Wolds folk luckier than most

We have lived through the most emotional yet dreadful two months, an experience beyond our understanding, and also far beyond our imagination at the turn of the year.

As 2020 dawned Covid-19 was a phrase that only the biologists were trying to come to terms with - and still are!

Five months on, in May, our government tries to lead us in the first tentative steps out of lockdown.

In the Wolds we have been luckier than most.

As I have walked on my daily dose of exercise over the Water Hills near Caistor, I have noticed a warmth and generosity of spirit.

People speak and say hello, at the same time as trying to keep two metres apart.

Social distancing is a phrase few of us would have understood in February.

Another slogan I’ve heard is ‘keep safe’, or extended to ‘keep safe, sane and sanitised’. Be careful you don’t get locked up for not locking down, I was advised.

Our humour remains intact and my appreciation of those wide Lincolnshire skies is enhanced.

More than once, as I stopped to admire the view from the top of Canada Lane or Nettleton Hill, I was told how lucky we are to live in the Wolds.

It was easy to say that on those warm and sunny days last week, but I found it not so easy to say on Sunday morning when the ‘Beast from the East’ arrived to remind us of winter. But it did bring us some welcome rain as well as an arctic blast.

Before my eyes and all about me was England’s ‘Green and Pleasant Land’ that Blake spoke about in Jerusalem. What a pity we could not sing it in church!

Several days last week, from my vantage point at the top of Canada Lane and also from the high road from Nettleton to Claxby, could be seen the clear outline of the Pennines on the distant horizon.

Those man made landmarks of Lincoln Cathedral, Scunthorpe Steelworks and the Humber Bridge are much closer and can regularly be seen, but the Pennines beyond Sheffield are far more distant and a rarer sight.

Last week I saw them three days in succession, and I kept asking myself was this because pollution has been reduced by lockdown and the decrease of road and air transport?

Let’s not speak too soon though, for a second spike of the virus remains a big fear.

So far our neck of the woods has seen relatively few cases and, consequently, fewer deaths than elsewhere.

Many of these though have been borne in great suffering, not just by the individual struck down by this dreadful virus, but also by their loved ones, so often unable to hold the hand of their nearest and dearest in their time of need. Harrowing tales have filled our newspapers and television screens.

But there have been heroes too - doctors and nurses, care workers, all on the front line of the NHS.

We have banged our pots and pans and clapped our hands in Horsemarket at 8 o’clock every Thursday night for the past few weeks.

At times it has been quite moving to see young mums and dads alongside pensioners, with sixth formers hanging out of bedroom windows, all clapping in the same cause as we gave special and heartfelt thanks from our communities.

There are many who have come from overseas to work in our health service, and our PM paid due tribute to the two nurses - one from New Zealand and the other from Portugal - who had cared for him through his darkest hour.

The Sikh consultant from Derby General Hospital did not survive.

Our Queen’s two messages to the nation have been remarkable and not just because they were being made by a monarch well into her 90s. She did not fluster once, unlike the ‘Secretaries of State at 5pm’ half her age and hesitant far more in a single sentence.

For one day we paused last week to recall the end of the War in Europe on May 8, 1945.

Locally a small group of us paid our respect to the fallen heroes of those days at Caistor’s war memorial.

Later, families sat in the sun to enjoy afternoon tea and television, which, I thought, staged a wonderful tribute with film and song from 75 years ago.

Kathryn Jenkins sang Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again. How those words of yesteryear echo the thoughts of today!

Yes, we are lucky to live in the Wolds with its open spaces and clean air, but also 12 miles from the sea where that ‘Beast from the East’ makes landfall at Cleethorpes, which you can also see from Caistor top.

So as we tend our gardens and walk our lanes, we give thanks that we are not crammed into one of the hundreds of flats that dominate the urban skyline.

We must, though, not take our locality for granted.

Join me in saying thanks to doctors and nurses at the health centre, carers in homes and in the community, staff in the Co-op, and the Post Office, who have been keeping our essential services going.

Thanks to our paper girl and the postman too.

As the Queen said on Friday: “Our streets are not empty - they are filled with love!”