Out of time!

How ridiculous that my roses still have greenfly at the end of November! Not that I'm really complaining about the beautiful weather we have had for the last several days.
Today is the day we would normally have had the Davidsons Mains community lights switch on event. It's been based in our church grounds for the last three years and has grown into a wonderful community event with bands, stalls, Carol singing, refreshments you name it culminating in the lighting of the community funded festive lights.
This year of course, the lights were to be turned on but the main event was not possible. Not to be thwarted though the local residents who would normally have had stalls in the church grounds all set up in their own gardens and driveways. A map was produced and a roaming fair was held over today and tomorrow. The weather today was perfect and went well, everybody with hand sanitiser masks and social distancing. There was recorded music playing at many of the stalls too and a real buzz. I have to say I have never met so many local people as I have over the last 9 months. Ours is very much a working area, almost a dormitory zone. Both parents working, children only at home in the evenings and weekends and family activities taking up much of the time at the weekends. Now people are around in the local area rather than heading off to children's sporting events and other activities out of area.
I have never seen so much activity either, the local groups are all determined to light up not just the main street but the houses and gardens too and this afternoon, as I walked (almost 4 miles) the local streets round the stalls, there were inflatables, window stickers and lighting designs going up everywhere. I'm looking forward to a trip around next week to see the results. There is a real sense of community which is often missing in a city. This is a Christmas different to any before it, but we all seem to be doing our best to make it one to remember. Tomorrow is the start of Advent, this year we really will be building the anticipation and excitement.

Our numbers are still dropping gradually, cases and positive tests. It looks like we are doing things right, so if we can just keep things under control till that vaccine is available......

Steps today 15,111 hooray!