Happy and sad things

Daughter 2's in-laws were due to come for the weekend and though she was (non-infectiously) unwell, she agreed to their coming because she's a lovely person and they hadn't seen Littlest Granddaughter since Christmas and who knows when they'll see her again? There was some trepidation about their journey (from Nottingham) on the train because of the coronavirus - they're both disabled. But they were keen to see the little one, so they did come. And since Daughter 2 and her family live in a two-bedroom flat, I went to my brother and sister-in-law's in Surrey for the weekend, which was lovely (though possibly ill-advised for the same reason. But we did a lot of hand-washing). We went for a walk in a park and passed this, fairly recently uncovered, tiled doorway for Sainsbury - it's a while since they've used that font.

And the next day, they took me to Wisley, a Royal Horticultural Society garden, which was wonderful. Lots of people our age were there, all keeping our distance from each other and breathing in lovely fresh air. We hope.

It was so hard to take in that anything much was wrong in the world.

So many daffodils.

And hellebores.

And tulips.

And then I went back to Daughter 2's in case she still needed help with the little one, but she was much better.

"Dis," said Littlest Granddaughter in the garden, "is [her name] wiv a plate on her head."

And actor son-in-law went to his theatre to do a show, met up with the rest of the cast of Showstopper The Improvised Musical, of which he's a key member, got changed - and then the Government shut all the theatres down. It was probably a good thing to do but it means that he and his friends are suddenly without income. Dire. And Daughter 2 is an architect and deals mainly with remodelling hotels, and their main client has cancelled their projects. Hmm...

And then I came home, trying not to breathe deeply or touch anything on the train. This is King's Cross station. It doesn't usually look so deserted.