Flower Friday

This is one of the flowers in pots from my garden for Flower Friday. There is so little in the garden due to the drought, I noticed today that my snowball tree's leaves are starting to shrivel and drop. We did get a very brief light shower this morning, but it didn't register at all on my weather station, so less than 0.1mm. Today I thoroughly brushed down the (17m?) of fence that I'm going to spray and also put two coats of fence stain on the 2m of fence attached to it at the front of the house (by brush as too many things to cover up if sprayed). It looks like the fence will need replacing by the time it needs doing again. I'd be interested to hear if any of you have one of those Colour Fence metal fences installed that need no maintenance?

Day 862 / Day 153 of no Legal Covid Requirements in England (for my record only)
The weekly ONS infection survey of private households up to 20th July showed rates down 16% from the previous report, so although rates are still extremely high, we are hopefully over the peak. There's an estimated 1 in 20 with the virus in England (down); 1 in 19 in Scotland (down); 1 in 19 in Wales (down), and 1 in 16 in NI (up but trend uncertain). Hospital cases are also beginning to decrease. Nearly 1m people have been placed into lockdown in a suburb of Wuhan in China, after 4 asymptomatic cases were identified. Approx 1 in 20 people who tested positive for Covid Worldwide have a long term (6 month plus) smell or taste problem. IFS research showed that 3% of people in the UK had long Covid in May 2022, with c110,000 workers off sick due to it. It also showed that people living in poverty are more likely to suffer from long Covid. Hair loss and sexual dysfunction have been added to the list of long Covid symptoms. Research has found that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus spike protein, unlike other coronaviruses, can cause heart muscle injury through inflammation. This is reduced through vaccination.