March 13

The Americans are very keen on the aphorism “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade”

My British version is “If life gives you lemons, make lemon curd”

I think the crop from our two Central London trees was surprisingly large and it was only when I juiced the first that the 1950’s Peter,Paul and Mary song came to mind.

“Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat”

I decided the hard, green fruit would be fine in lemon curd as the sour lemon flavour has to fight its way through so much sugar.

I had to make it in three batches as I never know whether a recipe will double or treble and the final yield was a mere three jars. Problem is, it tastes so divine, we will have to battle hard not to spread it on everything!

Trisha and Amy, your jar will be handed over when we next get together.

I had a few rock hard lemons left over and was delighted to find a recipe for “candying” – “for use as snacks or cake decoration” the recipe said.. Well, let me tell you, you’d only snack on them or put them near a cake if you had a dentist in the family – preferably living in the same house, preferably in the same room. “The writer” is always very gallant about my culinary efforts but even he could only manage “Well the middle’s are very nice.” So the only thing they’ll be decorating is the bin.

Today, we met Trish, Tod and Peter in the park-purely by accident, of course- and, by a stroke of luck I happened to have with me their two jars of curd to hand over in exchange for yet more fabulous cheese straws and a nifty tube of hand-sanitiser and hand – cream combined. We chatted for half an hour in the biting wind and then had to concede defeat.

Since then, I’ve had an enthusiastic email from Amy and this from Tod:

I confess I’ve never thought of eating it on cake!

December 21

The debate about whether the second vaccine doses can safely be delayed is ongoing:

The BBC website https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55734257 maintains that the results of the Israeli study have been taken “Out of context”.

Professor Stephen Evans, of the London School And Tropical medicine says: “The reports that have come from Israel are insufficient to provide any evidence that the current UK policy in regard to delaying the second dose of vaccines is in any way incorrect.”

But publications such as the British Medical Journal Blog; https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/20/revisiting-the-uks-strategy-for-delaying-the-second-dose-of-the-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine/ are far less certain about the wisdom of delaying.

“Public health, medical, and scientific support has been divided. Support for a “finely balanced decision” has come from speciality medical royal colleges, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the British Society of Immunology. The NHS currently faces enormous pressures from an unrelenting covid-19 pandemic and critical care is in crisis. [3] Therefore vaccinating as many people as possible, and as soon as possible is of great urgency. However, support for delaying the second dose has not always addressed the supply issues and scientific concerns underpinning the case for delaying the second mRNA dose. Some scientists have opposed the delay, especially to the Pfizer vaccine, due to a lack of evidence of effectiveness and potential risks, both personally to individuals vaccinated in this way and to the population at large.

International organisations such as the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and regulatory bodies such as the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in the US; and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have advised that the vaccination schedules, as defined from the published peer reviewed studies from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna (the other mRNA vaccine), should be followed (respectively 1/22 day and 1/29 day first/second dose vaccinations). [5] The German and US governments have recently stated that they do not intend to delay the second covid-19 vaccine shot and Pfizer and Moderna do not support the delay strategy.”

Maybe it’s because I’m a slavish adherent to rules that, though I understand the political imperative to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible so we can boast about having done it FIRST !!!!, I can’t for the life of me see a legitimate reason why our government should be ignoring the manufacturer’s instructions and making up this most serious medical protocol as they go along. I hope this decision will be revisited FAST.

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This beautiful crop of lemons from the tree on our terrace is now reduced to this far less beautiful jar of lemon curd – yes, just the one jar!