Some thoughts on covid 19 restrictions

ASs some regulars may know I sometimes have a few health problems that at times restricts my access to the countryside so many of the restrictions that we have endured, and are still enduring, do not feel strange to Chris and myself. My immune system is pretty shot up at times so I'm quite good at avoiding numbers of people, I'm maybe not as anti social as it seems, and I've never been a lover of shopping unless its books. When we were recommended to shield in our own homes we actually realised we could walk the riverside fields with permission from the owners and had little chance of meeting anyone so we felt quite happy there. When restrictions eased we have four small nature reserves within a couple of miles of home with plenty of space to avoid close contact but still both watch birds and talk about birds with others doing the same, quite a little anti social bird club we are. There has been good birds aplenty and as winter has drawn closer the wintering Thrushes arrived we have been doing counts on them. One of our local reserves has got a wonderful Starling murmuration,60,000 birds at least, which we managed to social distance the grandsons to. We have found by visiting the busiest of the reserves late afternoon most birders have gone home and we enjoy the spectacle of birds going to roost. We do miss visiting our local moorland but they are outside the 3 mile radius we put on ourselves, they will still be there when all this is over and we settle down to our new normal. Because I am in that at risk category we seem to be swimming in hand sanitiser but Chris keeps an eye on what I get up to. I just hope other folk are coping as well as us and getting the support we have been getting, take care out there we will beat this lot somehow.

Pete

Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can

  • This story has been on the French news for a few days & I managed to find this report in the sun www.thesun.ie/.../ . Most of the time I get annoyed about the constant blaming the "varient anglais" on the rise in cases in France, but this story makes me ashamed to be British. To deliberately plan to break quarantine regulations is beyond belief.....

    Best wishes

    Hazel in Southwest France

  • Unknown said:
    Mike has today just received a 2nd invitation for a first vaccine at our own local doctors surgery - and it is TODAY !

    Did Mike get his jab, Hazel, and if so did it go well. Which one was it - the Pfizer or the Oxford/AZ

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    Tony

    My Flickr Photostream 

  • Unknown said:
    Did Mike get his jab, Hazel, and if so did it go well. Which one was it - the Pfizer or the Oxford/AZ

    Yes,  Mike got his vaccine at 4.30pm this afternoon and it is the Oxford/AZ     He will be given a date for 2nd dose around 12 weeks time but it was straight-forward at our surgery and very well organised.          We still have to cancel the 2nd appointment they made for him on Thursday with the pharmacy but didn't want to action that until I was sure he got the promised vaccine today  - what a muddle  !     He feels absolutely fine afterwards so that's good.

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    Regards, Hazel 

  • That's good, Hazel. I guess you've got a bit of a wait before you get the call. Mind you at the speed of the rollout it may not be that long.

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    Tony

    My Flickr Photostream 

  • Sent to us by a friend a couple of weeks ago:
    "On hearing ill rumour that Londoners may soon be urged into their lodgings by Her Majesty's men, I looked upon the street to see a gaggle of striplings making fair merry and no doubt spreading the plague well about. Not a care had these rogues for the health of their elders!"
    Samuel Pepys Diaries, London 1664

    Kind regards, Ann

  • Nice one, Ann. Nothing changes, there's still similar selfish idiots about.

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    Tony

    My Flickr Photostream 

  • Yep, TJ. sadly true.

    Kind regards, Ann

  • Hazy : Really good news about Mike, it must be a big relief for you.

    Best wishes

    Hazel in Southwest France

  • I am proud to say that after much questioning and being pushed from pillar to post we have finally got Limpy officially flagged as extremely clinically vulnerable. Unbelievably he has never received a letter!

    When the long lockdown started in March last year he phoned our GP surgery to ask about his status as he'd not had a letter - he was told over the phone that he was unquestionably highly vulnerable. Despite this, no letter arrived. We carried on regardless until last weekend when I enquired about the free vitamin D for vulnerable people - it transpired that you have to have received a letter confirming you were highly vulnerable to get the vitamin D. On Monday I waited in a telephone queue for half an hour to speak to our GP, only to be told that they didn't have anything to do with the letters and I would need to speak to NHS England. I then rang NHS England, only to be told that they had nothing to do with the letters and I would need to speak to the GP surgery! Limpy then called the surgery yesterday and asked for a callback from an actual doctor - when the doctor eventually rang back he checked Limpy's records he confirmed that Limpy was, indeed, extremely vulnerable but he hadn't been flagged as such. That has now been sorted out and he has officially been placed in the fourth priority group for a vaccination.

    I'm still finding it hard to believe how he could possibly have been missed and am very relieved we persisted in finding out.

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • Glad to hear that, Clare. Did the doctor promise to send an actual letter?

    Kind regards, Ann