Wednesday, September 30th, 2020
Hosting guests at present is a strange affair. I do not dictate how my guests should behave, but I greet them with a mask on my face, which takes some of them by surprise, as though the “normal” environment of a private house somehow should exempt them from having to do social distancing. Yet I do not know where my guests have been before they arrived, or whom they have been in contact with on their way here. A B&B is no different from a shop or a petrol station when it comes to rules about wearing masks. I therefore hope that my mask-wearing will serve as a gentle reminder for my guests to take adequate precautions, especially if they are here for away-breaks. They go to pubs and restaurants for their evening meals. I do not socialise or even go to the shops, relying instead on deliveries, and I keep human contacts to the bare minimum. I have just organised a twice-weekly delivery of milk, in proper glass bottles, from Hinxden Dairy, a local farm with its own herds of Friesian and Guernsey cows. How wonderful to have gold-topped milk once again, something I have not seen or tasted since childhood. This will be perfect for making the yoghurt.