“I've just got home from a walk and have come home 3 stone heavier. The reason: I filled my rucksack with soil from a leafy lane-side verge that was creeping into the road (and picked up some plastic litter while I was at it). I’m hoping nobody will miss it…

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This might need some more explaining... The litter pick is something I was partial to before coronavirus, to clean up the countryside.

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The soil, however, is very much part of a plan that I hatched in lockdown - to diversify the gardens in my block of flats with flowers for the bees and the butterflies, and to secretly plant trees in my neighbourhood.

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I never really had green fingers before, but lockdown has given me an enhanced interest in the nature around us.

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The appropriated soil (full of decaying leaves and composting goodness) will bring life to the sterile clay in the gardens.

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My master plan during lockdown is to plant 20 trees in my neighbourhood in secret... I'm up to six, all of them currently thriving. May they continue to do so, making the streets more beautiful and, most importantly, helping to repair a bit of the damage done by another terrible virus that is currently hitting our planet... namely the human race and its destruction and burning of this beautiful world.

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Lockdown is showing us all what is important and what is not in our modern lives. Listen to it when your soul sings in these weeks and identify what makes you really truly happy. Then do more of that.”