Day 13: Lockdown in France - Asian Hornet Nest

as we hear the French Lockdown is extended until April 15th 2020
and in UK the forecast warns it could easily be 6 months before the Coronavirus-19 is controlled.

How come young adult children of French people who have a second family home here have travelled from somewhere in France, when THAT is not essential travelling.   My neighbours did so before midday on the day of the total Lockdown so that was ok to my thinking!  They have been walking up and down my less isolated street.
I don't think I could travel a far distance even if I tried.

NO GARDENING today. Little at all for next week if I can help it,  as I must make myself do INDOOR paperwork ...   I must make/achieve targets and stop being lazy!  I am not in the frame of mind for doing it. Maybe slightly down!

The weather has become cold and windy.  I chose to walk this morning on an hour's circuit.

LOOK AT THIS: High at the top of the Lime Tree at the end of my land, the Asian Hornets Nest remains as the landscape gardener said it was too late. The hornets were not in it any more!!!!!
This I am sure is contrary to what I have read.
 I was told about it at the end of October, but the person to contact me never did.... then November and I was more than busy and still the man did not contact me.  then it was, he said, too late to do anything, so need to destroy it. That was December/January.  The wind and weather would destroy it.

I looked up, aimed zoom camera at it, unable with my eye to see what the construction is!!!!!  WOW!!!!!  What's that green grey ball thing in the next on the left of this page?

Day 12: Lockdown in France- Mowing

Saturday 28 March 2020
Steal myself in a cold wind to walk to the other land to make the first mow of yellow flowers in long green grass.  The land measure 550m2.  I checked oil and filled the lawnmower with the shop bought fuel.  What do I do when this has been used?  I need the land to be maintained.   I haven't mowed this one in two or more years.. always letting the gardener do it,  so am proud I can walk, push and pull that choke cable again!

Before and after in opposite directions!
Then to the front lane with the broken gate, which now needs to be broken from the metal fixing so worn out it has bent!  Must measure to get a replacement gate constructed.

Day 11: Lockdown in France - Mowing

Friday 27 March 2020
Second mow of the year:
Two and a half hours with an hour lunch and a 20 minute water break. Bit strong on the legs... 750.00m2 of 'jardin'  says 'descriptif habitation' ...but this may include the chicken coop and open shed to it.  
It takes more time emptying each box load of cuttings onto the rose and lavender bed as a mulch to prevent weed growth.
I also mowed 'le droit de passage' ...
I started to fork dig another quarter of the potager...I feel good - but tired.
PHOTOS:

Day 11: Lockdown In France - Even More Garden Photos

Edged the rose bed with a straight line but i forgot the straight edged plank.
Weeded by hand,  forked and weeded again.
Propped to upright lavender bushes leaning over the grass. I wanted to lift and move back but wasn't sure that they would survive.
Since pruning roses have pruned more.

 Further along before finishing forking completely the worst and hardest part.

 The last narcissus came indoors to bring isolation cheer!

 Gone the logs...which were like this

Gone the daffodils. Logs piled under the table and to the right behind the metal chair where I was storing rose prunings before burning.

I broke the broken ladder which escaped the decheterie to prevent the logs
having risk of getting wet.

VOILA.  DER DAR!

I cleared this pile of other wood needing to be made into kindling or small logs,  then added more,
so now it is thrice the size ready for the chainsaw or saw.

 My reward a raw veg salad with couscous and unusual for me to imbibe beer

That's it folks. The saga of 11 days of Lockdown in France with more to go!!!!   Bon courage et Bon Santé wherever you are... Keep sage and safe.  Be Kind to one and all.  Love you all...xxx

Day 11: Lockdown In France - More Garden Photos

The Nuisance Tree Trunk pushing up cos it is not dead. The Acacia saga has gone on for about  6 or 7 years I think... lost in time and my illness... in about 2015 the company did not remove the trunk  I guess she would not pay for it to be done.   Since then I couldnt' cope with that and mother's will. Now I could get onto Protection Juridique to cause her Civil Action.   She didn't want this to happen! She has other property in the village which she is notorious for not maintaining. We all get old!

The fence panels fell, rotten and ruined so a view into my neighbour's garden.

Paul's Himalayan Musk Rambling Rose - Enormous by the Log Pile

Four part Potager must be activated to usefulness when I hoped to leave grassed over this year!

