s a movie set, a beautiful place with stone cottages that have names like Rosebank and Appletree Grange. It’s the kind of place where there are cosy pubs and a greengrocer for fruits and vegetables. And when the lockdown happened and the greengrocer had to shut, they continued taking orders by telephone. We were out walking along the river one day, and when we returned, we saw all the orders for the villagers just sitting unattended outside the closed shop, waiting for people come to pick them up. We were touched by the honesty and decency of the people here, and that was not the first time. Once, while walking along our favourite lane in the centre of town, we saw a handwritten sign posted announcing that dropped money had been found, with a phone number to call to retrieve it.
Here, people are friendly and quick-smiling, offering cheerful hellos on the streets and river walks, considerately giving way to comply with social distancing measures. This is the place we’ve been lucky enough to spend the past nearly three months in quarantine. And while we were never able to successfully secure a spot for grocery delivery over the past ten weeks, we never ran out of toilet paper despite not stocking up beforehand.
And now that things are slowly beginning to open up again, we’re still being cautious for just a little while longer. In the meantime, here are a few photos taken during this time in quarantine …
