I don’t even know how this is June.

I have not been to work since mid-March.

So what have I been doing with all this time at home?

Well, I’m still being teacher-dad Monday to Friday, helping my two kids with their home learning.

We still go for regular walks into the woods near our house. The kids treat it like their own adventure playground.

I’ve also been busy slowly transforming our small shed into an art studio.

Firstly, I had to clear it out and find new homes for the stuff in there (hello garage).

Then I installed the insulation.

I’ll let you know how things progress with this project… next I need to find suitable furniture and storage solutions.

We have re-opened the Little Free Library book exchange in our village community. It had temporarily closed due to the lockdown, but it is pretty much running as normal now, albeit we’re recommending people wash their hands before and after visiting, and quarantine any books that they take home, as a precaution.

This week had a tree surgeon come over to sort out the trees in our garden. We have lost an apple tree that was old, rotting and unproductive.

The garden looks lighter and bigger now. My kids quickly discovered that the stump makes an excellent look-out post from which to spy on our neighbours.

I finally finished Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror & The Light. What a masterpiece!

I couldn’t help but draw comparisons between our current covid19 crisis and how the Tudors were experts at self-isolation.

There’s also an unfavourable comparison in there somewhere between Henry VIII & Cromwell and Boris Johnson & Cummings, but I won’t go into that, except suffice to say that if we were living in Tudor times Cummings would surely have been beheaded by now…

I am still on furlough and I have no idea when I will return to work. I work in a college of further education, and I would have been finishing work for the summer anyway next month, so I can’t see myself going back until at least September. Likewise with the kids; they won’t be back at school until then either. Beyond September no-one knows, not even our useless government.

Until things go back to normal we’ll continue to enjoy the open spaces around us, and I will try very hard to be the best teacher-dad that I can be.

Read previous lockdown catch-ups here:#1, #2, #3, #4 & #5

How are you doing?