Supermarket visit this morning revealed lots of gaps on the shelves - salad stuff, tomatoes in short supply. Fish, milk and chicken all at or a day before their sell-by date. Eggs in 6 packs in very short supply. I think they must have missed a delivery. They have cut out night-time shelf stackers now, so the aisles are often blocked with trolleys and stackers. Prices are certainly rising. Last week I ran out of milk and had to go to the Co-op supermarket, where I was charged £1.90 for a 2 pint container of semi-skimmed milk - £1.65 at my usual shop! How do people manage? I always buy something for the food bank, usually something healthy, like tins of tuna, veg or fruit, something which doesn't need to be heated, as many of their customers can't even afford to use their stoves.
A community nurse told me that Covid rates are rising now, particularly in schoolchildren. Not many people are wearing masks these days. Shelves bearing cold and flu remedies have been stripped following the outbreak of flu after Christmas.
Gardens are beginning to look cheery as the bulbs bloom. Primroses, snowdrops, daffodils all help to raise our spirits, don't they? Birds are beginning to pair up - we have 2 robins which visit our bird table, along with a pair of blackbirds and several sparrows. Bluetits have already taken up residence in the nesting box and a pair of very fat pigeons try to bully their way onto the table, but we scare them off, as we do the jackdaws which live in the tall trees next door - can't stand their noise and they are very greedy.
