What We've Been Up To or COVID-19 Chronicals

Like a few others I'm wanting to keep a bit of a record or these rather unusual times.  So, what have we been up to?

SUNDAY

I thought it was a good time to put up my few Easter decorations on my little shelf in the kitchen.    I love my little collection.  So sweet.

I baked an Apricot Shortcake, which was delicious. (I shared it previously as well.)

Another delicious afternoon tea.

We're trying to go for a walk most days.  We live on the edge of town and one of our options is to walk further up our road, which turns into quite a rural walk.

I love seeing these little blue star flowers. I've never known there proper name, but they grow wild around here, which is nice.

The view is stunning.  In the very far distance you can even see Mount Canobolas, over at Orange.  It is the highest hill (there is only technically one mountain in Australia) before you reach the West Australian coast.

The only downside was the blowies.  Being so dry, we have had hardly any flies this summer.  On Sunday afternoon they were incredible!  Nearly as bad as we encountered in Western Queensland last year.  No, we hadn't used Aeroguard, as we weren't expecting them.  They were only bad on the one day.  Crazy! Oh, and yes, I swallowed one.  Yugh!!!

MONDAY AND TUESDAY

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I went to work.

I had to walk down the street to the bank.  This is the main street of Bathurst on a Tuesday afternoon.  Normally you would struggle to get a parking spot and there would be lots of people out and about.  It's good to see that people are following the advice to stay away, except for essential outings.

We have a yukka on our front verandah and it is growing a huge flower stem.  The plant was left by the previous owner and has only flowered once since we have been here.

WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday it was announced that we will be in lockdown until the end of June.  The announcement wasn't all that surprising, but just the same, three months is a long time.  Three months that businesses will stay closed, three months of schooling in chaos, three months where we can't see either of our Mum's who are both in aged care, three months where families can't see each other.  It is certainly uncharted territory.

When I arrived home on Wednesday, these were on the kitchen counter.  Mick thought they were too pretty to be just left on the plants.  They really cheer up the kitchen.

We went for another walk.

Some trees are looking really pretty.

There is a trig station on a hill not far from us.  It was a gorgeous evening.

The view looking west was rather lovely too.

We planted some cosmos in late spring and tried to keep them alive during the hot summer.  The fact that they are under our weeping cherry helped, as we were trying very hard to keep it alive.  They didn't do much until just lately.  Now they are adding a nice bit of colour.

A couple of foxgloves in the same bed are also flowering again.

THURSDAY

I don't usually work on a Thursday, but popped in for a couple of hours yesterday, before we went and did the groceries.  Most items were stocked really well, with the exception of those items that everyone is panic buying - loo paper, tinned tomatoes, flour, pasta etc.  The only item on that list that we wanted was some S.R. flour, but I still have some plain, so I can work around it.

Yesterday was a wet, bleak day.  Rather good for hunkering down.

When we were out and about on Wednesday we noticed lots of teddy bears and other stuffed animals  on verandahs and in windows of houses.  It makes it fun for kids (and big kids like us) going for a walk or driving past.

We now have a little collection in our front window.  Notice the real life addition to the collection.

They look rather sweet from the inside too.

The rain stopped yesterday afternoon, so we went for another walk. (We ended up with 8mm.)

There are so many people getting out for a walk.  And so many out walking dogs.  There is a bit of a joke that most of the dogs will be getting sick of all these walks and can't wait till their owners go back to work and let them have a lazy day. 

The street trees are looking very colourful.

Many are losing a lot of their leaves.

No pretty sunset, but still a nice outlook.

FRIDAY

The weather forecast for today is for more decent rain, but it hasn't eventuated as yet.  Hopefully this afternoon.

This morning we went for yet another walk, this time to duck down to the local mini supermarket to get something we forgot yesterday.

We met a couple of ladies we know, who were also out walking, and stopped for a brief chat, albeit from a distance.  Then we realised that we were actually breaking the law, as we can't have more than two people together.

We noticed a little forest of toadstools coming up on our front lawn.

As you can see, there has been no stitching at all.  I'll get to that this evening, when I join in with Friday Night With Friends.  

We're both being rather lazy on the whole.  Although we'd rather have options to do all sorts of things we are making the most of this down time.

If things had been different, we would have been up at Bardine.  Oh well, there will always be next year.