Various views

Day 11: Lockdown in France - Garden Photos

Photos from recent Gardening days

A host of golen daffodils have just finished flowering.

The blooms lasted over four weeks unlike last year when barely two weeks.

Neat and tidy apart from the neighbour's wall and the hole where the nuisance tree trunk is pushing up more trunks...

The gardener managed to dig one quarter to bury compost.

To the North East and the former chicken coop - which was covered in green but I hand weeded it.

From the end garden.. forsythia, buddleia, roses, lavenders.

The pile of logs I moved in two hours.

View from the end garden

Day 10: Lockdown in France

Counting from the Second Speech of M. Macron.

Gosh... Time has flown and this is now mid afternoon - 16h.

This morning a planned scheduled call with my Italian friend as we haven't spoken since November lasted an hour, then two friends facetimed and called and then an older lady who I have not seen for a while checked that I have people to help me do the shopping etc whilst I am isolated. How really kind!
So I made a note of her telephone number.  Currently I am self sufficient and if I need to go out I will.

The woodburner has gone out so I think some fresh air in the very cold outdoor air is required!

90 minutes later:   The rambling prickly David Austen roses on the wall are cut back hard so they are not overhanging by 1 metre or more and  catching on the wasking on the line nor in my face.
Sadly, I have cut back the self seeded Hollyhocks ... left about three.
Plenty of cuttings and more for the bonfire in the oil drum which I tried to light as it is full but NOPE.. it still will not catch!

17h30.  I shall take a walk to the bottle bank before I empty more wine bottles in need of keeping spirits up... and indeed I did and jogged back 400m.. Not bad!

It is very nice to know I have been remembered today, even if others also have a need to speak and be cared for.
Late at night for me...ok only 9h30 but i was cold and ready for bed....
another surprising call from a nomadic soul!!!!!!!! So we spoke for an hour... herm???????

Day 9: Lockdown in France

Wednesday 25th March 2020
DAY 9 of Confinement to 'La Maison'.

The Merits of Gardening

I've been wishing to write about this but of course the merits are well known.
Indeed, I started to write about it,  but, gardening itself has occupied and exhausted, yet energised thinking,  'as if it needs any more',  some of you who know me will say.

I tend to overthink most things.

The excellent weather has enabled work on the land for necessary weeding and clearance of very long grass growing in the wrong place for my intentions.

Yesterday, and today, a bitter cold northerly wind blows through the clear blue sky with the sun trying to warm the ground.

Toil for TODAY was delayed by depression and dalliance and an attempt at an afternoon nap despite 4 + 4.5 hours of very good sleep the night before when only one hour awake in between the sleep modes occurred.

At 5pm I decided I was going to prune roses but in fact I chose to start moving the freevery dry logs I acquired a few weeks ago which have been covered by several layers of plastic.   Circumstances left them there longer than anticipated.   Just after 7pm I had cleared up and beingh sweaty on account of wearing four layers, + a fleece, plus the Dannimac assigned to work clothing, I headed for the bath and to wash my hair, which always makes me feel better!

I'll post pics another time!

DAY 8: Lockdown in France

Tuesday 24th March 2020
Out to the village shop at 9h before the queues!   I am second.  We are outside. I wait a metre plus distance. The next lady is a little nearer than I wish.  It's enough, but I wrap my scarf around my face.  A dog wanders. I later know where it has come from - let out 'tout seule' to do its business. This is not right!  Shame on that establishment. They have a courtyard!
The masked proprietor serves veg and fruit from a cordoned zone.  I progress into the shop, forget to choose eggs, find yoghurts but no tonic water.  There are taped lines on the floor. No sub-postal service.  A plastic screen divides the masked proprietaire  / la cassiére who weighs and calculates the amount.  I buy half a 'baguette en graines'.  The bar is closed.  I exit the other door and proceed to the village bakery to collect an order of two loaves of rye bread -  looks good and is warm, larger than envisaged, but each is cut in half, bagged and frozen.  Treating myself, I buy a 'pain aux raisins'.

I prepped a washbowl and towel before I departed so could wash hands before I opened the kitchen door.  I've been near no one.

