Meanwhile...

The panic buying of toilet paper goes on, and the shelves where late it stood remain sadly denuded. Bread flour and bread mixes are the latest items to disappear from the shelves into the panickers' ever growing hoards – which I suppose makes a certain amount of sense, though I doubt much of it will ever get baked into bread. Today's hot-ticket item, though, appeared to be bottled water: I've never seen so much of the stuff being wheeled to the checkout, in huge multi-packs of plastic bottles and giant plastic nebuchadnezzar-sized flagons – and all of it 'spring water', which is little more than a euphemism for tap water. Are these people seriously expecting the domestic water supply to collapse? Or are they just getting into this whole apocalyptic survivalist thing, and rather enjoying it? What will it be next? Perhaps I'd better stock up on Marmite...

On a brighter note, this morning I at last saw my first butterfly since those two Peacocks way back in early February. As was only fitting, it was a Brimstone – a lively male, busily checking out the ivy-grown railway embankment. Spring is here – or soon will be, weather permitting.