Covid Strikes Again.

So here we are in Victoria, back in a proper lockdown.  Once again, the whole state - and for a week this time.

Fortunately, Jim had his first podiatry appointment yesterday and the lockdown didn't start until midnight. He's had his first of four appointments with the dental technician too, but his second and third were during the lockdown period and have had to be cancelled.  Dental care, apparently, isn't an essential service. Which is all very well for legislators who have a full set of teeth. Not much fun for people who are waiting to be able to chew again!  Fortunately, the weather is stew and soup weather and there shouldn't be much chewing in soups and stews.

I didn't need to head out and panic buy anything. The supermarkets will remain open, as will the butcher and the bakery. I did go shopping. The mushroom farm and the Elaine Farmgate shop will be well and truly out of our 5km radius from home so we can't go there over the weekend.  We went yesterday, after the podiatry appointment. One thing I did need was vegetables and while our IGA is an excellent IGA and has lots of interesting stock and is well provided with all the staples, its vegetable and fruit selections can be a bit hit and miss. I did not relish the idea of hit and miss vegetables for the next week. We are nicely stocked up now.

It has been amazing how the reappearance of Covid in Melbourne has galvanised people into action when it comes to getting vaccinated. Our Covid clinics have been trundling along quite steadily until Monday, when it became clear that the Covid cluster in the northern suburbs of Melbourne was growing apace. Suddenly, the phones rang hot with people, who had previously been dilly dallying and shilly shallying, wanting to know when they could come for their vaccine. We have plenty of vaccine available so have put on extra clinics. And the state government has opened vaccine hubs all over the place and widened the criteria for eligibility. Mind you, if people had been a bit quicker off the mark when the vaccines became available, and if the commonwealth government had made them more widely accessible - then just maybe we wouldn't be in this lockdown. Horses, stable doors and bolting come to mind.

I have finally been digging the potatoes, growing up at Hill House. The plants have died but the potatoes are snuggling happily underground. We've got good crops of Kipfler and Dutch Cream this year.  I'm hoping to supplement those two varieties with King Edwards next year.  King Edwards are all but impossible to get hold of here and I am rather partial to them. I've just had an alert from Diggers to say that they have some seed potatoes in so I'm hoping that they are still in stock. I'm also hoping to get another couple of asparagus plants and some rhubarb plants for planting in the Tani vegetable beds.

Have a picture of some very elegant whiskers, with a Smol Fluffy Kitkat attached:

And while we're at it, two very handsome Great Danes:

and a tangle of ginger and cream:

I do not think they will find a seven day lockdown particularly troublesome. I daresay they will quite enjoy it.