Socially distanced Black Lives Matter protest

Everyone had to wear a mask and we were constantly reminded to stay apart. After everyone took a knee or sat for eight minutes and forty seven seconds in silence, there were speeches. The silence was incredibly moving. Today was the fourth and last of these protests. The first one had eight people and a placard made out of a pizza box. Social media helped spread the word, and now there isn't enough space for any more people.

I was very grateful to Polly, who organised these protests, for liaising with the police and succeeding in diverting the traffic that normally would have been pouring past the Subscription rooms. The silence of a traffic-free town centre made a huge difference.

Afterwards friend A. and I went on a fruitless mission to buy citric acid. The elderflower blossom is out and everyone in Stroud (apart from us) wants to make elderflower champagne, because we are in lockdown.. All the shops are sold out.

I'm writing this late. Lost a few days. My friend Dave has caught Covid-19 and I've been trying to offer support and helpful links by text. He is 78, lives alone and is prone to taking advice a bit too literally. It is a worry. I can't even offer to shop for him because he lives in another town and I'd have to take two buses, which would be daft because his neighbours actually work for a supermarket. However. He thinks he can only ask them to buy essentials, and not avocados and hot cross buns, which is apparently what he really wants. I've been down the tech route with him re. other things and it doesn't always go well (He did used to work for Government Communications HQ, but that was coding, not shopping online). We chat by text because that's his preferred method.

I also found out last Wednesday that a former employee had died of Multiple Sclerosis. She must have been about eighty, Her husband has now got Parkinsonism and associated cognitive dementia. What a world....