Sea heroes put under pressure... and so is Big Jack’s Army

It’s a jungle out there as lockdown ends ...but I bought a strimmer

THE garden is a jungle. My lawnmower has been broken ever since this all started, and what initially was unruly has turned into a meadow. There are reeds and bulrushes, buttercups and small purple flowers on weeds I cannot identify. I have trampled a path to the shed door and flattened a patch large enough for the sun lounger, but that’s pretty much it – the rest is wilderness.

It’s not like the lawn was ever manicured anyway. Like many houses built in the bubble years, mine came with very poor topsoil, and the grass even at the best of times could be described as scutch, the sort you might see growing beyond the greens and fairways of links golf courses. It has never really bothered me – as I have told you, I can kill plants and shrubs with a sideways glance, so aiming for Bloom greatness has never really been an ambition.

More to the point, once I heard about No Mow May, my guilt was appeased. It was a campaign to encourage people to leave all or part of their gardens wild, to attract bees and help the busy little pollinators on their buzzy little way, and I genuinely have delighted in their presence. I used to be scared of them, but I have come to realise they have very little interest in us unless we show too much interest in them. Unlike wasps, to which I would happily take a guilt-free flamethrower, I have made my peace with bees.

Nonetheless, I have to tidy it all a little, and early yesterday morning I drove up to Lidl in Gorey and bought a petrol strimmer for €99. It’s only the third time since March 12 I’ve gone to the supermarket, and the first time I’ve had to queue outside, and it occurred to me that because of the initial 11 weeks of total self-isolation, in years to come I will look back and realise I really had very little experience of everyday pandemic life.

My shopping was done for me. I didn’t have to homeschool children. I had no older relatives to worry about, as both my parents are dead. All I had to do was look after myself and keep occupied, and, in this, you all were a help.

Writing this column put shape on my days, and I was happy to share some of my favourite music and television shows, and my goto apps, online games and other resources. I maybe encouraged you to have the odd cocktail in the garden, to make a certain meal, or to bake bread and scones.

As we move into Phase 2 of the easing of lockdown restrictions, this is the last of these columns. We all, hopefully, will have a few more places to go, and a few more things to do, maybe even get to meet someone we’ve been longing to see. It is a small relaxation, but another step on the road to the restoration of some semblance of normality.

On behalf of my colleagues and friends Linda Maher, who has been recommending podcasts, and Lisa Brady, who has held the fort with her own two kids, while recommending things to do with children, and on my own behalf, thank you for reading these last 12 weeks. We’ve lost family members, friends and neighbours, but by staying home, we saved many more. I wish all of you good health; we have, I think, been reminded it really is the most important thing of all.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m heading outside to attack the garden…