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Lop-eared raccoon in the Honey Locust tree in our backyard.
He was afraid of me and tried to climb up higher, but he was too fat.

Back With a Vengeance

COVID case numbers are up all over the world, except where they never actually went down. Israel has resorted to another lockdown, but Ontario, for the time being, is taking a more risk-based approach. 

As for the risk, everything that has happened since the lockdown lifted affirms the piece by the immunologist that circulated on Facebook in May: exposure equals concentrations of virus over length of time. In other words: the longer you are in the presence of the virus, the likelier you are to get enough of it in your system to make you sick. When you're around humans (and maybe cats) you don't see every day, it's safer to be outdoors than in because there is less virus in the air. If you are indoors with strangers, wear a mask. Outdoors or in, keep your distance and don't hang around for hours and hours.

This is evidently hard to translate into enforceable policy, so public health talks about "bubbles" and sets limits for the size of gatherings. These measures are potentially a reasonable proxy for common sense - and far preferable, to my mind, to further lockdowns - but regulating common sense is tricky, as the picture below demonstrates.

In April, days went by without a single person lining up for a COVID test at Women's College Hospital on Grenville Street. Now, at every time of the day, the line up goes down to the corner and around the block ... and they're all young people.

Quiet Toronto 

The Eaton Centre and Nathan Phillips Square remain bereft of tourists. The snack trucks lined up on Queen Street in front of City Hall still desperately seek customers. I, on the other hand, would like it if someone could just explain this photo to me. 

Why is this woman in curlers and full makeup? And what is she wearing?

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

The big old tree that was a big old stump is now just a patch of dirt in the Allan Gardens.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen