British Merlin Made

Another on the Shed Series - from the good ol' days when you could actually tinker on car and bike engines yourself.  From the look of it I had a Softar filter on the lens.  On old Kenthene fixed grade paper, toned in sepia and selenium:

Old spanner, Hasselblad FP4+ on Kenthene fixed grade paper, toned

I'm still not out & about much at all even though I've received another letter saying that I can now leave the house and meet a friend outside (due to the medications I take for my ankylosing spondylitis I'm classed as 'vulnerable').  I can't say I've missed driving one bit - my body is feeling the benefits of not squeezing into a car & sitting in an unnaturally cramped position every day, even if only for the school run.  I've even been able to see what few family members we have, since we have a big enough garden to sit in.  On occasion they've even been in the house over the last month or so - but at a distance.   Northern Ireland hasn't seen too many COVID-19 cases and most are in care homes or in/near the major urban area of Greater Belfast, about 50 miles to the South East.  I think up here on the north coast we've got away fairly lightly...so far, anyway.  I suspect the near constant wind washing over us from the Atlantic has probably helped.

I did venture into town on Friday last and was surprised by how many people were around.  Big queues for Next...clearly people have missed buying clothes.  I was also surprised that virtually no-one (except me!) was wearing a face mask - the only other people I noticed with a mask were the ones organising the line into and out of Next.   

At the start of the lockdown we did a few online grocery shops but lately either my wife or I have been doing a big weekly shop at one of the local stores.  The online shops were OK...but you never receive exactly what you're after and while Yes OK it's a First World Problem when you get a smaller box of Corn Flakes that you requested we seemed to be spending about twice what we usually do.   I think the big stores have done a pretty good job with things - hand santisers and sprays/wipes for the trolleys at the entrance, capping the number of people in the store at any one time, a one-way system (which people are starting to ignore) and large screens at the checkouts.  Personally, I'd like to see all of those things kept even if the current virus disappears.