Lockdown 2.0, Day 99

  I was awake for about 3 hours in the middle of the night last night - not sure why, just awake and tired but not able to get to sleep. So most of today was a bit foggy... I had a good morning, all the kids were up reasonably early and we talked and did things in the garden and around the house, Caitlin did some crochet, Amelie played Among Us and SIMS. I had a phone call from a friend, then a Zoom counselling appointment which was extremely helpful. It was great using my new computer too, the camera is better, and the sound, and the internet connection... Afterwards I did some work on my course and tried to do some proofreading for the 2 magazines I volunteer for - had technical difficulties with both so will try again tomorrow. I played a game on my phone for a while and had a nap.

I went for a walk once I was up, I could see dark clouds coming (it was warm today but cloudy) and wanted to walk before the storm if it came. Half way around the property the rain started - I had worn a rain jacket so only my legs got wet and I don't mind walking in the rain. It was pretty heavy, though there was no storm. I was exhausted when I got home, played on my phone again for a while and then had a bath. Tony played chess with Liam and Amelie, then went to get takeaway pizza and pasta for dinner. I ate my pasta in the bath, it was very cool.

I did a brief amount of tidying up then headed to bed where I'll do a bit of work then probably watch Netflix for a little while before hopefully falling asleep early.

Numbers were in single figures today, things feel a little more hopeful.

Lockdown 2.0, Days 62 and 63

 I was exhausted last night after my fortnightly homeschool Zoom meeting and went to bed to read rather than writing my blog - felt a lot better today.

There was a beautiful red sunrise yesterday morning - very different from the clear morning on Monday. The temperature stayed quite warm overnight as well - it was lovely sitting outside on the couch to do my writing.. It was also very windy again, then calmed down later in the day. Really has been some crazy weather lately. The girls did some yoga, I spent time working on my photos. Amelie skyped with a friend. I finally finished the number puzzle I'd been working on! We had 7 people on our Zoom meeting, all the usual people and a couple of others, it was lovely to see everyone. I had planned to go to Healesville to get my milk and do the weekly shopping, but got a text saying that the milk wouldn't be available as the dairy had no power (delivery would be Wednesday instead). It was nice to not have to rush off and instead I was able to go for a walk with the kids (Liam rode his bike). Caitlin cooked nachos for dinner, I did some work on my course then read my book.

I was up early again this morning, got my writing done, had breakfast and got going on the dishes pretty early. I managed to get everything washed - it's been a while since I had everything clean! I did yoga with the girls - such a beautiful sunny morning and very pleasant to be outside doing yoga. Amelie stayed outside lying in the sun, then lying on the trampoline, for quite a while. I enjoyed pottering around outside for a while, then spent a couple of hours tidying up inside. Mid-afternoon I headed down to Healesville- half way there I realised I didn't have my mask so back home to grab that. I did my Aldi shop (it was much busier than it usually is later on a Tuesday afternoon - not sure if it's normally busy at 3pm or if it was because it was Wednesday and the new specials are out) then a quick stop into Coles. I got my milk, and on the way home I explored a road a friend had told me about - it's within our 5km radius and it looks like a great place to ride bikes or go for a walk. Will take the kids back there sometime soon.

At home I went for a walk and talked to a friend on the phone while she walked as well. It was a great chat, will try to do that more often. The afternoon was gorgeous and Luna and I walked to the huge gum tree on Houghtons Lane. Just after I got home I heard a helicopter, fairly close - I quickly looked at the weather forecast and saw that frost is forecast tomorrow, so wondered if the helicopter was coming to us - it soon appeared over the trees near the shed and it obviously was coming in to land. Amelie and Luna and I watched it fly down towards the dam and circle around to land - I love helicopters and am always excited in spring when we have one here to minimise the impact of frost. It might be a noisy night if they have to use it.

The combination of yoga this morning and a long walk this afternoon though has meant my legs are pretty sore tonight - will rest up and try to get to bed early. I did a bit of work on my course and we had leftovers for dinner. I got a bit of piano playing in before Caitlin put the Block on. Liam is playing games online with a couple of friends.

The numbers were very low yesterday (low 40s) but back up in the 70s today. One higher day is not a problem in itself, as long as they go lower most of the time. We've been watching La Tour de France and been amazed that it's going ahead even though France is getting so many cases. Last night they announced that the race director has tested positive, as well as 4 team staff members. It will be interesting (and a bit scary) to see if anyone else is infected, and how that impacts on the Tour.

