New light

I'm discovering how the light in the garden has changed now that the giant pine is horizontal rather than vertical. I was surprised to find the flowering currant so brightly backlit this afternoon, with dazzling sun piercing through the leaves and creating halos round the flowers. It's a bit too much really, I've struggled to edit it to reveal the colours without losing the dark background and bokeh, but today's other efforts were all disappointingly boring. 

I'm despondent, though not really surprised, at yesterday's report that the number of corona virus infections is rising significantly again; the ONS survey estimates that about one in 25 people in England are currently infected. It seems clear to me, if not to the BBC, that this must be related to the lifting of all legal requirements to wear a mask, distance, and isolate if infected. Two years ago today we took J to London for the training day for her New Creatives animation commission; it was our last indoor event. Since then, we've only been out for walks and medical appointments. On returning to the car, we listened in growing horror to the PM's press conference with the Chief Medical Officer, the one where he talked about "taking it on the chin" and herd immunity. We had already decided that in view of J's likely vulnerability to serious respiratory infection, we would be hiding at home for a while - perhaps three or four months, we thought. I'm glad we didn't know. A couple of weeks later, the government belated decided they should do something, and everyone else had to stay at home too. The continuing uncertainty about how long the pandemic will continue and the potential impact of new variants make these gloomy anniversaries for those of us who are still trying hard to avoid the virus.