MORNING SERIAL
AROUND the world there were hilarious images of animals having a lovely old time on our abandoned streets. In Buenos Aires a massive sea lion took a stroll past some abandoned industrial units. In Corsica people living in a residential estate could see wild boar chowing down on grass embankments from their balconies. Venice, which would normally be rammed with tourists queueing for gondolas on the filthy waters of the canal, had instead clear waters where seabirds merrily tootled along.
It was no different in Wales, though the news was distinctly more... err... Welsh. In Ebbw Vale a locked up Mcdonald’s restaurant, which normally would have backed up traffic in its drive-thru instead had some lovely woolly sheep and lambs (though it would have been more fitting if they had been bullocks). It seemed that sheep across Wales were enjoying some peace and quiet as in Monmouthshire a flock were seen hanging out in a closed off children’s playground, slowly spinning on the roundabout. Perhaps the most famous animal incursion was some Kashmiri goats who ventured into Llandudno from the Great Orme to eat people’s flowers and hedges. The goats became such a sensation that St David’s Hospice got novelty T-shirts made with them on and raised £120,000 in funds selling them.
All the seagulls and pigeons in our city centres probably thought humans had become extinct. I can empathise with them, livelihoods destroyed overnight, no contingency plans, hungry chicks furious there were no fallen kebabs anymore to be lovingly regurgitated – poor things. Joking aside there was a real feeling that, free from humans and their associated noise and pollution, nature was rejoicing. It may simply have been that we all had more time to stop and listen, but there really did seem to be more bird song.
Unfortunately, though the sheep were living their best life, the spread of the virus in Wales started to change. Aneurin Bevan Health Board was the epicentre of the Welsh outbreak from the very start. CONTINUES TOMORROW