July: unlocking lockdown

Nothing has altered very much since the last blog, apart from going out to the Post Office, where only two people are allowed inside the (small) space. The staff were wearing masks and, although we, the customers obeyed the rules, one member of staff came out from behind the counter to talk to another customer behind me and was only standing two feet away. I sometimes think that people aren't taking this pandemic seriously. Then I went to the doctor's surgery to collect my prescription inhalers (I have suffered from asthma for forty years) only to be told that they had been sent to the nearest pharmacy in the town where I had just come from, despite the fact that I had sent an online message whilst ordering the prescription online that I would like to collect them from the surgery, as I felt that it would be a safer environment! I do wonder sometimes!
Apart from that we remain at home and are now wondering about the return of the lockdown to Leicester shortly after schools and non-essential shops had just re-opened - is this a sign of things to come elsewhere? The outbreaks seem to centre on food preparation plants as far as I can tell.
Fortunately, we have caught up on the rain quotient for our little spot, so I am not currently watering the garden once or twice a day, as before, but I do still have seedlings in the greenhouse to prick out: spring onions, carrots, basil and chives - getting rather behind with that caused by a wait for a compost delivery. I do quite miss not being able to sit out in the garden because of the rain, the blustery wind or the cold weather, I expect the warmer temperatures will be back before too long.

I managed to capture two bees seeking nectar after taking a number of photos and missing them

One on a foxglove and another on a poppy - they are loving the wild area of the garden even though it has a battering from the rain in the last few days.
I am still reading 'The Mill on the Floss' for the Book Circle but I am not sure that it will be finished by next week. I have also completed Anna Burns 'Milkman' and three Janie Bolitho Cornwall mysteries which are at opposite ends of the spectrum. In the first I was somewhat disorientated by the lack of personal and placenames  in 'Milkman' but after a bit I worked out it was set in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 'The Troubles', as seen through the eyes of an eighteen year old girl. Although not the easiest read (I think that it won the Booker Prize for 2018) it was worth the effort.
The Janie Bolitho books are set in the Newlyn area of Cornwall and feature an artist/photographer/amateur detective called Rose Trevelyan. They are really something of light relief but sadly the author died of breast cancer in 2002 so there will be no more of the mysteries after the last one, which I think is number 7.
We are also watching 'The Luminaries' on BBC1 which is taken from a novel by Eleanor Catton and from which they have removed many of the supernatural elements. The plot is quite complicated but we have streamed most of the episodes from Iplayer and have only one left, I think.
Anyway, that's all for now,
Enjoy your reading and be careful,
Julie