And so we’re coming to the end of another week in lockdown … I hope everybody is doing ok in these difficult days. Here’s a post with an eclectic assortment of stuff that may help to alleviate the tedium/raise the spirits/feed body and mind!

University of Cambridge Sport has set up Strava Groups, an online running network for University staff, students and the local community. You just need a smartphone to be part of this. You can log your runs, upload images of your running routes and link to running resources whilst benefiting from the encouragement and support of this online community.

https://www.sport.cam.ac.uk/news/strava-online-running-network-staff-students-and-local-community

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has launched “Digital Making at Home”, a series of virtual and online learning experiences for young people aged 7 – 17, with instruction videos on a weekly theme to support different skills levels.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/tag/digital-making-at-home/

Cambridge Cookery School and Cafe may be shut for now but founder Tine Roche is writing a daily “What’s for Supper” blog. Each post is so much more than just a recipe … Tine scatters through all sorts of tips and techniques and adds a good dollop of cultural musing too. I love reading her words as much as I love eating her food!

Cambridge TV Training offers courses covering every aspect of factual TV production. They’ve uploaded several short “how to” videos on Youtube as a free resource, covering topics such as “How to record good audio with your Smartphone” and “How to choose what video editing software to learn”. For those who’d like more in depth help, they’re offering two hour tuition sessions through Zoom at £20 per session.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqc67QSvHmlbLnKkZEfXO4A/videos

White Lotus Meditation has taken its sessions and courses online. You can link with Lucy Highton via Zoom for Sunday Wellness Meditation, Calm Morning Mindful Meditation on Wednesdays or arrange one-to-one tailored meditation practice sessions.

https://www.whitelotusmeditation.co.uk/classesandcourses

Cambridge University Botanic Garden is bringing the garden to us in several ways while its gates are closed to visitors. In a weekly “Wellness Wander” video, they’ll be sharing the sights, colours and sounds of the Garden as it unfolds through the Spring. In “From our back garden to yours Gardening Club” Sandie Cain, Horticultural Learning Coordinator, is posting regular videos about growing veg, whether you’ve got a garden or a sunny windowsill to work with. And tune in to “Heavenly Gardens” on BBC1 (Good Friday at 1.40pm and on iPlayer), presented by Alexander Armstrong and garden designer Arit Anderson who look at the history of the Garden and how it remains at the cutting edge of plant science research while being a place of beauty and tranquility.

https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/wellness-wander/

https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/gardening-club/

Harveys is a family run nursery garden business which has had a wonderful stall on Cambridge Market for 90 years, selling veg, salad, herb and bedding plants. In the face of coronavirus, they’ve created a website with an online order service which has proved to be so popular that at the time of writing, the order service has been briefly paused. They expect to resume online orders soon so if you’re planning your garden for Spring and Summer, do take a look at the seedling and plant list in the meantime. Everything I’ve ever bought from them has been top quality and has done really well.

https://harveyandson1930.wixsite.com/mysite?fbclid=IwAR0kI8rHKaBAGw5x3b06BflyUw8wfKhS-T7Zt1meZVqIZ8fcg26HQASxYw4

Here’s a photo of Rolo the puppy to make you smile. He has no truck with social distancing and thinks lockdown is a really good thing as it means all his favourite humans are home with him 24/7!! I hope that everybody reading this, wherever you are in the world, is keeping well. Stay safe and look out for each other x