Dear Readers, there is something a little ironic about having gotten through 18 months of a pandemic without even being pinged by the NHS app, only to catch something and end up self-isolating when ‘Freedom Day’ is today, 19th July. On the other hand, ‘Freedom Day’ won’t be freedom for vulnerable people, people who have compromised immune systems because of chemotherapy, elderly people or anyone else who has reason to fear the devastating potential effects of this virus. With only 50% of the country double-vaccinated, would it really have hurt to keep things on an even keel for another month or so? I don’t doubt that most people will continue to be sensible, but there has been a leadership vacuum of colossal proportions in this country. My heart goes out to people working in the NHS who are seeing the numbers of the hospitalized rising inexorably. We have been abandoned. No wonder so many people are filled not with joy at the unlocking, but with trepidation.
Anyhow, I have done my Covid test and posted it, and now I wait to see if what I have is something known or something unknown. I feel a bit tired, but basically much better, so I will just have to be a patient patient. Thank you for all the good wishes, and in particular to the person who reminded me that even if it’s not Covid it doesn’t mean that I should rush headlong back into my usual frantic round of activity – I think the phrase was ‘other viruses are available’, which made me hoot. That is excellent advice. I feel tired to my bones somehow: it’s sometimes a struggle just putting one foot in front of another. But then, there’s always the garden, and it’s too blooming hot to do any actual work so I just sat in the shade and tried to pay attention, as that is the cure for most ills.
If you look very carefully at the picture below, you can just see a tiny plane about to enter the clouds. Who remembers that feeling when you’re on a flight and the plane starts to judder as you enter the clouds, as if it’s flying through something viscous? Or that extraordinary sensation when you get above the clouds and there’s the sun and that perfect blue? It always reminds me of that Buddhist sense that behind all our nonsense there is that clear, vast ‘mind’ that is available to all of us if only we could put other things aside.
I wouldn’t want you all to think that I was being too lazy, so I actually got up and wandered over to the pot of ‘wild flowers’ that we planted about a month ago. It’s fair to say that they haven’t been a stunning success, but what’s with the brassica? It looks like oilseed rape to me.
But all is not lost, because I did notice a small white butterfly hanging around earlier this morning, and when I bent down for a closer look, she has laid a single egg. Now, if you’re a gardener I can imagine you not being that impressed, but at least Small Whites only lay one egg, as opposed to 50 like a Large White. I shall have to see if this one survives, and shall have to remind my poor long-suffering husband not to water too enthusiastically this evening when he gets the hosepipe out.
In other news, the Great Willowherb is just opening. Every year the buds are parasitized by some little moth, and every year it seems to make not a jot of difference to the flowering.
And the collared doves are huddled in the whitebeam for shade. I think these birds are underestimated on the looks front, with their subtle shades of cinnamon and fawn and dusty grey.
And so, there you have it. I expect a few more garden posts in the next few days, but the weather looks gorgeous. Stay safe out there, UK people, and avoid any idiots….
Holding thumbs for you! Meanwhile, enjoy your garden to the full. Your collared dove looks very similar to our Cape Turtle Dove.
Best wishes to you and the butterfly egg.
I completely sympathize. Here in America we were, at the start, essentially asked to pretend the pandemic wasn’t happening. While, with the removal of That Thing from the White House, the situation is very much improved, many people are—-especially where we live in Tennessee—- not vaccinated and take no precautions at all. Cases are on the rise, and the governor fired the doctor in charge of the vaccination program last week because she was working to educate parents on the importance of vaccinating eligible young people before the school term begins next month, not just the COVID one, but other standard vaccinations of long standing. It beggars belief. Though we and our circle of friends are all vaccinated, we still take great care when going about our errands.
Like you, our garden and local walks have been essential in getting this far; so has your lovely, lovely blog. I’ve been coming to London for 45 years and am always happy to see your account of a place I recognize. Like you, I love all the many tucked-away Edens in the City; thank you most especially for sharing those. I hope you will have a happy result from your COVID test and that you’ll shortly be feeling well again. I hope, too, circumstances will be such that I can soon come back to a place I love dearly and have missed sorely.
Hi Susan, I hope you can come and visit London again at some point soon too! What an utter disaster the management of this pandemic has been, in the UK and the US. I do believe that it will be brought under control now that vaccination is being rolled out, but it will take time and persuasion. Do take care, and I will too. Maybe someday you can come to the UK and we’ll go for a walk in the City.
I can’t think of anything I’d like more than a walk around the City with you, dear Bug Woman. Hopefully it will be before we are too old and tottery to manage it! Meanwhile, take good, good care of yourself, and feel better soon.
I sowed a large pot of ‘wildflower seeds’ last year. I was disappointed to find Sow Thistle, and made sure it didn’t go to seed, but left the flowers for the local Bumblebees. The Corn Marigold which also came up was more welcome, but the ‘weed’ which also came – I already had growin in cracks. Think I might try a different brand of ‘wildflower seeds’ another time, particularly now we actually have a Garden (with real soil, and dandelions, and lesser bindweed, and speedwell, and self-heal, and more bindweed, and self sown plums, and bindweed, and feral garlic, which is endemic to the area, in spring, and more bindweed . . .)
The bindweed is ok under the plum/apple thicket, but it keeps trying to come up in the Veg Patch and the Flowerbed and between paving slabs and . . . So I keep pulling it out from where I don’t want it. The flowers are very pretty, but it does tend to choke everything given half a chance.
And at the last White Butterfly count there were at least 5 fluttering around, getting chased off my three broccoli and three curly kale plants. Thanks for the heads up, I’ve found individual white eggs and patches of yellow eggs on them, so that’ll be Small and Large Whites. Only the Green-Veined White to go and we’ll have the full set, and possibly no brassicas!
Yes, I am trying to garden for wildlife as well, I’d just like to be able to eat, or admire some of the stuff I’ve put there intentionally this year.
Also, get well soon. Though as you say, it’s been Far Too Warm to do anything much recently.