Day One Hundred and Thirty Seven - Scorcher

Oooops! Malfunction on the part of the blogger delayed the publishing of this blog post. 

Today is turned into a bit of a scorcher. I'm grateful I have the routine of getting up really early and going for a walk. Because I wouldn't fancy doing it now. But I'd miss the walk. Blackberries for breakfast yet again. There is something delightful about "free" food. I tried to do a little clearing in the garden. It really was too hot and the continuing problem of my hands hurting kind of put a stop to it. But I always think every little bit helps. It's funny though it used to be that I could keep going until my back hurt. Now I only keep going until my hand seizes up. Such fun this ageing lark!

Coronavirus news today -  they have extended the period of self isolation from 7 days to 10 days. I often wonder if they had kept it at the original 14 days would we have seen so many cases and so many deaths? Damning statement that England has the highest number of excess deaths in Europe during the pandemic and that's from official data apparently - this from The Guardian - 

'ONS report on excess deaths in Europe - Summary

• The ONS says that in the first half of 2020 England had “the longest continuous period of excess mortality of any country compared, resulting in England having the highest levels of excess mortality in Europe for the period as a whole”. 

• It says that Spain had the highest peak level of excess deaths. England had the second highest national peak. That means that although overall, over the whole period, England had the highest levels of excess deaths, at a particular stage in the crisis the situation in Spain was worse.

• It says, when you compare local authority areas rather than countries, the highest rates of excess deaths were in central Spain and northern Italy. The highest peak was in Bergamo in northern Italy, where excess deaths reached 847.7% in the week ending 20 March. By comparison, in the UK Brent was the local authority area with the highest peak excess mortality, at 249.7% in the week ending 17 April.

• It says, when you compare cities, Madrid had the highest peak level of excess deaths. In Madrid they reached 432.7% in the week ending 27 March. In the UK Birmingham had the highest peak excess mortality, at 249.7% in the week ending 17 April.

• It says that in the UK every local authority area had excess deaths during the peak of the crisis in April, but that in other European countries there was more regional variation, and they experienced “more geographically localised excess mortality”.'

Makes for sobering reading, doesn't it? Even the Prime Minister is warning people that this crisis isn't over yet. In fact he said people shouldn't delude themselves. Earlier he should've spoken to me a lot earlier. I could've advised him far more effectively than Dominic bloody Cummings! I could've told him that people are deluded. I've been looking at them through my window for weeks now. Maybe I should've been prime minister? I would have closed the borders right away and tried to stop all travel between countries. That would've been my first move. And I still reckon that had that been done we might not even have needed a lockdown. But that wonderful thing-  hindsight-  is of absolutely zero use right now. 

Loads of gatekeeper butterflies flying about today. Unbothered. They don't have to quarantine or self isolate or social distance. It's a joy to behold. My poor old buddleia is looking very brown and sorry for itself. And I simply can't do all that I need to do to it. I've never been able to tie it back efficiently on my own. And I've tried to deadhead as many blooms as I can but it's grown so tall. I couldn't reach it without steps and I'm way too wobbly on them nowadays. So with regret I just have to leave it. I think the bees and the butterflies are a little bit disappointed in me. However the lavender has been a great success this year. There's rarely been less than half a dozen bees on it at any one time. Certainly feel like I'm doing my bit for the bees.

My friend's daughter reckons that eating Quorn upsets her stomach. That's a bit of a disaster because the majority of the meals I prepared for her are Quorn-based meals. The first one I did she reckoned she absolutely loved so I set to and made more of the same! Well, it isn't actually that she doesn't like them, it's that they give her the collywobbles. It's no problem for me because I can eat all of them but it just means that it's left her short of meals. So I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board and have a think about what I can do for her,  feasible meals that she can heat up easily. It's going to be really important when her mum is in hospital. I'm going to try some soya mince and see if that is okay for her. Otherwise it's gonna be lentils, chickpeas et cetera. I think she eats fish and I know that her mum likes fish so she can eat the same meal when fish is on the menu.