Seventh Sunday Salon 13.30

Late start. The Christmas tree has just been brought from the nearby Delamere Forest amid the usual piped carols, hot dog stands, Father Christmas grottos and other things I loathe. It was muddy because there has been a lot of rain but we managed to manhandle our tree in to the car and now it is being decorated in the dining room by Hodmandods Major and Minor. Since Major is now 22 and Minor is now 17 I keep wondering if this will be the last time we do this - whether this in fact is the end of an era. But so far it's not and I'm grateful. I might take a picture later.

So for now I have retreated to my study and am reading the start of Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC. Having already read Preston's THE HOT ZONE and Peter's THE VIRUS HUNTERS I feel I know the authors already to some extent because they feature in that. The introduction points out that viral outbreaks are initiated by humans invading the virus's natural habitat. In other words we inadvertently bring such outbreaks on ourselves.