Pensions Plants and Puppies - Lyla's first birthday and self-isolation

I write this in our last day of self-isolation. My son tested positive on Monday 19 July so we have had to self-isolate until midnight tonight. I don't wish that on anyone, especially with pets, as it has felt like house arrest, not being able to pop out for exercise or take Lyla for a walk. I am proud of my son as he has spent the 10 days self-isolating in his room to not infect us, much worse than my ten days when I have had the house and garden to walk around. Lyla has been as good as you could expect - has definitely missed her regular walks. She has had a handful as we did a social distanced hand over to my eldest a couple of times for him to walk her. I am now looking forward to a day off tomorrow spending quality time with me nieces.

PENSIONS

Pension Scheme funding levels have been very volatile recently , as detailed in my blogs.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/funding-levels-dip-equities-fall-gilt-yields-harden-bobby-riddaway

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/funding-levels-give-up-more-2021-gains-bobby-riddaway

We also released our Q2 Investment Bulletin, containing a case study of one of our dynamic de-risking client successes.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/capita-pensions-solutions_investment-consulting-activity-6823210323173109760-8hqz

We continue to look into the insights gained from the PPI survey into the pensions landscape

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/capita-pensions-solutions_how-can-todays-pension-savers-prepare-for-activity-6823158084144373760-DtVW

After being shortlisted for 10 awards at the Pensions Age awards, we have a number of colleagues up for awards at the Women in Pensions in November https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/capita-pensions-solutions_women-in-pensions-2021-shortlists-published-activity-6825697306340397056-D7Rg

Capita is supporting the development of the pensions dashboard in a number of ways and a number of my colleagues discuss this below

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/capita-pensions-solutions_pensionsdashboards-alpha-pensions-activity-6826070442642669568-4-CQ https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/capita-pensions-solutions_press-release-pasa-to-lead-the-development-activity-6826444327502409728-D-th https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/capita-pensions-solutions_pensionsdashboards-onboarding-blog-activity-6826507854590148608-0M78

PLANTS

When my nieces visit this weekend we are going to empty one of the potato buckets. We planted them in the ground, in buckets and in bags to experiment with the results. We will find out how the buckets have done so far this weekend.

I had my first taste of the grape vine today. A handful have ripened and a lot have wilted in the sun. But still plenty left to ripen and this year is really a test and to shape the vine for future years.

I have harvested some early chillis to encourage the plants to grow more. I cant believe how quickly they then grow and how quickly the flowers come out. With a couple of months left in the season I am now expecting a bumper crop.

My lime did not keep any fruits so I am just letting that and the Lemon establish themselves in the greenhouse for future years.

My Poinsettia are larger now than they were when we bought them last year. They look really healthy. I just now need to be patient and move them to flower at the appropriate time so we have flowers for Christmas.

PUPPIES

Lyla turned one, the day before we went into self-isolation. She loved her presents and here is a video of her opening her first one. As I am writing this she is playing with that very present again!

We have been able to reflect on her first year and what a lovely dog she has turned into. We also can see the benefit of her training, especially when looking at photos and videos of the early days.

We no longer lock her in the crate at night as we can trust her to wander in the kitchen. This has been especially beneficial to her in the hot weather as the floor is much cooler than her bed.

She was getting so used to people and dogs on the walks - I just hope she hasn't regressed at all in the last 10 days. She should be fine as we kept her in for nearly 3 weeks during her first season.

She is now getting very used to sitting outside on the garden furniture. So much so that I have been able to work in the garden a few times over the last couple of weeks. Most of the time I have her tethered to the long lead - which she no longer fights against. Occasionally though I let her wander when she just wants to do this. She will though, if I take my eyes of her, go and dig up a plant or something! So you can see I leave the long lead as it is easy to then catch her.

Anyway that's all for now and hopefully we will all have our freedoms back soon.