Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)

Titch’s late frost alert dead-on!

I miss my friends & my morning walk around my neighbourh­ood

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I’m a diabetic,

I’ve come out of prostate cancer and I’m being treated for other issues like high blood pressure.

My independen­ce is really important to me. I didn’t think the lockdown would last this long – I thought it would be two weeks at the most. But we’re getting on OK. I have a drone and there’s a garden where I can fly it. And we have a treadmill where I do 10 or 15 minutes’ morning exercise.

I usually do a big morning walk in my neighbourh­ood, so I’m missing that. In all the time I’ve been here I’ve been out once. I miss my friends. A couple passed away but I couldn’t go to their funerals. And I’m missing the rest of the family.

Initially I was being shielded for my age, not my ethnicity. But when you see the statistics about BAME people I realise it’s for both. I’m 82 and I know full well I’m not here forever. But I’m trying to make sure this virus doesn’t take me.

When I knew lockdown was imminent I talked to family members and we made the decision it would be better if he stayed here. I don’t know if he’d have managed on his own. I’d have been constantly worried. For Dad it’s hard. It’s not just about eating, it’s about getting on a bus, going to get things for a meal. A conversati­on with the people in the shop. It’s those simple things. But he can’t go out. What’s alarming is the lack of informatio­n. We don’t know why different sections of the community are more at risk. These figures are shining a light on the racism and inequaliti­es that exist in this country. Disparitie­s in health, housing, education and employment.

We started a week before official isolation because of the limits of the care home to public access. Also, we’re in the

?? ?? CELEBRITY gardener (and unlikely heart-throb) Alan Titchmarsh warned against late frosts that “nip” emerging potato leaves. How right he was. The freezing spring snap turned lovely green foliage into crinkly black stumps. It was minus 7C higher in the hills but one frosty night in Airedale was enough to see off the healthy courgette I’d just planted. The French beans were done for too. The joys of gardening! This is what it must be like to be a farmer, at the mercy of the English weather. But there is life yet. The tomatoes were unscathed and so too the onions (though they’re not much bigger than when I put them in). The garlic isn’t happy – but with no rain for seven weeks, what plant would be? Well, the damned hollyhock, for a start. It’s flourishin­g and might well exceed the 8ft height it achieved last year. And why do the weeds thrive in a drought? And mint? But not my rhubarb, the pride of the Yorkshire Triangle. Still, it takes your mind off the lurking coronaviru­s, which has claimed another victim locally. Fresh green shoots coming up from the potatoes I feared were lost! Come back Mother Nature, all is forgiven. SAFE Desmond is staying with daughter Aisha Desmond Gittens, 82 GRANDAD Desmond Gittens, 82, is being looked after during lockdown by daughter Aisha, 53, in her house in Notting Hill, West London, with granddaugh­ter Malika. He moved there from his flat in Cricklewoo­d, North West London, where some of his close friends in the Afro-caribbean community contracted the virus and died. He is devastated that he cannot say goodbye to them properly. Desmond: USING PPE Yvonne in mask & gloves Yvonne and Chris Milne, 70 THE couple from Malvern, Worcs, have spent lockdown looking after daughter Clare, 39, who was one of the first children diagnosed with brain condition Rett Syndrome in 1985. They are anxious about transmissi­on of Covid-19 and her ability to withstand it. Yvonne founded charity Rett UK and was made an MBE in 1997. Yvonne: Aisha:
CELEBRITY gardener (and unlikely heart-throb) Alan Titchmarsh warned against late frosts that “nip” emerging potato leaves. How right he was. The freezing spring snap turned lovely green foliage into crinkly black stumps. It was minus 7C higher in the hills but one frosty night in Airedale was enough to see off the healthy courgette I’d just planted. The French beans were done for too. The joys of gardening! This is what it must be like to be a farmer, at the mercy of the English weather. But there is life yet. The tomatoes were unscathed and so too the onions (though they’re not much bigger than when I put them in). The garlic isn’t happy – but with no rain for seven weeks, what plant would be? Well, the damned hollyhock, for a start. It’s flourishin­g and might well exceed the 8ft height it achieved last year. And why do the weeds thrive in a drought? And mint? But not my rhubarb, the pride of the Yorkshire Triangle. Still, it takes your mind off the lurking coronaviru­s, which has claimed another victim locally. Fresh green shoots coming up from the potatoes I feared were lost! Come back Mother Nature, all is forgiven. SAFE Desmond is staying with daughter Aisha Desmond Gittens, 82 GRANDAD Desmond Gittens, 82, is being looked after during lockdown by daughter Aisha, 53, in her house in Notting Hill, West London, with granddaugh­ter Malika. He moved there from his flat in Cricklewoo­d, North West London, where some of his close friends in the Afro-caribbean community contracted the virus and died. He is devastated that he cannot say goodbye to them properly. Desmond: USING PPE Yvonne in mask & gloves Yvonne and Chris Milne, 70 THE couple from Malvern, Worcs, have spent lockdown looking after daughter Clare, 39, who was one of the first children diagnosed with brain condition Rett Syndrome in 1985. They are anxious about transmissi­on of Covid-19 and her ability to withstand it. Yvonne founded charity Rett UK and was made an MBE in 1997. Yvonne: Aisha:

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