Lockdown 2.0, Day 55

 A busy day today - Tuesday is my shopping day so I get to go out! I always feel pretty tired afterwards though, it's more of an effort than I think it's going to be.

I got a lot done at home this morning, tidying and a bit of cleaning, chatting with the kids. Liam and I talked for ages about some of his games (Fall Guys in particular, he's getting really good). Amelie played outside on the trampoline. I put some soup on to cook - it filled the house with the most delicious smell throughout the day. In the afternoon I sat on the couch in the carport and chatted to a friend on the phone - it's a great place to sit on a sunny afternoon like today. I did some more research on a new car, narrowing it down to a few options - although inspecting a car might be tricky at the moment, I'm not sure how this is going to work. 

I headed down to Healesville to get my milk, chatted to the milk guy about his car, went over to Coles to pick up a few things (which, as always, turned into several things). I did my big shop at Aldi - a few more people there this time, but still not crowded. I really enjoyed my shopping time, I came home feeling really good and really peaceful. 

The girls and I went for a quick walk around the dam - it was much colder than I expected it to be, with a really icy wind blowing. The moon is very close to full and was rising as we walked, it looked pretty spectacular above the dam. Back at home we did more car research, ate our soup and some of us watched the Block. I did some of my course while I watched, and everyone seems to be settling down for an early-ish night.

70 cases today and 4 deaths. A relief to see continuing low numbers.

Lockdown 2.0, Day 52

 Today was a good day. Pretty relaxing, although I got a lot done. New cases were under 100, woohoo!! It was sunny all day today too so that helped everything to feel cheery as well.

I got a fair bit done around the house, reorganising cupboards, tidying a few areas, dishes, outside work, in between doing number puzzles, chatting with the kids, checking email, doing some of my course etc. I helped Liam with some computer problems and admired the hammock that Amelie has set up under her top bunk - she's spent a lot of the day in there watching YouTube, she's also jumped on the trampoline and done some climbing. All 3 kids were awake and feeling good in the early afternoon, so we did our DIY chocolate spoon making - a whole heap of flavourings that we distributed amongst a heap of little cups, with different types of chocolate to melt and pour over, then stir in and leave the spoon standing. Once they are set, we can pull them out of the cups and stir them into hot milk to have flavoured hot chocolate. It was a lot of fun and it's going to be just as much fun to drink them over the next couple of weeks!

 Tony was chopping wood today with some of the other guys from work, they had a bit of a feast out there as well. He brought a load of wood back mid-afternoon, and Caitlin went with him when he went back to collect more. Luna went along as well and apparently had a great afternoon, running around the bush, getting pats, and getting bits of spare food. I went for a walk in the afternoon while chatting to a friend, then once we finished talking I crossed the creek (it was a bit tricky, it's still a little high) and went and sat for a while in a spot down near the back fence, in a stand of ti-tree. It was gorgeous there, seeing the wind rustle the tops of the trees and the reeds, hearing all the different birds, and feeling a long way from anywhere. I was tired when I got back so lay down and listened to music for a while. We had gnocchi with pork ragu from the restaurant again - SO delicious. Caitlin spent the evening playing an online game with a bunch of her friends, and I did some work on my photos.

Lockdown 2.0, Day 50

 Another eventful lockdown day (or maybe little things now seem adventurous, as a contract to the sameness of most of our usual days). We had a massive wind storm - some rain, but mainly strong, damaging winds, and the power went out. We manage with power outages on a semi-regular basis, but this was just as it was getting dark, most of our phones had little charge which is unusual for us, my car wasn't here so we couldn't use my 2nd battery to charge up things we needed, we'd been just about to cook dinner, I tried to look up the website to see how extensive the outage was but none of our devices would load the site, and it just felt unusually difficult to manage. One positive though is that the water tanks are full after all the rain we've had so we still had water gravity feeding through the taps and we'd be able to flush the toilet. We got camping lights out of the trailer (which was tricky in itself because it was wet and windy while I was rummaging around trying to find them) and our camping stove - a friend had given us one that they'd got 2nd hand, to replace our old stove that was dying, and I hadn't tried it out yet. I couldn't find a hose with it so we disconnected the hose from our old stove and used it, but when we turned the new one on there was gas leaking. It seemed to be missing an O-ring and we tried to replace it with some we had here but they weren't the right size. We thought about going down to Coles to get a new O-ring, then realised it might be easier just to buy dinner, then realised that there was also no power in Healesville. Tony, Liam and Caitlin went for a drive to find food and had to go a bit further than expected - I was a little worried as they didn't get home until after 8, but they found food and got there and back with no trouble. While they were gone the power came back on, I was so grateful for all that that allowed us to do. I was even more grateful when I discovered that Healesville was still out an hour later, and Lilydale still had no power a couple of hours later than that. Very unusual that Tarrawarra gets power back before other places, we're normally last on the list. There were trees down all over the place, and the Black Spur was closed due to trees and a car trapped where the person needed to be rescued by air ambulance - we saw and heard the helicopter go over each way. It reminded me that the little inconveniences we'd had over the past couple of days really weren't that big a deal.

