love in the time of cholera

18th June

I believe the govt advice for covid was don't cough on anyone if you have it. All other restrictions have been dropped because nobody much cares anymore. I can see both sides of the argument: that we should just go for herd immunity and pass it round everyone. And equally we should isolate and not give it to anyone because there will be vulnerable folk caught in the cross fire. That said my 91 y/o mum went into hospital with it and came back out after just a few days, none the worse. She is still going strong. When I say strong, I mean one foot on planet zanussi, the other occasionally on planet earth. 

fresh small tortoiseshell

Without any govt advice, I decided to stay out the shops and not go on public transport till negative again. However I reckoned a walk round Holyrood was okay. And apart from cold symptoms I felt not bad. 2 or 3 days of paracetamols then a slow recovery while feeling a bit washed out. So I went for a wander to Holyrood. I bumped into Ken up at NBA corner. I told him I had the plague and to keep his distance. I also put a mask on. After a couple of minutes I left him to it as I didn't want to pass on the plague.

meadow brown
these hold my attention for only a limited time then I ignore them

Ken at NBA corner

2 tone viper's bugloss?
or maybe just something similar

common blue on crane's-bill geranium

northern brown argus

I was pleased to see an NBA round the top road. Even more pleased to see Mr. Shouty wasn't there. He must be on a sabbatical to the Royal Ed or similar. He seemed to be losing what little grasp he had on reality last time he was seen. Or maybe the rangers had a word. Anyway I was pleased he wasn't there. While I was there trying to photograph said NBA and a flighty common blue, Lucinda turned up and I had to ring my bell and shout "unclean!" She kept her distance but chatted for a while. She was sure she had had the plague a while back but despite the symptoms (same as mine) kept testing negative. She had already photographed the blue sat on her fingers so was quite pleased. I went back round to NBA corner since Ken had reported 3 NBAs and one blue. 

ringlet

I could only find one of Ken's NBAs and no sign of anything blue. I went home via the rocktrap below the crags and while checking out the area below the Cats Nick saw my first skipper of the year which I took dozens of photos of. It became less flighty after finding the flowers on a bramble shrub. As it hopped from bloom to bloom I was able to get a few decent shots. Skippers are a robust and jolly butterfly, and a pleasant orange triangle when newly emerged.

nice to see blue skies

This female pheasant had 5 chicks nearby which jumped out the long grass
as I went by. If they had stayed put I'd never have seen them.

I felt better every day but was about 2 weeks returning to normal. I called the clients I was supposed to be working for and postponed things a week. Happily they were off on holiday when I restarted painting so I was able to work without them being in proximity. By the next week, when they returned, I was well out of the woods. I went a couple of longer trips by bike while down with the plague, and found I had to take it easy the day after a long day as I was washed out. Just beginning to get back to normal now. Trying not to push it. About the same as a medium bad cold. Glad to get it behind me. Onwards and upwards.