Perfect weather

I think I had a bit of a meltdown yesterday. I am getting lockdown fatigue and feeling fed up that all the plans I have for the year have been cancelled and now there is nothing left to look forward to. The final proverbial straw happened yesterday when when I got an email to say that tickets I booked in December last year for an opera at Glyndbourne on my birthday at the end of August has now been cancelled - the whole family and girlfriends were coming and it was going to be a wonderful evening of picnicking in the grounds followed by opera, a very special way to celebrate my birthday. Yes its a first world problem and others are in a worse situation but at that moment I did not need to think about that. We have been so careful over this 7 week lockdown period, unlike many others who have still been out walking/cycling with friends or visiting each other in gardens, we have not seen anyone and stuck to the rules quite rigidly and now I really wish we could see friends, the boys also want to see their girlfriends - but we can't. I am still fed up as I know we have to just carry on living like this with nothing to look forward to.

Much has been made of the UK having the highest number of deaths in Europe. Which of course means nothing until they can accurately compare the deaths as every country is recording them differently. For anything meaningful they need to compare the excess mortality figures, and even then countries differ, as countries with a high population density, multi generational mixing and having an international hub are all worse off when it comes to Covid-19. Which makes the lack of lockdown in Sweden interesting as they have had a striking number of deaths for a country not having any of the aforementioned negative factors. New Zealand has had one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, and yet Australia, on a far looser lockdown has fared just as well as its per capita death rate is marginally lower. So it is tricky to compare countries as so many factors differ, and in any case, why should we, it's not a competition is it?

Tonight I have our camera group zoom meeting, it is always fun to see everyone else's images submitted for homework - this time it was the text portraits and also a theme of spring. 

I walked further today to the Esher common where I have not been for a few weeks. I have also included an extra photo of Xena as it is her 11 month birthday today!