‘Dwarf ‘ Buddleia
Dear Readers, apart from waking up in the night with a fever today I’ve actually had a pretty good day, so fingers crossed that it continues! Some of the highlights of today have been:
- Trying to do a lateral flow test. Oh lord I am fed up with tickling my tonsils and poking things up my nose but as little children are doing that every day I’m happy to suck it up once in a while. But why did my test come back void when I’d done everything right? Very disappointing. I shall have another bash tomorrow, but as I’m on the mend I suspect that my viruses are waving goodbye to me as we speak. Let’s hope they’re not heading off to infect my husband or we’ll have a wonderful week off.
- Look at the ‘dwarf’ Buddleia! I’d say it’s about nine feet tall. Everything seems to grow gigantic in my garden. It’s a beautiful colour, but the bees and butterflies much prefer the feral mauve one in the front garden.
- I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to the Olympics, but I have been most taken with Simone Biles, the US athlete, who spoke out vigorously when one of the coaches was convicted of sexually assaulting the girls. She isn’t the most graceful gymnast I’ve ever seen (says she, who can just about manage a forward roll if given a push) but when she jumps she seems to defy gravity, a characteristic she shares with some of the best ice skaters and other athletes. Apparently the Gymnastics committee can’t keep up with the complexity and daring of her jumps, and is consistently underrating their difficulty. To me, she’s an absolute powerhouse, and considering that the floor work finals in London in 2012 featured 8 white athletes, she will be a model of excellence for lots of little girls watching the Olympics. Just have a look at her here.
- And in other news, a Judoka from tiny Kosovo has won a gold medal in Judo. I’m always cheering on the little countries. Distria Krasniqi apparently took up judo after practicing with her brother, and she beat someone from Japan in the women’s 48kg final. Well done that woman!
- And because I’ve been spending so much time feeling sorry for myself in bed, I discovered these domino videos – people basically set up thousands of dominos, tip one and hope that the effect will ripple out. I find them strangely fascinating but also horrifying – all that work destroyed in two minutes! And who cleans it all up? Do the dominoes need to be sorted back into their individual boxes to be reused at a later event? It looks like entropy in action, but I do still quite like it. There’s an example here.
- And finally, in keeping with our musical theme yesterday (I agree with you all, it’s Elvis all the way for me, though Peggy Lee does a decent job), here is the unmatchable, incomparable Nina Simone, singing my theme song for today. Enjoy!
I am interested to note that you appear to be conducting your own Covid testing. Is this by choice or is that how it is done in the UK? Here, you pop into the testing centre and are out in minutes, receiving your result either on an app or from your GP the following day. I am glad you are feeling more chirpy.
Hi Anne, the ‘official’ tests are done by getting a kit and sending the results to a lab, which is what I did when I first fell sick, and which came back negative. The second test which I did at home is really intended for people who have to test regularly, like school children or workers in certain occupations – these deliver a result within half an hour but are much less sensitive, so I’m not surprised mine didn’t work. If you get a positive home result you’re supposed to isolate and confirm with a ‘proper’ test.
I love watching those dominoes 🙂
Glad you enjoyed them, Ann-Marie!
I’m glad you’re feeling better Viv. I’m afraid I can’t get excited by the Olympics this time around for some reason (could be the delay). Though I was please to see the Olympic spirit is still alive when the Tunisian swimmer (the slowest qualifier for the final) won as did the Austrian “unknown” cyclist who managed hold on for victory. I dare say there will be more (hopefully pleasant) surprises before the closing ceremony. 🤞🤞
Glad to see you’re better… We do have auto tests here but most of the time people go to testing centres when they need an officially valid result.
Used my Covid Pass for the first time to see an exhibition in Paris. Also visited Square Récamier, small(1400m2) secluded and totally unexpected garden in a busy area . Interrupted 2 pigeons busy eating oval red berries on a beautiful 5 m high tree( cherry dogwood?). Well designed garden and full of trees ( Huge weeping beech, yellow stem Bamboos) and lots of flowers and bees! Most beautiful garden in Paris…( a city that lacks gardens).
Hi Claire, my first test was a pcr test, which means you have to send the swab off to a lab and they send you the results – they’re more accurate but slower. For school children or anyone who needs to test regularly they use the lateral flow tests, which you can do at home, but they are much less sensitive and are only likely to work if you have very high viral load. By the time I tried mine I was pretty much over the worst of whatever it was.
That sounds like a lovely garden – you’re right, many Paris gardens that I’ve visited are much too formal for my personal taste. I did love the cemetery at Montparnasse though, there were blue tits nesting in one of the statues which was really charming.
They are also very, very crowded…but, at lunchtime on a Sunday, after the 14th of July, with a very showery weather…I had this garden all to myself…glad to be there again, for the first time in two years…All public parks were locked during the first lockdown, and Paris was too far away. That has been hard…Cimetière du Montparnasse is beautiful indeed. The Père Lachaise is wilder, and has more hills. To my knowledge, it is the only one in Paris resembling the London cemeteries ( though far less natural).