A bit of a bland morning to celebrate the day of the ice saint known as the “Cold Sophie” in our region and it is living up to its name. Not exactly freezing temperatures, but also not very warm. I have the kitchen window open, but I think I will close it as there is quite a cool breeze entering.

My garden does not seem to be suffering too much and the plants in my raised beds are growing nicely. Even my arthurium in its pot is at last showing its first shoot. I have two pots and the other has already 3 or 4 new sprouts. I was a bit worried about them as last Winter I did not remove them to the cellar but kept them in a sheltered place outside, and they survived.  They are now approximately twenty years old and have probably hardened up over the years.

The sedum in my other raised bed is also flowering quite well and so are the moss roses and the herbs at the front are expanding daily.

And my hostas in the front garden are not yet showing signs of slug meals in the leaves, although I regularly throw a handful of anti slug pellets over them now and again to keep them in check. They particularly like the two coloured sort and last year devoured almost everything in this bed.

Otherwise I was again in town yesterday afternoon to see my neurologist which is the first time in town since the beginning of the attack from the hairy pea virus. Now everything is more or less back to normal, people keep themselves to themselves and we all hold our respectful distance of 2 metres. My doc informed that a new medicine is now being given trials for MS, meaning no more injections every second day, but tablets. It is not yet on the market but should appear some time this year and I will be very happy about that. My arms and legs are full of strange bumps and markings here and there from the injections, although some do recede after a while. I also have a new medicine in tablet form which is supposed to be helpful for the Ministry of Silly walk syndrome that some of us have when walking. I have a prescription for them and will try them out. They are even from a local company.

I did a long walk from the park house to the doc yesterday which went OK, but I was not exactly Speedy Gonzales and had to be very careful walking over our picturesque but uncomfortable cobbled streets in the old town..

I have made my week-end shopping list and will be off this afternoon for another excursion into the store. I will be glad when the week-end finally arrives and there will be no more excursions. Have a good day all and stay safe from you know who.

As I ascended from the park house to the town, I was immediately surprised to see how empty our streets are, although the lockdown is now over. I think it will remain with us for a long while and people are still being very careful, which I support.