Butterflies & Bees

I have never seen as many Red Admiral butterflies in the garden as I did today, mainly on my osteospermum. This afternoon I went to the garden centre and there were lots of them inside the building there, flitting around the plants. There were also more bees around than I've seen this year - the weather was sunny , but still not overly warm and quite breezy. 

Last night I met up with my neighbour S at Kelling Heath as she said she'd show me where I can see Nightjars. We saw one flying around which was amazing, but what surprised me most was their unusual call - almost metalic sounding. I've not seen or heard one before, so I was dead chuffed. 

Day 463 / Day 37 of Step 3 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
There were 11,625 new cases today and 27 deaths. Blackburn with Darwen still has the highest rates. Surge testing has begun in areas of Leeds. 3.3% of state school pupils did not attend school for COVID related reasons on 17th June, up from 1.2% the week before. Restrictions in Scotland have also been extended to 19th July due to a 40% increase in new cases in the last week, with full relaxing on 9th Aug. ONS reports that 86.6% of adults in England would have tested positive for antibodies against coronavirus in week beginning 7/6. Matt Hancock has confirmed that experts are working on plans to allow people who are fully vaccinated to travel to amber list countries without having to quarantine on their return (what about their children under 18?). There were no outbreaks of CV following test events such at the FA Cup and the Brits (not sure how valid those tests were as prevalence of the virus was extremely low at the time). The Govt announced that at least 60,000 fans will be allowed into Wembley to watch the Euro final (11/7) and semi-finals (6&7/7) as long as they have proof of a negative lateral flow test or have been fully vaccinated 14 days before. I'm unclear if it includes fans from abroad, but seems like complete madness to me, particularly as test results are self reported onto the NHS website, so there's no proof the test was even done, just that you have the test identification number from free tests you can pick up at the chemist! The WHO is 'concerned about easing of restrictions in some of the host countries'. The German Chancellor has said that if Portugal hadn't opened up its borders to British holidaymakers, it could have avoided its recent spike in cases, partly attributed to the Delta variant. Cases in India to date pass 30m.