Strike a Pose

It was unexpectedly warm and sunny this morning, so I nipped up the Country Park to photograph some butterflies. They were being tricky as ever, but I got a nice clean shot of a silver-washed fritillary - see Extra. Then as I was walking back to the car park I spotted this Jay posing nicely, such a striking bird and usually so shy. I was torn over which photo to post as the main. Great to see 3 Gold and 2 Silver medals for Team GB today, particularly wonderful to see Tom Daley achieve his Olympic champion status in his 4th Games. 

Day 497 / Day 8 of Step 4 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
New daily cases are continuing to fall, with today's figure of 24,950 being down 37.5% from a week ago. Scientists are unsure of the reason, or whether it will start rising again now all restrictions have been released. Possibilities are higher vaccination numbers, a wave within a wave for the Euros, school testing having stopped / less kids mixing as it's now the summer holidays, large numbers self isolating, the natural passing of the wave peak, people not getting tested (all the publicity re the pingdemic / milder symptoms in vaccinated people). However, the percentage of tests coming back positive isn't falling as you would expect when there are falling numbers. An additional 1,200 new testing sites are now being set up to test critical workers and new sectors have been added including workers in prisons, defence, communications, space, fishing and HMRC. There are growing concerns over young people and Covid with the vaccine programme slowing down and only c60% of those aged 18 to 25 having been vaccinated. Also those with Covid aged 16 to 24 is 6 times higher than those aged 50 to 69, plus a YouGov poll on 21st / 22nd July found only 46% of 18 to 24 year olds said they wore a face mask in a public place in the previous 2 weeks (largely before restrictions were lifted). There are rumours that uni students could need to be fully vaccinated to go to lectures and live in halls. A PHE survey of 5,000 adults found that 40% gained weight during the pandemic, with an average of half a stone gained. A survey found the increase in loneliness in the over 60s during the pandemic was greater among those who reported more virtual contact.