BACK IN THE COVID - The Lockdown Diary Day 37

Another first for the wildlife list today. Our first Orange Tip butterfly ever. Of course, and as usual, my phone was nowhere handy for a photograph but I know it happened and that is enough. Perhaps it is the sword of Damacles overhead but I am not at all as bothered about missing that opportunity to photograph another resident of our home as I would be normally. I count them all as residents even if they only pop in once a year for a few months. There is now quite a collection and it is a revelation how much natural history also makes your own humble patch its home. My rule is simple it must have passed or walked on my airspace, my airspace being defined as a vertical tube the size and position of our boundary extending out radially to infinity on a line normal to the surface of my home planet, Earth.



I found myself missing live music today along with one of my favourite places to eat anywhere. The Indian Streatery in Birmingham is second to none for simple but wholesome, authentic food and is not a chain but a one-off family run enterprise. Inside the restaurant there is a trading cart typical of those you find on the streets in Indian cities and they serve their food from there in the same manner as a street food stall in cardboard tubs with a wooden spoon. You can eat in or walkout. When the trays run out, Mum emerges from the kitchen with a fresh batch of Chicken Hotpot, Chickpea Chat or whatever has run out which regularly happens with lunch time queues stretching out of the shop. I am not an expert in Indian cooking but to me it is homely, inexpensive, no frills and genuine, perfectly counter balancing the exquisite, refined, exciting and precise ensemble which comes courtesy of the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra up the road in Symphony hall about an hour later. Eight concerts a year is the usual programme, two have been attended, three have now been cancelled and there is very little expectation that the remaining three will go ahead. I go with my brother who I rarely see otherwise and missing these concerts, the food and my brother for our day out together is a very big deal indeed.