Cold with clear, blue sky and a keen wind, I decide to rest my shoulders, a little sore, keep the housework under control, inform myself of news and type this.   Kindling and logs are gathered in but must not light the woodburner until the evening.
Leaning on the gate, verifying there has been no postal delivery, a neighbour comes to chat... he on the other side of the road. Children are following online mathematics for morning schoolwork. His wife is online teaching her pupils. He is doing photo work at his next village workshop in the morning and gardening in the afternoon. He hopes gendarmes will not confine him to this village. We talk about the importance of mental health.  He has ordered seeds to sow.
Next, a villager passes, home from essential laboratory employment. I didn't know he did that! Likewise stops to chat...thinks this will continue to the end of April. "On verra" - we shall see...
I return to a cold indoors.  It was warm in the sunshine at my gate.  I like to wait and look though no one is about!
After lunch I fork-dig and weed the hardest part of the strip and is a bit strong on the legs! I move one of the roses which had been struggling, it was too crowded by a spiky plant.
I move yellow raspberry canes to a row near the one gooseberry plant where I can string their support. SO... I could now do the difficult trask of organising the roses on the stone wall as they lurch and snag me.
I know little about pruning but have been pruning dead stems and thinning out crossed ones and ones too croeded.  Various other small tasks done.

It's time to mow again, time to see what OLD SEEDS might grow.
Time to mow the other plot.
Time to get myself better organised admin wise indoors.

Phwew... so glad i did not have to go to UK for 5 weeks ... have been saved in the garden at least, though disappointed not to have family fun.  All will MUST be well.

DAY 7: Lockdown in France

Monday 23rd March 2020
I started about 10h working for about 30 minutes or so, resting likewise,  a little anxious when legs felt wobbly, infrequent compared to past years, or when, in the afternoon mild anger or resentment arose with tears momentarily pouring forth.
There is conflict, pain and non understanding in my mind for what could have been and isn't.
The Nature of Psychology, People & Living!

There was the inverse sentiment of JOY for being outdoors, ignoring indoor tasks.
Those indoor tasks are more difficult and too challenging when I need a kick up the butt to get them done. I would feel better if I took the bull by the horns. I am the bull. Actually, I am the Cancerian crab scuttling to and fro!

The sentiments are of feeling proud at the physical challenge which I could not complete last year or the years before, when then, I had to stop every minute or 5 or 10,  when the mind wandered to what I had to do elsewhere and go get it done before I forgot.   I was neither mindful or able in mind or body to do the simplest of gardening or domestic tasks, preferring to wait for the gardener to help with the land management.  In the house it mostly required a huge elephantine force.  Sometimes though when I was forced to work as with an imminent Airbnb booking a huge rush of energy would prevail and people would be surprised at how fast I moved.

I like being outdoors BUT indoor tasks need motivation and determination.

Now... is my happy moment - Time to Be.

Time when I need not anticipate to go anywhere,  nor hope for anyone to arrive, not that few do.

There are Imposed Restrictions.

 It is strange that when there were no imposed restrictions, I wasn't happy to see no one and wasn't happy to not go places, when I longed to be travelling and envied those who could and were.

So I feel as if I am brought a kind of contentment  ...
mostly during the day because at night, anxiety wakes me from slumber.

I've been digging, forking, weeding, pruning, writing,  typing.
The ability to wander around the mowed, but needing to be mowed 25m2 or more grasslan is 'work pleasure'.  I problem solve for the mounting volume of pulled weeds ,as I don't like to see garden waste and as far as I know I cannot get to the decheterie.  So it's now on black plastic sheet on the one quarter of veggie plot that I had mowed over, hoping not to cultivate.

By 15h I had forked and weeded half the 25m length of rose bed having previously pulled. by hand much of the very long grass variety and weeds as I could. At 17h I stopped with another 6 metres to do.

Later, I listened to the cuckoo in stronger voice.

SPRING: Day 6: Lockdown in France

Sunday 22  March 2020 
Yesterday,  as I surveyed the rear garden at 18h30,  my ears registered the sound just as it stopped.  Ah!
CUCKOO in the distance.  I waited. No more call.  A cuckoo-sort-of-shape fluttered from the place it sounded from.   Later about 19h10,  whilst contemplating my privilege to have a front gate onto the road, onto which I can lean and look out, at the empty street,  a black cat that I've seen before, was the only movement.   I called to it, but the whipping tail signalled it did not wish to approach.  It sloped up the slope looking back, knowing nothing of the health crisis in the world.

Before I closed the gate, there it was again.  In the far distance, in the direction of which the bird had flown,  just the once was  'CUCKOO!'    Oh JOY!

