Gorse

I took this photo of gorse on my exercise walk to Spout Hills. I do miss walking on the heath at this time of year when the gorse is abundant and you get a powerful smell of coconut. On the walk back a guy overtook me from behind within a foot or so of me - come on guys, we'll go into full lockdown at this rate! More cars around today which I took to be people going food shopping, but I later saw at the briefing that there has been an uptick in car traffic in the last two days. I checked off the contents of my raised bed kit this morning and all is present and correct bar the bent crop protector. 

Day 17 / Day 9 of Lockdown (for my record only)
UK deaths up 563 to 2,352 (there's a worrying 3 day increase in new cases after it looked to be reaching a steady level), Italy up 727 to 13,155 (lowest daily increase in 6 days) and Spain up 864 to 9,053. The ability of less developed countries to cope is showing signs of concern and the UN has said industrialised countries should help them to avoid the disease spreading like wildfire.

Availability of PPE and testing is still inadequate. Most briefing questions were about the lack of testing and promises are now for substantially more testing in a few weeks time. This is too late as it is reported that up to a quarter of medical staff are in self isolation due to symptoms (them or family) which might not be CV, which is preventing them working when we are nearing the peak levels. Local Authorities have been provided with £12bn in the last few days. Banks warned about the fairness of their business loans and that they must pass on the benefits of the government guarantee scheme. Banks have been asked to not pay dividends or executive bonuses to retain cash in case it is needed during the crisis. Nearly 1M people have applied for Universal Credit in the last two weeks. Wimbledon and the Edinburgh Festival have finally been cancelled and pilgrims have been asked to delay their Mecca pilgrimage until later in the year.