What nature can teach us about Covid

This morning was the first time that my father, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, had ventured beyond his veranda since coming home two weeks ago from a Covid-induced stay at Plymouth Hospital. He’s very weak but we’ve borrowed a mobility scooter from a local friend and I convinced him to take a turn of the garden with me to smell the flowers and see what’s blooming. He visibly perked up while navigating our gravel paths and pointed out ragged robin, purple loosestrife and wood anemones, all of which have sprung forth while he lay sedated in intensive care. I trotted along beside him vigilantly, ever ready to throw my shoulder into the scooter if it looked like he was going to turn it and tumble down one of our precipitous slopes. Predictably, he is not behaving like the sick man he is and still drives like a teenager heading off on their first date. Noticing some hawthorn trees in full flower beside the path led me to consider the similarity between some of our native trees and the current global pandemic.