Project 365 day 285: miniature acer seeds

It's been cloudy and damp, with very poor light for attempting Tiny Tuesday macro shots outdoors, but when I went across the road for coffee with C, I picked up some tiny seeds and leaves from one of his miniature acers. The extra shows their size (in centimetres). J is thinking about an autumn leaves stop motion project on her light box, which was a good excuse for me to get it out and play. It's the first time I've tried it since getting my macro lens, and I'm not entirely happy with the focus and clarity I've achieved. When I support her with her stop motion shoots, we shoot from the computer, which allows us to magnify test shots for really precise manual focusing, and also to trial and adjust the exposure and white balance. I didn't have time for all that today, but it would have given better results. 

J's PA is unwell today, as is one of her children, with a nasty cold and cough, so I've been supporting J all day. I can't help worrying that it may be Covid, though her lateral flow tests have been negative. Although both PAs self test frequently and behave fairly cautiously, with some 36,000 new cases a day in the UK (and those are just the ones who have tested and reported), and currently very high infection rates among school children, I am far from complacent about the risks. We know a number of people who have been moderately ill with Covid recently despite having been vaccinated (though probably far less ill than they might have been without vaccinations) and we do not know how seriously J would be affected; so having started to emerge in the summer after fifteen months of shielding, we are again avoiding indoor spaces and crowds and limiting our contacts, largely to J's two PAs, my weekly coffee with our nonagenarian neighbour C, and rather a lot of medical appointments. With the government congratulating itself that life is, apparently, almost back to normal, I can no longer see how the situation is going to improve for us.