Oh What a Beautiful Morning

JohnRH had mentioned in his journal last night that there was a high tide at Blakeney this morning, so, being cheeky, I thought I'd get in on the action. I still haven't quite got used to the fact that I can leave Holt! It was a beautiful morning with lots of people out in canoes and dog walking and the water was covering most of the car park - I've also included a collage in Extras. I saw John and W and had a lovely socially distanced catch up. Then I went to the plant nursery and after lunch alternated between preparing the ground for planting and sitting in the sun and reading. 

Day 380 / Day 85 of Lockdown 3 / Day 24 of Step 1 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
UK deaths up 43 to 126,713 (revised basis), with 4,052 new cases, 4,176 patients in hospital, 568 on ventilation and 268 new admissions. 30.9m have now received their first dose of the vaccine and 4.1m have had their second dose. For the first time, more people today got a 2nd jab than got a 1st. The Pfizer jab has been found to be safe and 100% effective in US trials of 12 to 15 year olds - excellent news as we need to vaccinate children too if we're to really control the virus. Yesterday evening Germany limited the use of the AZ vaccine to over 60s due to 31 cases of rare brain clots, with 9 deaths (seen mostly in younger women) - the UK didn't see this, so there is some speculation over the AZ  production in Belgium. Russia is the first country to register a coronavirus vaccine for animals. Strict lockdown restrictions are being widened to the whole of France and schools will close for 3 weeks after doctors warn of hospitals being overwhelmed. Shielding ends today for 3.7m clinically extremely vulnerable in the UK. Households saved a record £238bn last year and there was also a record fall in spending of £136bn. The savings ratio (household savings to income) was a record 16.3%, up from 6.8% in 2019 - as always, recessions hit some much harder than others.