Yesterday, I decided to restart blogging so made the DIARY COVID19 entries and have backdated and back published them!

I thought to start a handwritten journal,  but typing allows me to edit so here I am resurrecting this BLOG - I had forgotten how to access and edit it.   Plus a long time ago all my links to other websites I followed disappeared.

I have plenty to do but this fulfils creativity and a need to communicate my thoughts Perhaps better than communicating daily diary events elsewhere and to others bringing further boredom to all who are self isolating!     Let us see where it goes.

Today.... Noon
This morning I completed the ATTESTATION DÉPLACEMENT DÉROGATOIRE on the back. I shall do this for each OUTING.  I am saving paper!

This morning,  I posted a letter, in the hope there will be a collection tomorrow but I can't buy international stamps until TUESDAY when the village shop reopens.   Yes I know I could go online and print some but I will not as I don't have blank sticky labels.
No oysters.  I have a feeling  'open markets' have been cancelled!  My friend had alluded to this possibility and something I read mentioned this regarding PARIS. ( Later confirned ... thye will be allowed at each MAYOR's discretion.

What happens to food unable to be distributed by sellers to consumers?  ... or to fresh produce and food in closed down restaurants etc in fridges, freezers, store cupboards, to the businesses of middle men as we used to call them  bringing fruit, veg , meat, fish etc from  fields and farms inland and by rivers and coastal waters ... so will it rot where it is?
Society, economy, and infrastructure systems are truly going to break down   ....    the world will change as we know it!  People will lose their jobs and have insufficient money for rents and mortgages!

A woman was behind me ... I turned and waved Bonjour,  kept on walking -  someone I haven't seen for 18 months or so... she entered the boulangerie.
I walked the Queue du Renard.. a narrow lane - a man I did not know veered left, then right to keep the biggest distance. I spoke 'Bonjour;' - he replied, but it was as if even French courtesy was breaking down.  
I walked through woodland and returned to climb the slope, stretch calves, jog half way around the camping van flat tarmacspace, (good idea), choosing a sightly different return route. Madame Boulangere is wearing her mask today. Yesterday she did not!
I think there should only be one at a time in that small space.
I was out for 25 minutes -  but had warmed up.  Only one vehicle was travelling in that time.
The weather has turned colder.

This afternoon, almost three hours of more weeding / pruning but where to dispose of it all!!!
Tomorrow will start to fork over and weed what's left that I couldn't pull by hand.  
There is 25m x 1.80 m to tackle ... then I shall be able to put the grass mulch on the soil.  I might move some of the lavender as when in flower they straddle the lawn and make mowing tricky.   I also ought to look at number 13 and decide when to do the first mow with the petrol mower.... 50 m by 12m strips!  Good slow walking!!!!!!

Tonight I ate roasted red peppers stuffed with precooked rice, garlic, onion, walnuts, sun-dried tomato, goat cheese and roasted sweet potato with Fitou.  Plenty for tomorrow too!

SPRING: Day 5: Lockdown in France

Saturday... I was up late...

I have not dreamed for more than two years. Recently, faces that I don't know I came and went for nanoseconds but no dreams. THEN, this morning I had a dream with moving images.
This is surprising because in 2017 I realised it was unusual, when I told someone i had no moving or still images, colours, patterns in my mind.

I wanted to remember the imagery so I wrote to a friend:

I awoke at 10h30 from a dream about death:  
Climbing high rugged natural rock formation vestiges from ancient Moroccan style, we arrived at a cleaned room-like cell - the reverse of an underground chamber. We were waiting for a person to bring the coffin. Eventually, the person spoken about who had never been there before, arrives with a tiny coffin, carried under her arm.  I say aloud "mine will be even smaller".  We followed. She placed it into the tomb. The coffin or the grave headstones had skull and crossbones 'plague' image on it . That's because I'd watched a video about this the night before! Then we had to descend. Like falling vertically from The Alhambra Citadel we had to drop to the ground from this high place, as we were in a kind of cathedral. 
I could see others stand, step forward, fall, hear the sound of hitting the floor,  but they seemed to survive!. I asked how and why they could walk away.   I was told I could do it if I stopped crying. I stopped, stood, stepped forwards into the empty space and fell slowly, slowly, slowly, skimming the side of the wall with the back of my vertical body - the floor was soft!  There was a stall selling death talismans. I looked but wandered off  to the front of the  cathedral, looked back to whence I had been.........................

