Nearly every Saturday since the lockdown I have visited Lucia’s Coffee and Bakehouse to buy my weekly loaf of bread. Lucia’s closed to the general public at the end of March, but every Monday they post their weekly menu on social media for pre-orders, every Friday they spend part of the day in their quiet shop preparing everything they need to bake Grasmere’s bread, and every Saturday they get up early to bake, to set-up the shop, and to greet everyone with a smile and a kind word.
The shop has been rearranged, and brown paper bags of bread are lined up like ducklings. Each bag has a person’s name written on it in black marker pen. My favourite trip to Lucia’s was very early on lockdown, where each customer collecting their bread was also offered a little bunch of daffodils to brighten up their homes. As I walked down the lane with my bread and my daffodils it started to rain, but the daffodils were so bright that I didn’t mind. A rainbow appeared over Helm Crag, even more colourful against the stormy sky, and when I arrived home I put my daffodils in a vase and carried them up to my bedroom, where they gave me a week’s worth of smiles.
The daffodils are no longer in bloom, but now I get to bring home something nearly as good with my freshly baked bread: coffee! Every time I cradle the hot cup in my hands I think about the way I used to curl up in my favourite cafe and write stories and read my favourite books and drink coffee, how I used to arrive at opening time before the cafe became busy, how the staff would smile at me and let me stay as long as I wanted.
Collecting bread is my weekly adventure. Lucia’s is the only shop that I have entered since the 21st March, and now I wear a mask to encourage other people to do the same, and equip themselves for the new normal. I live with my parents, who are both healthcare workers, and I’m shielding as much as I can to look after them and the vulnerable people that they come into contact with. I had never thought that a loaf of bread would have such significance in my life, or a simple cup of coffee, but now they are the fixed point in my strange, nebulous existence.
Hannah