Prior to the storm the day had been fairly quiet, and fun. I pottered around in the morning, the girls watched SIMS videos and The Saddle Club on YouTube, I ordered some things we needed from Office Works, Caitlin and I researched the easiest place to buy cheap yarn so she can keep making her little creatures, Amelie and I did some number puzzles, I had a Zoom appointment with my counsellor, I reset Amelie's Animal Crossing New Leaf game so that she could start from the beginning (she'd bought a pre-owned copy so the save file had someone else's data in it), Caitlin decorated her cupboard with stickers, Liam played Getting Over It, I talked to a friend a couple of times. Caitlin and I went for a walk in the late afternoon - it was already pretty windy and the clouds were very black to the south. We'd had sunshine throughout the day but it was looking more and more ominous as we walked, it was pretty spectacular. We checked out the creek, it's running much lower again now, and walked along the front of the property where we noticed the fields of the Abbey are still covered in water, so we went across the road to get a closer look. It looked pretty cool. At that point, there were dark clouds everywhere and it was starting to rain, but Mt Dandenong was bathed in golden sunlight - that looked even more cool!

Numbers are staying in the low to mid 100s, deaths are continuing to happen every day, although some days now they are in single digits.

Lockdown 2.0, Day 47

 After a weekend spent mainly sitting on the couch, I woke up (early - 5.20am) this morning with lots of energy and feeling keen to get on with some projects. I did a bit of tidying and organising and made some dents in a couple of areas of the house. I realised that I've been putting off the things I really want to do because they felt like wants rather than the necessary housework - but it's been leading to me not feeling motivated to even the necessary stuff. So today I prioritised those things - namely starting to clean out the walk in cupboard in my room to convert it into a little writing space for myself, and organising the files on my MacBook so that it's working more efficiently and I can work on my photos more easily. I made progress in each area and it felt good.

Liam and I went for a walk in the morning to see the water levels around the property. Everywhere is still very wet (we had 27mL yesterday, as well as 3-10 mLs each day for almost the last week) but there weren't so many rivers around the place. The creek level had dropped a fair bit but it was running fast. We saw ducklings on the dam, swimming away from the shore with their mum as we got closer. So incredibly cute! We had quite a few sunny patches today and it was slightly warmer - I even got the washing dry outside!

I watched Liam play Fall Guys for a while and we chatted about strategy. I had a good talk to a friend. Amelie and Caitlin played games on the House Party app, then Millie spent a good part of the afternoon using it to talk to a friend. They played Pokemon games and she jumped on the trampoline and was so excited to be able to see her friend on her phone rather than just hear her voice. She also started to make some more YouTube videos, and Liam is looking at recording some of his game plays. Caitlin watched YouTube for a while and finished crocheting her next little creature. She and Amelie went for a late afternoon walk then started to watch The Sound of Music. I talked to Mum and Dad on the phone - Dad hasn't felt well enough to talk the last several times I've rung, it was really lovely to chat with him. Tony watched the Collingwood game and the kids watched The Block - I saw bits while I tidied the kitchen and got ready for bed. Liam told me about some of the history of coffee that he'd been learning about - it was fascinating. 

Numbers were low today - only 116! Although 15 deaths. I feel that the new cases will go up a bit again later in the week, hopefully not too much though. It feels maybe slightly possible that we could come out of Stage 4 in another 3 weeks - that would be so great.

Lockdown 2.0, Days 45 and 46

 It's been a very cold, wet weekend - I have never seen so much water at our place, the path at the bottom of the hill is a river and there's puddles of water everywhere that the ground isn't completely flat. Except for a short walk today I basically stayed inside all weekend, let go of any expectations and had a pretty relaxing, warm, fun and quiet time.

