Originally published on Photoblog by Gethin Thomas JUNE. 01, 2021
It's holiday week and the schools are off, seems like only yesterday they went back. That means we are under siege with holidaymakers at the moment, but I don't begrudge them having some freedom and even some good weather after what we have all been through.
The British Government announced today that this was the first day since the start of the pandemic over a year ago with no deaths. They had been in single figures for some days already. In mid January it was 1248 deaths a day and the average number of people who had had a positive coronavirus test stood at about 59,660 (this figure takes into account the daily average over a period of seven days). This compares with 2,270 in early May.
In mid January 38,000 people were in hospital, today that number is 680, 97% of whom are unvaccinated for various reasons.
If anyone had any doubt about the efficacy of the vaccines we have been given, then this should go some way to answering those doubts. Any day now, possibly this week, we will reach another milestone, half the adult population fully vaccinated and three quarters with a first dose. So we find ourselves with case rates rising slightly again due to new variants, while hospital admissions are still falling.
There is a beach I favour which also happens to be a naturist destination, no, that's not why I favour it. This beach is very special, apart from the fact that it is only about three miles away. It is very broad and made of shingle and forms a very diverse habitat for flora. It is amazing how many plants, a lot of them which are flowering, can grow on what appears to be just stone, being sprayed with salt water and beaten down during storms and yet there they are clinging on for dear life.
At this time of year it bursts forth into a riot of colour, so I went along today to see how it was flourishing. It was good but not yet at it's best. The poppies and irises were not yet out, but the valerian was in profusion, both white and pink varieties. This means I will have to go back again in about week to catch up with the latecomers. I put it down to the month of cool weather we have had.
That didn't stop me taking way too many photos which I am ploughing through at the moment, so I am just posting a taster for now. It promised to be quite hot and also the car park fills up with people who tend to stay all day, so I decided to get there as early as I could.
There was a stiff breeze, so no naturists, which was a relief frankly, because whichever way you look or point your camera there can be actions misconstrued, when there are people hanging loose. You could tell I wasn't a naturist because having already caught the sun I was well covered, even sporting a fleece as it was the only thing with long sleeves I could find. Anyway, as soon as I have a collection ready I will post some flower shots, I also took some landscape shots and other bits and pieces so will post those separately.
Comments