Feest Isolation Days –10 March 2021
The calm before the storm. We are promised winds of up to fifty miles an hour and lashing rain. But that’s for tomorrow. Today is sunny and ten degrees. The weather is so important to us all! The warmth and sun makes such a difference to our days. Being able to sit in the sun is such a pleasure. We shall enjoy it while it lasts and batten down the hatches that will be battered tomorrow. Just as well the daffodils are a strong tough flower, and the emerging tulips are tas well.
Elsewhere in Europe they have some sun, but sadly they also have much more Covid about. Italy, which was the first country to go into lockdown, has now recorded 100,000 Covid deaths. Unfortunately, they are experiencing an increase in people with the highly transmissible UK variant. So far they have only vaccinated 5 million of the population of 60 million people. Their government is changing tack on vaccinations, as it’s been stockpiling them in order to give two doses. They have now decided to give the vaccines out to as many people as possible and request that people wait for the second jab.
The UK has done this, and the numbers of deaths and new cases are dropping dramatically. All of Europe is lagging behind the UK in vaccinating, and the figures are stark. In the UK the virus is receding, elsewhere in Europe it is growing. The world needs to be vaccinated. And sooner rather than later. The EU officials got procurement of vaccines quite wrong and people throughout Europe are paying the price with illness and death. The UK government and the people of the UK have embraced vaccination and there are now nearly 23 million who have had their first jabs.
It’s hard to open a newspaper, or listen to a news bulletin here at the moment without hearing about Harry and Meghan. I have yet to watch the Oprah interview, but it all seems so sad. A family airing its angst in public is never going to be a pretty sight. With everyone still locked down and with little else to do, 17 million Americans watched the interview on CBS. We wait to see how many people tuned in on this side of the Atlantic.
Here, it’s a delight listening to the early morning sounds of children’s voices again! As they walk by our house on their way to school their excitement reaches our ears. The UK is beginning to open up and there can be no doubt that the vaccination programme has been a significant part of the reason why that’s become possible. As we begin to move forward, it’s hard to watch the huge numbers of cases on the rise in Italy, and elsewhere in Europe. Perhaps people will become less reluctant to have the jab when they see the positive results here.
Let’s hope so. Science is leading the way. And the UK has backed the Scientists.
Enjoy! Stay safe. The pandemic isn’t over yet but we are getting there!
With love,
Kathyx