Yesterday morning Tony and I actually found ourselves in the kitchen together with time to have a cuppa and we sat and chatted and drank our tea and coffee, it was really really lovely. We created some patterns with a pencil and compass and then coloured them in while we chatted. This inspired me to get out a wooden spiral puzzle that Amelie couldn't really remember playing with - she and Caitlin and I made lots of patterns with it and had a lot of fun. I had a phone call with an old friend from Leeton - we can't remember the last time we talked, but she hasn't met Amelie so it's a very long time since we've seen each other. We knew each other's kids as toddlers, it's so funny to see photos of them now as teens (or older). It was wonderful to catch up. 

The kids and I watched Howls Moving Castle - Caitlin and I had seen it before, the others hadn't and they loved it. Tony was in and out watching bits of it, it was great to be inside and warm and cosy and enjoying a movie together. We ate popcorn, and some the meringues the girls had made the night before. Caitlin and I then watched slideshows of my photos, and experimented with different soundtracks. I planned to have an early night, so headed in to bed to read. The girls came and joined me and we chatted and laughed, and watched the cat chase her tail up on the railing above my cupboard. I went to bed much later than I'd intended but I really enjoyed the time with the kids.

Today was not quite as cold, but only marginally. Liam and I played War (card game) while he waited for Fall Guys to have enough players so he could show me the game. I really enjoyed watching it and had a go myself later on - I am terrible at it but really enjoyed it. Tony made pancakes while I did the dishes and the kids came to eat, so we were all in the kitchen together, it was fun. Caitlin and I went for a walk during a break in the rain, we waded through the river at the bottom of the hill (almost ankle deep) and went to check out the creek - the highest I remember seeing it. We thought about walking down the back of the property but the track was completely underwater and by then it was raining again so we headed home once we got to the far side of the dam. Tony went for a walk a bit later with Caitlin and Liam - Luna ended up on the other side of the creek (they think she fell in) and was too scared to come back over, so Tony went across to get her - an unexpected winter swim for him! I worked on my photos for a while and on a craft project I'm trying - it was frustrating and not working the way I'd like, so I will need to rethink it a bit. The kids watched some Try Guys and Danny Gonzalez on YouTube on the TV - I was enjoying the humour and suggested watching Schitts Creek because I'd heard it was pretty funny. Amelie loved it, the other two weren't sure and I enjoyed it but really didn't laugh much. I don't know if we'll be rushing back to watch it. Amelie spent a lot of the day chatting to a friend on the phone, managed a bit of a play outside in between rain sessions, and went into her room to watch YouTube when Caitlin put The Block on this evening. Caitlin brushed and braided my hair while she watched, then I came to bed early because I'm feeling a bit flat and figure a restful evening will always be helpful.

We had just over 200 new cases today, after a few days of under 200 - I really hope people keep getting tested and keep following the restrictions so that we have an accurate picture of the data and can hopefully start to ease things (just a little) in a few weeks time.

Lockdown 2.0, Day 44

Feeling very tired tonight even though I had a fairly relaxing day. I was up early (it poured rain around 5.30am and I think that woke me up) so had a relaxing morning, did a bit of work outside, came back in and chatted to Liam and Amelie. Liam and I had a long talk about early 20th century Russian history - one of my favourite time periods, with lots of people who really intrigue me. He'd been watching some videos about it so it was interesting to compare stories about what we knew. 

Liam and I then played Othello - he very nearly beat me, I only won by 2 tiles. Closest game I've played in a very long time. He went for a bike ride and I tidied up some more. He bought himself a new computer game (Fall Guy) and spent a lot of the rest of the day exploring that. I did some work on my course and with my photos, chatted briefly to a friend who popped by to drop off some supplies, went for a walk before it got too wet - it was cold and it did sprinkle on me a bit, but I had time for a long, slow walk around most of the property, and talked to Mum on the phone for about half of it. I got the washing off the line when I got back home, and just as I brought it inside we had a sudden heavy downpour that turned to hail. The wind was icy all day and we were very grateful for the fire.

The girls continued watching The Dragon Prince and I made a citrus cheesecake. I had a long hot bath while I read my book and drank some of my caramel brownie tea. Tony stayed back at work for a while organising firewood, and picked up pizza and pasta on his way home, then headed to bed for an early night. I watched the end of Season 3 of The Dragon Prince with the girls - there's obviously another season coming, so we're all looking forward to that.

Numbers are the lowest today they've been since we went to Stage 3. A sense of relief every day as they go down - I really really hope it's because there are fewer new cases, and not that people are just not getting tested.