Alarming news

Locally, the news has been seeping out for a few days - an outbreak of Covid-19 at nearby Inchmarlo Care Home (where Lucy used to work). The stories started that a handful of the staff had contracted it but the more recent news is that more than 70 now have it - that's very worrying in an area that until now has had low infection rates. Coming on top of last week's news of cases at a Portlethen food factory and continually disappointing results from the north of our shire, I fear it's almost inevitable that Aberdeenshire (and probably Aberdeen) will be moving out of Tier 2 this coming week - especially after the warning shots fired by the First Minister last week. On the other hand, news of an approval for one of the vaccines gives some hope that there is an end to all this. The priority lists have been publicised - I'll be in Level 4, it seems, with Jo in Level 5. We'll probably receive our first dose in January, but we'll have to wait until the whole population is innoculated before life becomes a bit more normal. After that, I wonder if they'll have to start issuing vaccination and test certificates to potential travellers? In other matters, we woke up yesterday (Friday) morning to our first snow of the winter:

It's gone now - replaced by rain - the drains out in the street are struggling to cope with the volume of water. Jo has, however, done her bit to help brighten up the street a little:

A nice photo of Cade and Audrey, publicising their recent engagement on FB:

I don't know what their plans are for getting married but I hope that, by then, we'll be able to travel and attend the ceremony. We had a nice meal - another curry - at the Jewel in the Crown with Ross on Tuesday. He's waiting to hear about a possible opportunity in Edinburgh but tells us he'll be with us before Christmas anyway. This afternoon (Saturday), we've got a beer tasting on Zoom with Burnside Brewery and, later on, our gourmet meal arrives from the Strong Water Company - Hand Dived Orkney Scallops, Venison Fillet, Salted Chocolate Fondant - Dine @ Home. Looking forward to it.