I had planned to write and publish this yesterday, but I really didn’t feel up to it. Mentally I lurch from frustration to fear about the world outside my front door. I think that I am becoming more of a hermit each day.
I guess 2020 won’t be a hard act to follow, but then again 2021 probably has a lot to live up to. I’m not expecting much real change until at least the summer and honestly I am expecting our government to totally mess-up the vaccination programme or at the very least turn them into super-spreader events, particularly with the rise of a new variant.
This isn’t going to be a regular post, as not much has changed in the last week. I’ve been doing nothing of much consequence, although thinking a lot about the coming year and what I want from it. I talked about this a little in my end of year post and haven’t much to add to that.
Reading. I’ve read a couple of books this last week. Raven Black by Ann Cleeves (if you’ve watched the BBC’s Shetland series, it’s based on these books, and this one a story in one of the early seasons). It took me over the new year period and meant that I have already hit my GoodReads target so absolutely no pressure now to read books. Of course that isn’t going to stop me and I’ve read Grace Dent’s memoir Hungry which I will say is very honest, at times very funny and at others completely heartbreaking. It covers Dent’s fathers dementia, and honestly was a little too close to some of my experiences, so was at time very hard going, but I did finish it.
Watching. We’ve been catching up on a lot of Christmas specials, but also watching series 2 of Endeavor as it’s been repeated in the week between Christmas and New Year. Despite being a fan of Inspector Morse and Lewis this has passed us by until quite recently. Enjoyable but has an annoying cliffhanger ending to the series, which doesn’t look like we’ll see the resolution to anytime soon as the next series doesn’t appear to be in the schedules yet.
Allotment. I went down to the allotment yesterday. It really is my happy place in terms of being able to clear my head. I did a little bit of digging and some weeding and had a good think about the coming seasons and what I’m going to plant where. I came away feeling much more level.
I’ve sown some sweet peas this week. They’re seeds that I saved from the plants in my Mum’s garden. They’re a very constant memory of growing up in that house. They were always there, on a particular wall, just along from a passion flower bush. Mum used to describe them as everlasting sweet peas. I’m not sure whether that’s because they are a particular variety (there are plenty of varieties with that name) or whether it’s simply because she just used to let them self-seed in the same place each year.
Well that’s it for now. I’m not sure whether I’m going back to posting weekly or not, so there may or may not be something coming in a weeks time. In the meantime, however long that might be; Take Care and Stay Safe.
Electronic Scrapbook 
I can sympathise with your frustration with current world events. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that the chances of our governments being able to handle this world pandemic with any sort of competence is remote at best. Even if this vaccine was an effective solution, it is clear that those in-charge can’t even administer it in a way that will do the general public any lasting good.
Sadly you are right David, we had more evidence of this yesterday, and from tomorrow we are all back in lockdown once again.
Yes, we’ve been checking in, from time to time, to find out what’s going on in your part of the world. You’re in our prayers.
At this moment in Canada, news has been focused on politicians who have been returning from international destinations for their Christmas vacations. Several weeks before the holidays, they’ve been telling their fellow citizens to avoid going anywhere or gathering outside of their family units for the holidays. They’ve been telling everyone to make the necessary sacrifices and just stay at home. Apparently, this was so that our illustrious politicians could avoid having to deal with crowded air ports as they go on their exotic holiday vacations. Well, now that the news is out, the citizens are in an uproar and calling for these people’s resignations.
Five days ago, the official response was that “these government officials haven’t done anything illegal”. But today, I guess the problem isn’t going away and the “peasants” are now calling for the dismissal of the party leaders, as well, for their lack of action. So, guess what? The official response is now, “the Canadian public deserve better!” So, those who were caught travelling are now being dismissed or demoted. Bunch of hypocrites.
And they wonder why people (in general) are not taking these self isolation measures seriously. It’s really pathetic. Just another reason why my wife and I only venture off our homestead when it’s absolutely necessary and for a very specific reason.
Stay strong and stay safe.
How can anyone be expected to believe anything that our governments say? Today’s headlines state that our Prime Minister informs us that they will have enough vaccine to distribute to every Canadian who wants it by September of this year. Then, another headline says that the government of the province of Manitoba says that they are warning that it will not be until 2022 when everyone in the province is vaccinated.
Ridiculous.