Busy as a Blue Tit

It's now 18 days since the blue tits' 9 eggs hatched and the chicks are wandering round the nest and flapping their wings, so I expect them to fledge over the next few days. The parents (largely mum) are so busy finding and bringing them food and cleaning up after them, but at least the sun came out today, it got up to 17C and there were lots more bugs around (as well as the live mealworms I've provided). The man in the pet shop said it's thought half of blue tit nests failed this year due to the cold weather.  A glorious day for catching up on the newspaper in the garden.

Day 439 / Day 13 of Step 3 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
A leading professor told Sky News that infections appear to be rising exponentially and it's important to act quickly if the R no. is significantly above 1. A new variant has been identified in Vietnam which appears to be made up of the Kent and Indian variants - unsurprisingly it replicates very quickly. 12,000 fans from the UK with tickets have flown to Porto for the Champions League final, plus more without tickets. Unsurprisingly the news coverage shows lots of young (possibly unvaccinated) fans drinking, not wearing masks and social distancing has gone out of the window. Words fail me that this was allowed, I hope we don't spread the Indian variant to Portugal with all the consequences.