Fiery bottlebrush

Thank you for your very kind messages regarding the passing of my mother in law. Although she was 88 years of age it is still a shock when someone goes relatively quickly like that, and in such unforeseen circumstances when she could not have her family by her bedside. She loved social gatherings, and has been planning her funeral for years - four years ago she asked me to take photos of her for her order of service sheet for her funeral at her church. She would have loved nothing more than a large gathering for her funeral, to give her a good send off. Sadly that cannot be - we think she may have a small funeral service now with family in SA and then a bigger memorial service next year when we and Gavin's brother in Canada can travel freely to SA again and feel comfortable doing so. 

We heard today that this week three other people have died in her frail care home from Covid, which means that they lost four out of fifteen patients over a few days. Yet the numbers of deaths in SA due to Covid are suspiciously low.

Today the Prime Minister announced more relaxation measures of lockdown from 4th July, and essentially everything is open again except for gyms, swimming pools and sports courts. This means that people can now go on holiday within England (and soon the UK) and stay overnight in hotels and B&B's so our trip to Devon next month will be fine. The boys are upset that gyms are not reopening, as Adam says one can maintain social distances, have separate work stations and sanitise equipment far easier in a gym than in a pub, especially when people get drunk and start forget how far a 1m distance is.

I had an opportunity yesterday to book a hairdresser appointment with a local-but-new-to-me hairdresser, but I held off hoping that my hairdresser who I have been going to for 18 years would not forget my loyalty when it came to giving appointments to all of us desperate customers. Thankfully, she phoned me first thing this morning offering me a pick of times and dates when I would like my hair done and so I have an appointment booked for 4th July which is the first day that hairdressers are legally allowed to open again. What a relief that will be! 

A wander around the garden and I liked the light on these bottlebrush flowers. I find it more difficult to take photos on a dog walk these days when I am concentrating on Xena - now that she is in season I keep her on the lead and only let her off the lead for a run around in the quietest part of the woods at the bottom of our road where no one else seems to walk. I am not going to the popular common and heath areas as there are too many dogs there.