Heather

This morning I went to Esher Common with Xena and took my macro lens as I wanted some close up shots of the heather there. I was delighted to find a large peacock butterfly, first one I have seen on the common, and I got some close up images of it (see extra) but in the end I preferred this view of the heather. Walking back to the car we pass the section of the common that is temporarily fenced off to hold livestock, and about a month ago there were goats in that area (no longer there at the moment). That day, Xena had got too close to the fence to look at the goats and was shocked by the electrified fence. Today, walking past that same area she suddenly sat down and would not go further, and when we heard the noise of the fence crackling she was off, running into the woods in the wrong direction. I could not believe she had remembered being shocked and was too frightened to walk past the fence. I called and called for her and she always comes running but not today, and I started feeling a little panicky when I could not find her. Eventually a woodland management worker came out of the direction where she had run and told me she was way up that path - I went to find her and she would not come, so I had to put the lead on her and with her sticking close to my legs we passed the fence and made it back to the car. Note to self - don't walk past there again!

I went to buy some groceries and the shelves are looking nearly as bare as they were when the pandemic first started last year. I could not get so many things, it was a bit frustrating. Due to the pingdemic many of the workforce are sitting at home isolating, and consequently there is an acute shortage of HGV drivers at the moment so nothing is being delivered. Hopefully this will resolve itself with the adjustments made to the track and trace app, which did seem to be set very conservatively for a country where a significant number of people are now vaccinated (85 million vaccines given, with 38.6 million fully vaccinated). Meriel got her second Moderna vaccination today so now everyone in our close family circle is fully vaccinated. 

Tommy has been applying for engineering internships since last term but internships are so tricky now with the Covid restrictions, many firms that usually offer them are not doing so due to working from home conditions. He had given up hope of getting an internship and so had started making holiday plans - but today he was offered an internship to start straight away, it will be until the end of September. It will be working from home and he is allowed some time off for our holiday to Switzerland.