With the change in the weather I am bound to muse more and take fewer photos. Summer sun warms and lifts the spirits and other seasons can be be more subdued, but need not be depressing. Even on overcast and gloomy days the sun breaks through figuratively, and, at times, literally too.
I think that, through lockdown I’ve been a bit dismissive of the problem of social isolation. I realise, of course, that some people with a history of mental ill health will have issues. I also understand how lonely some people are who live alone. What I understand less is people’s need to see family in the flesh. Perhaps it is because I have had a far flung family all my adult life. I felt just as emotionally close to my parents in New Zealand as I did when they lived in Kent and I lived in London. Letters and phone calls did the trick and these days we have even more ways to be with them, albeit virtually. I know it’s harder to have a laugh and interact normally, but it’s not impossible with Zoom and the like, or Facetime.
However, since the weather has become more miserable even curmudgeonly hermits like me can miss socialising. In my youth I loved to party, but these days that is the stuff on nightmares, even so being unable to go out (or at least deterred by wind and rain) does shut one down a little.
I’ll miss ‘doing the rounds’ at Christmas. As our kids and grandkids are scattered across the southeast and midlands, at Christmas we usually visit, take presents, and spend a bit of time with them. It’s a shame not to be able to do that but I don’t feel like ‘Christmas is cancelled’ as the banner headlines would have us think.
As for friends… I have them all over the world and we exchange emails or texts just like we always have. I feel for those of you who crave the physical closeness of your friendships and family circle, but without it I still feel loved, supported and in touch.
Right now I think we should be having a two week ‘circuit breaker’ of far less contact so that infection rates slow again and hospitals can get a respite. Even with harsher lockdown I fear that things will be undermined by Covidiots. I also fear the social media dealers in anti-vax campaigning. 99% of what people say about vaccines is misinformation, like: ‘I had the flu vaccine and got flu immediately’ – crap! Alongside this are all the conspiracy nuts who think Covid is all a hoax to get us doing as we are told. Tell that to 50,000 Brits and 225,000 Americans!
I’ll sign off today with a picture from a recent outing. This bug landed on Maggie’s (red) coat. It’s not much bigger than a grain of rice. I do not have extensive references for Coleoptera, so the ID is provisional.
Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle Psylliodes chrysocephala
