Red Cross on the Door

Dear heart officially has swine flu and is not too bad, really.

btw it was initially a white cross on the door. The word quarantine comes from an Italian phrase for forty days. When the bubonic plague was a major problem there was a particular place (an island I think) at Venice where the ships from places at high risk had to stay for forty days, roughly the length of incubation time for the plague. In Medieval and Early Modern London there was not the plague hospitals and planning that Italy, the Low Countries and France had developed and without plague hospitals the sick had to be confined to their homes, with the cross on the door. Those guarding the sick were those too desperate to avoid being so near to plague victims, and were often threatened, beaten or killed as a family escaped from, or tried to, a death sentance of being shut up with a sick member of the household.

Little bear has been quiet, off colour, tired but refusing to nap, extremely green nosed and very hit and miss with his appetite. I suspect that dear heart may have actually caught it from little bear, but if you saw little bear hurtling round the room in his new boots, you would also not feel inclined to subject him to long waits with drs etc. He seems to be a lot better now anyway. Even I have not been able to get too hysterical about it. We have been extremely lucky with little bear.