That was an incredible in my mind
a) to have  a dream after such long years of dream famine.
b) not so strange given the numbers of deaths and my fear for others than myself for death from Coronavirus 19.
I think I am in safe confinement here!  Meanwhile, the future personal immune system may not be immune, as we are not building immunity against infection.

I filled in my ATTESTATION form deciding to visit the village boulangerie and asked if she could order bread for me.  I needed 'pain au noix, seigle, chataignier, nordique, épautre.' .. 

I ordered two rye.  She agreed the complét is too aggressive for diverticulosis. I was honest I said that despite my wish to support village commerce her bread upset my digestion!  I bought two cakes which fortunately don't cause a problem apart from sugar load!   As it is UK Mother's day tomorrow I need a treat! 

I walked to the river and back.   The village has been awarded three flowers for a floral town and  village award. I can think of better floral towns but I have to admit these bridge troughs were looking pretty. 

In the afternoon i worked at two more hours pruning roses and lavender with weeding in between before the weather changes. To date since Tuesday I've worked in the garden 9 hours.  Two weeks ago I did 16 hours in 2 days deep Spring cleaning of my house, but I can be physically lazy on some days.  It's OK to feel proud when last year and the year before gardening was so difficult I employed the gardener.  Thank goodness I found the osteopath but now she is closed by the government unless URGENT. The level of urgency might be less than for another but nonetheless  important. I must be careful to manage the illiposas , back and legs... the mind too as this is affected by the illopsoas muscle.

A beautiful willow tree has fallen

SPRING: DAY 4 - Lockdown in France

Thursday 19th March 2020:
LOCKDOWN DAY 3: Taking 2 hours and more with breaks I weeded the gravel in the previous chicken coop.  In the heat of summer I like to hide in here for a nap! Weeding was a big job despite being somewhat done in October 2019.   Back breaking 'un peu'! 

Removed dense weeds & grass +moss on old concrete and ivy on fence / walls

Under the blue bache is free dry wood weighted with metal chairs. I cannot buy 2-stroke for chainsaw. 

An old plastic table saves itself from the dechetterie for just a little longer and faces the sun.

A tablecloth will create comfort to sit, work, meditate,  as no neighbours live across the boundary.  The grass, not a lawn, has had its first mow.

SPRING: Day 3: Lockdown in France

In  honour of DAVID HOCKNEY - a most wondrous artist - I hope he does not mind my admiration. 

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/comment/a-message-from-david-hockney-do-remember-they-can-t-cancel-the-spring
 These are my daffodils on their last days since they bloomed over 4 weeks ago, earlier than last year and lasting longer. 

The Vernal Equinox Springs happened today and I look forward to longer days and warmer weather. Clocks will spring forward next weekend for some reason not this weekend.  The Sun's path aligns with the Earth's equator and illuminates the northern and southern hemispheres of the Earth equally.


Lockdown in France - Day 3: 19 th March 2020
I forced myself to weed the strip of land by the barn wall ... it is not my barn...where wire to keep roses attached the wall  has broken in part. My pruning of previous years has not been good.  I spent about two hours doing this and without gloves encountered nettles forcing me to wear the rubber gloves. The roses also snagged my hair! That evening my shoulders ached. I slept well into Saturday morning, having disturbed sleep as usual!
It now needs to be dug over before I can mulch it with the mowings of the grass!  I would love the broken concrete sections  of the path to be dug up!
BUT currently under part of the sheltered abri I can store the weeds that I don't know how to dispose of because I cant get them into the Kangoo. I can't really travel as it is non essential and the decheterie may be closed!
Maybe if the growing pile of weeds dries out I could burn it but me thinks it is more than likely to start to ferment!!!
I think I may have to strew it on one section of the four quarters  of the potager... never mind the look!

SPRING: DAY 2: Lockdown in France

Daisies White reflect the buckthorn and plum blossom before mowing

Wednesday 18th March 2020: a sunny day. Mowed the lawn. The first cut of the year. It took a while to set up with electric wires and a system to let grass not compact near the blade but not spray me in the face!  I was happy to let the cuttings remain on the ground. I mowed nearer the house at first. Then as far as I could with two of the cables.  The last part needs a 3rd cable so I left the daisies at the end. It took 3.5 hours but in between I moved stuff about the garden and took breaks in between.  This is the first time I have mowed it all in two years.  The gardener was employed.  I had been physically unwell.  I am cautious and careful.  I am slow so as to not overstretch groin muscles which are in repair.   Actually, after scans and x rays saying all was well, I self predcribed myself to a French osteopath who identified the problem as the illopsoas muscle.   Over a year of every 2 . 3 months of treatment there is significant improvement to my whole body and mind.
Now though......the osteopath has cancelled!

