Getting Through the Days: Day 67 Move On!

Notes for new readers - as this is a diary the first entry is the last, so you get to know 'who done it' before the crime is committed! This is a pain but can't be helped. After a week of entries the scrolling will stop and if you want to venture further click on 'OLDER POSTS' and read until you get to the first entry 'The Day Before Day 1

The photo above is the self seeded Mexican Daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus) growing in a tub. The plant grew in profusion in my front garden at Eastgate (and still does) and when I moved to my present address I found I had brought a lot with me. It favours hot, dry conditions and looks very pretty in a mass.

Busied myself with chores this morning so that I would be free when the sewing machine and overlocker arrived.

Redid the labels for the Rose Petal Jelly and gave a jar to Maureen next door.

Ha! The delivery was 2.40 or thereabouts which meant that I would be free to join Sheila on our trek to walk Jasper and water the plants. I unpacked the box but found that it only contained the overlocker so I rang up the supplier who said she would chase it up and get back to me. Sheila had to go alone to the allotment and I joined her later. The machine should arrive tomorrow morning now.

The overlocker is scarily complicated - 4 cones of yarn and some fiddly tools. I found a number of useful tutorials on YouTube and spent some time going through them. I think I have the hang of it now and picked up various useful tips ready for starting to use it tomorrow.

It looks as though someone has moved into no. 26 Margaret's place but I haven't actually seen them yet.

Snippet from the News

Matt Hancock exhorted the public to do their “civic duty” and stay at home when instructed, as he launched a new test and trace system in the face of warnings from council leaders that they lack the data or powers to make local lockdowns work.

Employing Churchillian language, the health secretary called on every individual to do their bit, and warned that if they failed, the government would enforce compliance.

“It is your civic duty,” said Hancock. “This will be voluntary at first because we trust everyone to do the right thing, but we can quickly make it mandatory if that’s what it takes.

“Do it for the people you love. Do it for the community. Do it for the NHS and do it for all the frontline workers who have done so much and gone out every day to put themselves at risk to keep you and your family safe.”

Snippet from Facebook

Newsnight did not meet BBC impartiality standards with Emily Maitlis’ monologue about the Dominic Cummings saga, the broadcaster has ruled. The presenter opened Tuesday night’s edition of the current affairs programme by summarising the backlash to the government aide’s 260-mile lockdown trip to his parents’ house in Durham.

While many praised her for summing up the national mood, the BBC has since reviewed the episode and said it “did not meet our standards of due impartiality”.

The corporation said in a statement: “The BBC must uphold the highest standards of due impartiality in its news output. We’ve reviewed the entirety of last night’s Newsnight, including the opening section, and while we believe the programme contained fair, reasonable and rigorous journalism, we feel that we should have done more to make clear the introduction was a summary of the questions we would examine, with all the accompanying evidence, in the rest of the programme.

“As it was, we believe the introduction we broadcast did not meet our standards of due impartiality. Our staff have been reminded of the guidelines.”