First day of spring

Today is the first day of (meteorological) spring. It was a very wild start to the morning with extreme winds and lashing rain, but by the time I took Xena out for her walk the sun had come out and it was a much better day.

Today is also my mother-in-law's birthday, and if she had not died of Covid in 2020 she possibly could have celebrated her 92nd birthday today. Last night I watched the TV series Breathtaking, a British drama set in a hospital during the outbreak of Covid. It was released abroad before it was screened here in the U.K. despite it being a U.K. production, and I suspect the release here was delayed due to the Covid enquiry which has been taking place since the end of last year. I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to watch it as I found the pandemic stressful and very upsetting, and I did think about my mother-in-law dying alone in a hospital ward with no family or loved ones around her which was so tragic as she loved people and was so social. Our government made many mistakes but to be fair, no one knew what they were dealing with when it hit the U.K. The TV drama shows how badly equipped the NHS was and how they received the wrong guidance from public health. It was a dreadful time and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be reminded of it but the TV drama is worth watching. I have heard that if such a pandemic had to reoccur the NHS is still not adequately equipped - perhaps instead of wasting time and money on the COVID enquiry to satisfy those who want blame delivered, the money should rather have been spent on the NHS. 

Earlier this week I mentioned the teacher at the boys school who discovered last week that he had stage 4 of an aggressive cancer. We heard that he died this morning, it was so sudden that we are all feeling rather shocked by it.

So after those gloomy thoughts here are some bright and cheerful daffodils to celebrate the first day of spring, and to also celebrate St David's Day.

And in exactly 3 weeks time we will be going to Namibia, it seems to have come around so quickly.