Luna and Boris the rabbits have been evading lockdown - Julian Norton

Before you report them to the police for contravening the restrictions, the couple are rabbits, Luna and Boris.

By night they sleep in a lovely, two-tiered hutch.

By day, they frequent a huge, moveable run and an even more moveable Toblerone-shaped ‘pod’, which are linked by a bendy, rabbit-sized tube. It is a superb arrangement for a pair of rabbits and they are very lucky.

But the current Covid-19 clampdown, with most of the family at home, most of the time, has meant that they can be freed and can roam the garden for hours at a time, rather than just the occasional hour when they can be supervised at the weekend.

It’s been a miserable month, but Boris and Luna exploring the garden and binking in the sun has been a joy to watch.

Last Sunday they were briefly confined back to barracks. It was time for mowing the lawn. I enjoy mowing the lawn, but it’s usually a rushed job, squeezed in between others.

Not now, though. To refill the petrol tank and crank the engine reminded me that spring was definitely here, that seasons change and that times move on. I was positively excited to be walking, with purpose, up and down the lawn again and again.

If it hadn’t been the lawn, it would have been the garage doors, desperate for a coat of new paint. Countless families over the country must have been thinking the same thing: the garden fence, the shed or the garage doors need painting.

Doubtless, some, in their lockdown boredom, would have also considered then watching that paint dry. But for this afternoon, I ignored the painting challenge and set about firing up the mower.

For once, the task was pleasantly time-consuming, especially when I found huge tracts of previously undiscovered moss taking space. It’s perfectly matched green was an excellent disguise but I knew it needed to come out, so I set about it with a rake, scarifying until I was covered with sweat.

Yes, emergency veterinary work was busy, but the spare hours which would have been filled with gym, swim training, socialising, meeting people, being a human being could be diverted to my new task of moss removal.

I felt lucky. I could rid any vexatious thoughts by scratching at the moss. There must be many people without moss, without even a garden or open space or access to fresh air. Is that a basic right we should have, Mr Hancock? And what if, confined to a small house, we disagreed with our spouse.

What if one half thinks, for example, that Mr Hancock and his team are doing a superb job, captaining a ship through torrid waters, while the other thinks the shortage of PPE for health care workers is an egregious crime or that the profound lack of testing for Covid-19 at the beginning has left the country hamstrung without data?

There are sure to have been more inter-familial arguments over recent weeks because of the lockdown, and maybe some more serious than purely familial political disagreement. I really hope the protrac-ted abolition of normal life has been worth it.

For now, though, I was content that my lawn looked tidier. It was time to re-release the rabbits but, despite my moss-fuelled catharsis, I still had doubts and unanswered questions. The rabbits hopped out. Maybe I should ask Boris? He lolloped across the newly cut grass, ears bouncing. I doubted he could give me any answers.