Sign o' the times: closed, spaced and empty
One further note, for the record. We are still in lockdown, and the daily list of stats on deaths from coronavirus, and the total excess deaths compared to the average, make grim reading every day. We seem to be past the peak: analysis from the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford shows convincingly that the peak day for deaths in hospitals was April 8.
Even though we are past the peak, new infections still occur and the Government and its advisors have yet to announce a route out of the lockdown. But there are increasing reports in the media of people moving around much more than before, with the AA reporting that traffic levels are on the increase. Building sites are opening up again, and all sorts of self-employed people are finding ways to make an income, some legal, some not so much.
In the light of these reports, there is surprisingly little movement here in east Kent. On my daily exercise walk or cycle ride, and on various routes, I've not noticed many more people or cars about. There are a few people out for walks—families and dog walkers, mostly, and there is increasing evidence of small works being done on houses. Nonetheless, as far as I can see, lockdown still has the active support of the vast majority of people around here, even though the weather has been, for the most part, spectacularly beautiful. Some pictures follow from the last week.
Social distancing in action. The small post-office on the right hand side of the picture is operating restricted hours, leading to queues outside. Sometimes these stretch around the corner, and up the road on the left-hand side of the image. Note how people stand individually or in couples, spaced at least 2m apart, as recommended.
An empty park, attended only by a tractor-drawn mower, operated by a lone driver.
Football pitches with only occasional dog walkers
The childrens’ play parks are all closed, and I only rarely see anyone playing on them, even though there is nothing to stop anyone doing so.
We are all banned from the pub car park
Rainbow signs, with their message of thanks to the NHS and all key workers, have been produced by many of the children in the UK, and are displayed for all to see.
A sign produced on corrugated metal gives a variation on the message in the previous picture
A car park lies empty in front of a shuttered office building
The M20 at junction 9, about mid-day. The M20 is the main route to and from the Channel ports from the rest of the country. There are occasions, under normal circumstances, when there are no vehicles in view traveling on the M20, but they are rare. Now, you can stand on a footbridge over the M20 and it is routine to see nothing moving. In this picture, there’s not even a vehicle entering or exiting.
The skies have been so beautiful recently, deep azure with scarcely a cloud, and, as shown here, absence of contrails. This picture, over the spring blossom on trees in my garden, looks towards main air routes used by aircraft coming and going from LHR, LGW, and LCY, and it is normally hard to find a sky clear of contrails.
OK - not one of my photos, but a screengrab from Freedar, last week, about 10:30 in the morning, showing a map of Kent, and much of East Sussex, stretching up towards London and the Thames Estuary. The little aircraft symbols show where the airports are ((L-R) Biggin Hill (BQH), London City (LCY), Rochester (RCS), Lydd (LYX), and Manston (closed). The map shows exactly zero air activity over the whole area. I don’t recall this ever before. Normally, mid-morning on a weekday, there would be all sorts of aircraft around, coming into and out of the airports as well as private airfields. Simply unprecedented (the mot du lockdown).