Coronavirus days - immediately before lockdown; lockdown week 1 - Tuesday

Well, this is all very odd and alarming, isn't it? It's hard to believe that only a week ago I was in London, and now we're forbidden to leave our houses except for shopping or one walk a day with the members of one's household. Everything's closed except for food shops, pharmacies, banks and so on. And from being fairly energetic and healthy retired people, we've suddenly become the vulnerable elderly. 

Daughter 2 bought a flat in Edinburgh in 2009 and immediately saw it plummet in value because of the recession. She lived in it for a short while, made it pretty, and then got married and moved to London (alas, alack). So she rented it out to await its rising in value; which has happened. Tenants have come and gone, some leaving the flat in better condition than others, and this year was the year she was going to sell it and their flat in London in the attempt to buy a house there - at huge and ridiculous expense. So she gave her tenants notice and they moved out a week past Sunday. Then lockdown happened, many working people lost lots of money and this is definitely not the time to be selling houses. They now have two mortgages to pay. Hmm. 

Mr L and I went down to inspect the flat after the tenants went and were not happy at what we found. There are huge scores in her prized wooden floor, everything is pretty dirty, the place reeks of smoke (smoking was forbidden in the rental agreement) and the tenants left lots of stuff, including a big leatherette sofa and a table made out of wooden crates. 

Luckily we managed to get some chaps with a van to come and take away most of the extra stuff yesterday - the very day before all such things would have been impossible. We got cleaners arranged to come today - no, this had to be cancelled - and decorators next weekend - ditto. So everything's ground to a halt. This doesn't matter hugely, since we can't market or let the flat at the moment anyway. 

At least it looks better now. We removed the loose covers and took down the curtains and have washed these, so we hope that the smell will be better when we return - whenever that will be.

Today we went for our permitted walk up Corstorphine Hill, which is near our house. It wasn't busy, though there were some dog walkers.

This is Murrayfield Golf Club, which is closed like most other places. You can see another of our hills, Arthur's Seat, in the distance.

We met these ladies - the Zoo is on part of the hill.

It was slightly misty, and as we went down the other side, the Pentland Hills looked distant and blue.

But then the sun came out and the gorse, or whin as we might call it, was a blaze of yellow.

It was hard to believe that life wasn't perfectly normal. But it's not.

(Just this moment, my phone has pinged with a text message from UK Government - I don't remember giving them my number - saying: New rules in force now: you must stay at home.

I hope this doesn't mean more restrictions.

Still, there's always quilting. And gardening. And blogging. And housework (though somehow I don't feel the same incentive for that). But no grandchildren, which is AWFUL.)