ARE you having trouble coping with lockdown? Well, I am 91, live alone but ‘boredom’ is not in my vocabulary. Here’s how I cope.

I delve into the vast hinterland of my memories and select a ‘pleasurable moment’. For example, in my younger days I was a mountain climber, cross-country and distance runner, and a golfer. I might dig out a map and find somewhere, e.g. Wester Ross, where I recall the wonderful views, the weather and the silence. Or perhaps a success in the steeplechase before 30,000 spectators at the Rangers Sports at Ibrox, or grunting up Ben Nevis in the annual race.

I sang in a choir for 40 years and have a wide repertoire of music to choose from – Mozart’s Requiem can take me through an afternoon.

So to get you in the mood, go to Irish poet WB Yeats’ The Lake Isle of Innisfree – you can Google it – and recite it aloud. Slowly. Savouring each word. At the same time, visualise in your mind’s eye your own version of a “peaceful glade” and settle down on the imaginary turf or a deck chair and enjoy your ‘pleasurable moment’.

James Linn

Sandersons Wynd

Tranent