Coronavirus will make this winter more difficult – but we have to look for positives

For a while during early coronavirus lockdown people cautiously admitted to the possible benefits of stripping things back; returning to a sort of simple, wholesome way of living our lives without commuting and FOMO.

An empty social calendar and daily walks that saw us staring wistfully at wisteria like it was the first time we’d ever laid eyes on the stuff. Not to mention trying to master crow pose in yoga and spring cleaning, we all tried to find the small positives in the apocalyptic situation we found ourselves in.

As the hottest spring we’d seen in years blossomed and we were permitted to sit down outside of our home (that first sit!), we graduated from Zoom and googling “what is a sourdough starter?” and then “who delivers sourdough?” swiftly thereafter, to the picnic boom and driving to beauty spots with the rest of the population.  The work we did during those months shows it.

Essentially, because it was summer, while the pandemic raged on, we were sort of OK sometimes – even with the panics over our social distancing. The sun was shining, the picnic thing was fun and we discovered that our skin did actually tan eventually. Positive human interest stories made their way into the news.

But now there’s no way around it, winter is here and the reminder that we actually entered this pandemic back when it was wooly jumper and hat season and now, as the clocks fall back, we do too – back into the darkness for round two, or tier 2, with those same jumpers and hats.

What will things look like this time around? Though the novelty of online quizzes, giving ourselves buzzcuts and reminding ourselves how much we love beauty therapists when trying to wax our own legs while sitting on the edge of the bath is far behind us, surely there’s something to be gained still?

Who ever really wants to leave the house in winter, anyway? Not leaving work during the pitch black because work is your kitchen table is something. And think of the political arguments that will be avoided if plans have to change around Christmas.

It’s true, we may have to sit around our SAD lamps, then head out for a walk in a dashing winter coat, and return home – possibly our parents’ where we’ve been financially forced to return – to hunker down with Netflix and ask ourselves if we do in fact fancy Andy Burnham.

Let’s start small though and work up from there. The clocks going back means one thing whatever the circumstances: an extra hour resting or dreaming.

We will be with you to provide all the latest information you need – and stories to lift your spirits. We can make it through, together.

Yours,

Harriet Hall

Lifestyle editor