It’s not just happening in the milder south. In Manchester, our red camellia tree had three blooms before Christmas – a first (Letters, 3 January). It grows next to a holly tree that was lacking any red berries, so the Christmas decorations went to pot. This week, in the same trees, I’ve spotted pairs of robins and tits getting quite frisky. A nice little pick-me-up for lockdown mark 2. No social distancing for the birds.
Susan Treagus
Didsbury, Manchester
• It looks like the patients were taking over the asylum in the US Capitol (Report, 7 January). Regretfully, some of them are likely to become patients, given the lack of social distancing and masks.
Chris Jeffries
Stockport, Greater Manchester
• Matt Atkinson (Letters, 7 January) may have succeeded in confusing his students and Guardian readers, but could he now turn his attention to the following conundrum: if you travel north, you will eventually end up travelling south, yet if you travel west, you will always travel west.
David Smith
Accra, Ghana
• I wonder if Matt Atkinson also teaches his students that the arrow on a weather vane points in the opposite direction to the direction of the wind.
Richard Bull
Woodbridge, Suffolk
• You become sprightly at the same age as when you stop falling over and start having falls (Letters, 6 January).
Rachel David
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
• Please can we chant “Pay them more” as we clap (Woman behind UK ‘clap for carers’ announces its return, 6 January).
Elizabeth Paul
London
