COVID-19 Chronicles - Easter

It's been a week since I have popped in here and things are continuing much as the same as they have been previously.  I'm still going into work three days a week, we are still  to keep social distancing, no social gatherings of more than two people and other than for necessary reasons, stay home.  Fortunately, the number of new cases is slowing.

The one change is that the supermarkets are now limiting the number of people in the store at any one time.  As Thursday would potentially be rather busy, Mick popped in on Wednesday and did the groceries.  There was no queue, so no hold up.  He even managed to buy some S.R. flour.

If things had been different, Mick would have been spending most of the last week on his motorcycles, joining in the annual week long Easter Vintage Rally held around Bathurst. This would have been the first year he would have been able to attend for more than one day.  Oh well, there is always next year.  He had also been asked to work on the weekend, but that didn't happen either.

I forgot to mention that last Monday when I got to work everyone was wishing one of my colleagues a Happy Birthday for the Sunday.  I've always known that her birthday and our wedding anniversary are on the same day.  OMG!!! Mick and I had both totally forgotten our wedding anniversary! Not that we could have gone out to dinner or anything, anyway.  I wished her Happy Birthday and she wished me Happy Anniversary and we had a chuckle, as she had remembered our anniversary on the Sunday.  Mick and I both had a chuckle too.

Wednesday was the first full moon after the autumn equinox, meaning Sunday would be Easter.  The full moon was to be a super moon, but sadly we had cloud cover and weren't able to see it. 

However, we had noticed the moon on Tuesday night, as there was a real halo around it.  

Being the Easter long weekend, Thursday was the start of what was potentially five days without leaving home, other than going for a walk.  I can't remember the last time we didn't hop in the car for that long.

That wasn't to be the case, though, as after a phone call to our chemist, we learnt that they had finally received the flu vaccine and you could get your shot that afternoon after 4.30.  We were also advised that they would only allow a maximum of 15 people in the store at any one time.  We went in and the shopping centre was really busy, what with being the Thursday before Easter.  The chemist was also full, so much for no more than 15 people.  Everyone was trying their best to keep to a distance.  After filling out our forms and waiting in line for quite a while we were in and out in no time.  So pleased to have had that jab.  We weren't to leave the shopping centre for 15 minutes, in case we had a reaction, so I actually popped into two shops.  I needed a new pair of trackie dacks and some new winter PJs.  I would have made do, if we hadn't been there, but seeing as we had to hang around I quickly bought them both.  Now I just have to take up the hems.

We did have four days without going anywhere.

We did very little on Thursday, starting with a leisurely breakfast, featuring our raspberries.

On our morning walk we noticed one of the local childcare centres had a colourful paper chain on their fence.  The other one has a bright rainbow.

We are trying to take a different route most times.  We are lucky to have such variety close to home.  Checking out all the gardens and how some of the trees are changing for autumn is rather pleasant.  I was intrigued by the little seed pods on this one.

We even saw our first wattle in bloom for the year.

We didn't do much else on the day, being rather lazy.  Mick made a rather tasty slice (under supervision) for afternoon tea.  It is all gone now.

Good Friday was a rather bleak day, so Mick played in the shed and I finally ventured into the sewing room.  I was undecided which Christmas project to work on this month.  I've had an Anni Downs kit for over a year, so it was a good opportunity to make it.  This was also my Friday Night With Friends stitching.  I'll tell you more about it next time. 

We didn't go for a walk, as it was bleak and we were slack.

Saturday was a special day that I had been looking forward to for quite some time.  Most of the girls who would have attended Scrub Stitchin' last weekend joined in a Zoom video link up and worked on our projects together.  Once again, I'll share more soon.  Let's just say it was a fun day and a great compromise.

No walk on Saturday either, as I was too busy stitching and the weather was rather yucky, being really windy, with a cold change coming through in the afternoon.

Yesterday, of course, was Easter Sunday.  Rather different to usual.  No taking Mum to church, no seeing family, everywhere rather quiet. They said on the radio that the amount of traffic on the roads this weekend has been less than 13% of what is usual for the Easter weekend.  It appears that most people have stayed home as requested.

After a rather chilly start, getting down to 3 degrees, it was the perfect autumn day.

It even warmed up quickly enough to have breakfast outside.  Yep, more of our raspberries.

I ended up sitting outside stitching for a while, before more stitching inside on the machine.  I finished my project, which I was really pleased about.

Our afternoon walk meant we saw more colourful trees.

However, after the wind of the previous day, our own street trees are now nearly bare.

Today was also a nice day, so a little more stitching outside.

Slowly but surely I'm making progress.

Our walk this afternoon took us to the new subdivision next to ours.  Six years ago this area was bare paddocks, now there are hundreds of homes, and more being built all the time.  The subdivision is also expanding all the time.  We broke the law while wandering around, as we chanced upon another couple we know going for their walk and chatted for a while, at a distance.  We were a social gathering of four - Oops! Fortunately, no one arrested us.

As it was going to be a clear, cool, still night we decided it was a good opportunity to light our fire pit.  Something we haven't done for ages.  First we had to remove the sculpture.

Getting ready.

We had some jumbo marshmallows for just such an occasion.  We even have hand crafted toasting spikes made by my dad years ago.

Let's just say, one each was more than enough.  It is a very long time since we have had toasted marshmallows and I think it will be a very long time before we will again.  Yuck!  So sickly sweet.  Our tastes must have changed since we were younger.

What is it with boys?  They can't leave a fire alone, always having to poke at it.

It was a nice way to finish off the weekend.