Bottlebrush

It definitely looks like its name! I love the red flower spikes. Full sun was forecast today so I washed all the bedding including the heavy wool filled mattress protector.......and it remained cloudy all day and about 17C!  Did some admin and some gardening. Sad to hear Roger Federer has pulled out of the Olympics with an aggravated knee injury, which presumably was the reason for his 0-6 final set in his Wimbledon loss. 

Day 484 / Day 58 of Step 3 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
Scotland is to remove most but not all restrictions on Monday, as Nicola Sturgeon says it's time for 'continued caution' and lifting all restrictions would ' risk the imposition of shielding by default'. Physical distancing will reduce to 1m in all indoor public settings and outdoors and face masks will remain 'mandatory', which is much more sensible. The WHO tells the UK that it's 'too early for massive relaxation'. The WHO also referred to our strategy as 'moral emptiness and epidemiological stupidity.' I was hoping that Companies would step up where the Govt has failed in England, but bus and rail companies won't ask passengers to wear masks from Monday. Modelling from the University of Warwick estimates that a third of the population of England is susceptible to the Delta strain. The Chair of the BMA says 'there is no other country in the world that has adopted a position of stopping wearing face coverings or social distancing whilst its infection rates are soaring' and re masks that 'people cannot take personal responsibility for choices they do not have'. A YouGov poss found 83% of adults think people should continue to observe social distancing beyond when most restrictions are lifted. 840,000 pupils are off school in England due to Covid related reasons. 1 in 5 workers in the hospitality and retail sectors are self isolating. SAGE reports that a high level of infections are expected until the end of Aug, this increases the chances of new variants emerging and that the Govt should put contingency plans in place to prepare for the hospital admissions surge. More than half of EU adults are now fully vaccinated.