I am very proud and pleased that NOW I can sit here,  face the sun, or if inclined I can jog around the garden for exercise.
 I know I may have to cut it twice a week!
I know there is more grass to mow at the other property.
Will the gardener be able to come?  
I am tired but happy so far!

SPRING: Day 1: Lockdown in France

Lockdown dawned in the afternoon of Tuesday 17th March 2020 which I shall count as Day 1.

In the morning, I wondered if my gardener would come as the grass was wet!
It needed to be mowed. He came. We discussed tasks.

He helped carry three fallen fence panels. I supplied the claw hammer. He pulled them apart.  They are too far gone to be re-erected.  The 7-year old larch panels were never installed properly!
I organised, he dug, we buried domestic compost collected  which I'd  put in the black poubelle since October.  We raked it to pull back the soil to make it more level at each end.  I like to think 20C temperature will rot down the turned over, dug in weeds and grass.

I should have kept him longer than an hour and a quarter.
I don't think he can come every Tuesday!

As he departed I saw my Parisian neighbour staying at a distance across the road. Strange,  I thought! I knew we had to keep one metre distance but this has now been extended to up to 3 metres!  We chatted ... he explained he had left Paris before midday, as in a Parisian apartment with no school there is no garden for 2 teenage boys!  Work was cancelled too!  They could do more here!
At the same time I opened my post box,,, it contained an example of the ATTESTATION DÉPLACEMENT DÉROGATOIRE.

I must fill in the form for each departure from my property and land. I must indicate one of the five reasons to be out and about.  I have decided to stay put and be in self isolation!

The Light Dawns ... in earnest, I begin to be more and more on the internet to follow UK and French coronavirus 19  regulations and restrictions.

I am well used to social and information isolation over the last 15 years of Life in France.
This will be a similar but different challenge.
I feel equipped to cope.

SPRING 2020 DAY 0:: Pre Complete Lockdown in France

I shall count today as DAY 0: Lockdown in France 

As I live a solitary life without television, but with internet, it is sometimes difficult to keep informed!  
Aware that a speech had been made by the French Prime Minister on Thursday 12th March, I should have realised that a strict 15-day lockdown would require us to remain at home. This came into greater effect at midday Tuesday 17th March after a second speech by M. Macron, lawfully proposing confinement and closing many non-food shops and businesses to curb the coronavirus spread.

On Thursday 12th March 2020 - an English friend decided we wouldn't be able to go to Poitiers Thursday 19th March. It was later that I realised shops would be closed.

When she suggested a game of Scrabble with Gin & Tonic for Saturday, I was very enthusiastic.  We kept a distance. She washed her hands on entry to the house.  I didn't know she hadn't ever played before. Surprising for someone with an English degree.  Latching on to the two-letter word list she came a very close second - we covered the board and had a good combined score.  I planned to go shopping after she had departed for the afternoon but with one G&T on board and only an hour ish before the supermarket closed, it was wise to wait until Monday! 

However, Monday 16th March was the eve of the SECOND Prime Ministerial speech. I did not know this! Schools had been closed. Non-food enterprises had been closed. I was too late to purchase 2 stroke for the chainsaw!  Too late for electrical parts for my delayed/delayed/delayed hand-made pottery lamp base at pottery lessons ... still not fired since Christmas.  I am sure it will become too dry to fire!  At the crowded supermarket Reality dawned! Beyond my control!

Shopping - I didn't need much - eggs, yoghurt, butter, milk, vegetables, fruit.  essentials and then store cupboard foods and firelighters.  I managed to spend 127 euros including wine. Despite saying to myself 'leave for others' I did return after about 30 minutes or so to the toilet roll aisle, to take one of the last four packets, deciding I too was deserving. 

I filled the Kangoo with diesel.  I returned home feeling rather sad for the impending doom of not normal conditions for everyone.

The street seemed more empty - more emptier than normal, if it is possible to be MORE, when Empty cannot really be more Empty.