Distracted by the blossom

Yay!  A good amount of time spent in the garden today and it was sublime :D  Temperature was around 17 degrees which is a v-e-r-y nice late winter temperature.  I even contemplated changing into shorts!  Lots of new growth and the neighbours plum tree is just bursting with blossom.  Clearly that was a bit of a distraction to this wee chap who seemed to get his wing caught on a  small branch.  It shouldn't be too log until won't be able to see the birds at all in this tree once all the blossom and leaf buds erupt into action.

Fingers crossed for more of the same tomorrow.

In COVID news it seems we're still on an upwards trajectory - 62 new cases today bringing the total infections in this event to 210, the vast majority in Auckland.  Still none in the South Island and whilst it's great for us down here, the number will be a great concern to those in Auckland.  In our 'original' Level 4 lockdown over a year ago, the highest 'new infection' day total was 89.  The Delta variant is considerably more contagious:  at the onset of the pandemic New Zealand continued with no lockdown for 27 days from the first identified case before reaching a total of 189.  At this stage, we then hit our first full lockdown.  This time it's taken 8 days for Delta to infect 210 people, all whilst the entire country has been in full lockdown (which was implemented within hours of the first case being identified.)  So, yes, whilst it's great there are no infections on the SI it really would be a matter of when, not if, if restrictions were to be eased too early.  Friday is the day we find out whether any changes will be made to current restrictions - I'm beginning to feel we should stay put and ride the majority of it out with Auckland.