Like most people I think, I find some days under lockdown are harder than others. Today was a hard one. I read the news, read about people who have died, brief bios of people who most of us haven’t heard of, but who have lost their lives. A shockingly long list but just a fraction of the current total. Human faces showing the cost of this virus across the country. The Sun newspaper had a headline yesterday about Boris Johnson being out of ICU which ran something like Now That’s a Good Friday!. Yesterday the highest number of deaths from coronavirus in a single day across the UK. I am pleased Johnson is recovering, I want everyone to recover, but the focus over the last few days has been all about him. It’s wrong. we need to be informed, to be told the truth. The press briefings have been shamefully lacking in detail about what is happening, Matt Hancock not having facts and figures ready when questioned, journalists not pushing for answers. Johnson recovering is not going to solve the issue, and not spelling out how bad things are. There are still, heaven help us, people not taking the risk seriously. Don’t sell them some nonsense about herculean efforts by the government, Johnson recovering so all will be well.
I went for a walk in a local park this afternoon. It was after four, and I was hoping most people would have headed out earlier to enjoy the sunshine and gone home. They hadn’t. The park was heaving. Police were patrolling in cars. I saw them approach a family group sitting on the grass. I looked for space and fortunately found some, and beautiful trees in blossom. We need beauty at at all times, and especially at times like these.
Green leaves and blossom
Simply blossom
By the time I got home I was feeling more cheerful. Nature had done its work. I realised there are more beautiful trees where I love. I’ll photograph them tomorrow. My second amaryllis is blooming and giving me a welcome shot of bright red colour in the living room. The third one is about to unfurl its petals in the bathroom. I think it’s going to be striped.
The current amaryllis
Then tonight my friend Danny and his friend Barrie live-streamed a music and chat event. They did it a couple of weeks ago, but I didn’t hear about it until afterwards. I caught up with it on YouTube. You can too if you click this link. Tonight’s started well, and I was thoroughly enjoying it while preparing dinner, but then there were problems with the sound, and Barrie’s mike. I’m sure they’ll be doing another, so with luck the technical stuff will be sorted by then.
The jigsaw that suffered from MasterB’s exertions is finished. It was quite hard. I expect our demon puzzle solvers will zip through it in a day. They have one they have finished to pass to me. It may not be sitting in the sunshine outside, but it beats being ill in bed, maybe at risk of losing our lives.
Historical map jigsaw puzzle
Keep well.
Isobel (and Cat)'s Blog 