Free!

I had a lovely long walk with Oscar - if rather muddy! We went up into Cotehele woods to avoid the mud in the woods opposite! I bumped into Nellie of the Woods but I didn't get her usual greeting of a big hug. Her daughter is a Dr and after speaking to her Nellie is taking no risks with herself and Barry. Barry is over 70 and has asthma and is not over his latest cold. Nellie intends to contact the surgery to get him an inhaler. I'm very relieved I already have one, colds often go to my chest too and once I had to drive to the surgery on the way home from work as I became asthmatic and they put me on a nebuliser.
These flowers I picked on my walk - there are always daffodils and now narcissi whose stems have been bent or broken so I have a constant supply of them! I feel very lucky to have the woods to wander through - it quietens my anxiety when the news of the virus becomes overwhelming. Part of me feels the media is fanning the flames of panic, they seem to delight in serious tones and grave figures, when really most people who catch the virus will recover, and those who don't would possibly  be the same people at risk every year from flu. It seems the main issue is that the NHS is simply not up to huge numbers of people catching the virus, due to the tories having underfunded it for years. Also the impact on all services /  businessess with so many people potentially likely to catch and so spread it on.
It really feels like we are living out some disaster movie - and I wonder how it will end, how our actions will be seen and what impact it will have on the future. Maybe it will be a wake up call for the way we live. Maybe this is Mother Nature  finally fighting back, forcing a change that is long overdue, that people are too selfish, too blind to make without something cataclysmic forcing them to.