As my husband will attest I like to go out and about, whether it is to visit historic houses and gardens, for a walk on the beach or just to have coffee with friends, so staying within the confines of home, apart from a social distancing walk each day, doesn’t come naturally to me.

I’m used to working from home, so that isn’t a problem, but free time has always meant getting out and about, sometimes I have to confess to the detriment of work that should be done in the house and garden.

However, I seem to have adjusted pretty well to the lockdown, although like other readers, I hope it won’t continue for too many months.

I won’t go into details about the problems of getting supplies – you can have many happy hours trying to find a supermarket slot – however, we have managed to source items from smaller outlets.

Unfortunately, you don’t always receive exactly what you ordered, with some items missing, so we have been having some slightly unusual meals. However, as my culinary skills have always been somewhat limited, my husband has been uncomplaining. I am trying to take a leaf out of his book, as he has always been good at making a brilliant meal with just a few ingredients and some herbs and spices.

At the moment we seem to have an excess of large oranges, a lettuce, which would feed a family of 10, and enough frozen broccoli to last months.

But we are determined not to waste any food at all, so if someone can come up with a dish to include all three of those items, I would be pleased to hear from them.

The lawn has been cut to within an inch of its life, and having cleared out weeds, we are using up the umpteen boxes of wild flower seeds we had accumulated and done nothing with.

Confession time. We have been going to ‘the pub’. Well actually it is our own pub. Sitting by the window, looking out over the River Allen, we have been enjoying the odd glass of wine. We dress as though we are going out for the evening, and just chat as though we were at our ‘local’.

I have been going out for walks and have been impressed with everyone who in Wimborne is going out of their way to ‘social distance’. I greet everyone and have had some interesting long distance chats. So very many people live on their own, and it is a chance to just check that they are all right, and not short of necessities.

Having structure in the day helps enormously, and each evening I plan the day ahead.

Sitting in the sun reading is hugely pleasurable and we are safe in the knowledge that we won’t run out of reading material as we have shelves full of tomes including the complete works of Dickens.

Now where did I put that copy of War and Peace?